Pitcairn Islands 1940 The first definitive set

The Pitcairn Islands turned out to be a great place to hide but a bad one to colonise. The valleys were fertile and the seas were teeming with fish, but the islanders had no means of paying for manufactured goods and if the colony grew past a certain size, it became unsustainable. Twice, in 1831 and 1865, the entire population had decamped for other islands, but they came back. Royal Naval ships occasionally called at the island and the piety and simplicity of the Pitcairners’ lives won practical support from religious organisations back home, but island life was still hard and spartan.

Things began to change with the 20th century and especially with the Panama Canal. Pitcairn was now a stop on the direct route to New Zealand with ships calling practically every week. Its long isolation was over