BOUNTY HUNTING

In the late 1700s, a motley crew of European seamen and Polynesians sailed across the Pacific in a stolen Royal Navy ship. Their leader, Fletcher Christian, had rebelled against his commander, Lieutenant William Bligh, and cast him adrift in the Tongan islands. Now in control of Bligh’s ship, the Bounty, Christian and his followers were searching the South Seas for a hideout from the British navy. In the eyes of the law they were mutineers and pirates deserving of hanging.

The fugitives could not have found a better hiding place. They raised Pitcairn Island in January 1790, a high volcanic rock in the South Pacific. The island was uninhabited, but it had all the necessaries of life and, crucially, its location was unknown to Europeans. When Christian and his crew came would advertise their presence, the mutineers set fire to the ship, stranding themselves forever.