Norfolk Island was discovered by Captain James Cook on October 10, 1774, who claimed it for the English crown and gave it its name. The island was not permanently inhabited until March 6, 1788, when Lt. Philip King founded the small settlement of Kingston and established a British penal colony. It remained a penal colony (with an interruption between 1813 and 1826), with a rather unsavoury reputation for brutality, until 1855. On June 8, 1856 (now celebrated as Bounty Day), the descendants of the Bounty mutineers arrived as the first free settlers to establish themselves on the island.

HMS Bounty, a Royal Navy ship under the command of Captain William Bligh (33), was manned by a crew of 46 "volunteers", with Lt. Fletcher Christian (23) as second-in-command. She sailed from Spithead, England, on December 23, 1787 on a mission to transport breadfruit trees from Tahiti to Jamaica for possible cultivation as food for slaves.

Fifteen months later, on April 28, 1789, while enroute to the Carribean with more than 1000 small breadfruit plants, during a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, Captain Bligh and 18 loyal crew members were set adrift in the ship's 7.5 m longboat. In a still unequalled maritime feat, Bligh navigated this small boat over more than 5,000 km of Pacific Ocean eventually to return to England, and to become Governor of New South Wales, Australia.

At the same time, Fletcher Christian, eight other mutineers, and twelve women and eight men from Tahiti, sailed the Bounty some 13,000 km back and forth across the Pacific in search of a safe haven, settling in 1790 on the mischarted Pitcairn's Island (today, Pitcairn Island).

Whether the mutiny was the result of tyrannical behaviour by Captain Bligh, complete breakdown of discipline among the crew after a year-and-a-half away from home and almost six months on an idyllic island, or what today would be called unresolved communications problems between two friends, was a mystery and source of constant debate for a long time. However, it has now been resolved in favour of William Bligh. We now know that Vice Admiral William Bligh fell victim to a vicious campaign of lies (largely by the influential family of one of the mutineers who managed to escape punishment because of political connections) to destroy the reputation of a great navigator and enlightened naval officer (for more information, see the bibliography below).
 

The Bounty off Norfolk Island

Between 1815 and 1856, only three outsiders were integrated permanently into the Pitcairn community, among them, in 1823, a whaler by the name of John Buffett. By the 1830's, the Picairners had outgrown the resources of their tiny island and started a campaign with the British government to have their community moved. In 1856, a year after the penal colony on Norfolk Island was closed following a protest campaign against its brutal conditions, the Pitcairn community of 194 souls was moved lock, stock and barrel to their new and permanent home on Norfolk Island. And that's where their descendants live today, more than one thousand strong.

Eventually, in the early part of this century, a descendant of Fletcher Christian married a descendant of John Buffett. In 1967, a grandson of this union, Scott Allan Buffett, was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. After spending his childhood back on Norfolk Island, he returned to Canada, studied acting, ballet, and modern dance, and became a talented professional dancer with one of Toronto's premier dance companies, Dancemakers, and that's where I met him and we became friends.

Strangely enough, even as a child in Germany, I had always been fascinated by the story of the Bounty mutiny - I read a German translation of the famous Nordhoff and Hall "Bounty Trilogy" as a teenager. So, having a real Bounty descendant as a friend couldn't help but pique an interest in Norfolk Island, once I discovered its history.

I'm off to visit Australia and Norfolk Island to see for myself what the fuss is all about! Of course, I'm at the mercy of Air Canada's pilots who've decided they need more money just in time to complicate my life. July 8 is my target date, the pilots' is July 1st - Canada Day! Wouldn't you just know it! ...

It's August 10th and I'm back from paradise (and the pilots are still threatening to strike). Norfolk Island is everything they say it is. Sun, sea, surf, sand, cows, geese and just a few extremely friendly people. The perfect holiday spot and just remote enough not to be over-run by tourists. Perfect winter weather (about 20° Celsius) to escape the horridly hot, humid and polluted Toronto summer. ...