In 1789, the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty occurred. Fletcher Christian tossed the volatile Captain Bligh into a long boat with a sextant, food and few of his crew, turned the Bounty around and went in search of somewhere to hide.

They returned to Tahiti, stocked the Bounty with livestock and provisions and then departed secretly in the night with Tahitian “wives”, most likely unaware of their departure, and 6 Tahitian men.
Christian and his crew spent the next 12 months criss-crossing the Pacific until the wrongly charted Pitcairn Island was rediscovered and became their home. Pitcairn was the perfect hiding place, with fertile soil and an abundance of timber and water, and completely isolated from the rest of the word.

9 Europeans and 18 Polynesians made up the small community. Land and wives were divided up amongst the Europeans and the 6 Polynesian men had to share the 3 remaining women. This was not ideal but the community made do for a couple of years until Williams’ wife died and he abducted the wife of one of the Polynesian men. This began a bloody chain of events and within ten years all the men on the island apart from John Adams had perished, most of them violently. Adams had a sign from God and took it upon himself to lead the remaining women and children in a pious existence. The Tahitian Women led by Mautua, Christian’s widow, enabled the community to survive, teaching their children in the Polynesian ways.

When the community was finally discovered after a dozen years of complete isolation, the descriptions suggest a harmonious, almost perfect, existence. All the islanders spoke both English and Tahitian and a new language, which is a mixture of the two, developed over the following years.
New blood arrived with visitors wanting to stay on and join the community. George Hunn Nobbs, who claimed he was the illegitimate son of Lord Hastings but who certainly had been a pirate, mercenary and opportunist, was educated and had some idea of religious protocol. He became the teacher, religious leader, and married Fletcher Christian’s Granddaughter.

Polynesian music and dance survived into the new culture with visiting ships crews being entertained by the islanders song and dance however the traditional music was replaced by religious music and the singing of Hymns in four part harmony became a much cherished pastime of the tiny community. A number of Hymns were composed during this period.

In the 1850’s the community had grown to almost 200 and the tiny island was increasingly unable to support them. The community petitioned Queen Victoria for help and she offered them Norfolk Island. Norfolk Island had been a penal colony that had recently been disbanded and the island deserted. In 1856 the entire community of Pitcairn embarked on the journey to their new home 3700 miles away. Everything about their new home astonished the Pitcairners who were confronted with massive stone buildings, cattle, exotic fruits and flowers, furniture and of course the reminders of a brutal convict penal colony.

The Islanders settled into their new home well however a few families returned to Pitcairn unable to deal with their homesickness and their families remain there today.

The Music

Mutiny Music endeavours to describe this colourful story using the music and language unique to this tiny island paradise and the extremely creative musical skills of the ensemble Baecastuff.