Bounty relics: where are they?

Several times a week on television, ordinary people with extraordinary treasures are paraded before us on the popular “Antique Road Show.” The general public has a seemingly endless supply of furniture, glass, paintings, and other collectible curiosities. And every expert appraiser on the show wants to know the personal story behind each artifact, whether it’s a Chippendale Chair (c.1774), a Boston Hutch (c.1800), an Eskimo Hunting Helmut (c.1825), or a Card Babe Ruth baseball (c.1927). With the abundance of valuable pieces that the Americans have, no one seems to have a relic of HMS Bounty, the most famous mutiny ship. So where are they?

HMS Bounty, leaving Plymouth England bound for Tahiti, was carrying a cargo of trade trinkets including 100 pounds of glass beads, 2,808 axes, 168 mirrors, 72 shirts, 576 cheap knives, 1,000 pounds of nails, and various saw boxes. , drills and files.

In 1789, when America was just a teenager, Lieutenant Fletcher Christian and eight mutineers robbed a British Royal Navy armed transport ship and for two months combed the South Pacific Ocean looking for a home. In desperation, they sailed east and found Pitcairn Island on January 15, 1790. And it was there, fearing reprisals from a navy known for not giving up on any lost ship, they scuttled it on the rocks of Bounty Bay. , they cannibalized it in parts, and burned it down to the water line.

HMS Bounty was originally a merchant ship purchased by the Royal Navy and fitted with four guns, 6 swivel guns, a greenhouse, copper hull plating and renamed Bounty. In 1805, an American frigate discovered the mutineers on the island, but by then Britain was preoccupied with fighting Napoleon.

Today there are 44 Pitcairn Islanders and only two relics from the mother ship on public display. In the town square, which consists of the post office, courthouse, and church, there is a 12-foot stern anchor mounted on a cement plinth. It was this anchor that Fletcher Christian dropped to check his fatal run against the rocks. These days, the children of Pitcairn play with the anchor with no apparent sense of the heritage it holds for them.

The other treasure, the Bounty Bible, is on public display in the only church on the island. It was not actually the ship’s bible, but a gift from Mrs. Christian to hers her son hers Fletcher, and was among her belongings brought ashore in her sea chest. (Where is the chest today?)

In 1839, the Bible was changed to a Massachusetts Seaman and eventually found its way into the hands of the Connecticut Historical Society. In 1950 it was a rebound in London and return to its rightful home on the island. Today it is used for special religious ceremonies and resides in a display case in the church. (Let’s hope this relic doesn’t disappear again)

In 1845, two of the four 1,200 lbs. the guns were raised. One of these continues to rust in the front yard of an islander’s home, while the other has been taken to Norfolk Island.

In 1963, a great-great-grandson of Fletcher Christian recovered the Bounty’s rudder and many copper hull fittings from the ocean floor, most of which have since disappeared.

In 1970, the third cannon, which has since disappeared, was recovered. Finally in 1999, an Australian archaeologist named Nigel Erskine raised the last cannon. When Erskine set out to retrieve the cannon, he thought he had to ask the British Admiralty for permission, because, as he put it, “they never give up their rights to their ships.” But the island’s High Commissioner told him: “We took the ship in 1789. They have nothing to do with it.”

Very few artifacts from the Bounty remain today; three cannons, an anchor, some copper, a bible, and Fletcher Christian’s original island home seem to be the only remaining vestiges of an incredible tale of mutiny and survival. In modern times, the economy of Bounty’s descendants is strongly tied to stamp collecting. The island has only one telephone, one fax machine, and a lone generator that runs four hours a day. One might wonder how the dealers at the “Antique Road Show” would value such items. It is perhaps fitting that most of the relics are missing, or squandered, or, like HMS Bounty, stolen. Either way, the Bounty tale remains rich in history and sparse in artifacts.