Q: DO you have any information on the island that was settled by the mutineers from the Mutiny on the Bounty? - Chris Parker, Peterlee.

A: THE island settled by the mutineers of the Bounty is Pitcairn in the south Pacific, although Norfolk Island, 1,500 miles off the Australian West Coast, is also home to the mutineers' descendants. Pitcairn is 3,300 miles east of New Zealand and 4,000 miles west of Chile. There are virtually no human populations for a thousand miles around. Pitcairn is a British colony and virtually all of the 50 inhabitants are descended from the mutineers.

The island was settled in earlier times, as shown by Polynesian burial sites, but was deserted before the 18th Century. It was first spotted by Europeans in July 1767 when Captain Philip Cateret of HMS Swallow named it Pitcairn in honour of the young sailor who sighted it. In 1790 Fletcher Christian and the crew of HMS Bounty mutinied against Captain Bligh while sailing from Tahiti to the West Indies. They seized the ship and set the captain adrift with his 18 officers. Christian and the mutineers did not immediately head for Pitcairn. At first they headed for Tahiti, but fearing discovery, Fletcher and seven of the mutineers set off in search of an uninhabited island. They took with them 12 Tahitian women as consorts and six Tahitian men.

After two months exploring the seas, the uninhabited island of Pitcairn was located and settled by the mutineers. All livestock and food from The Bounty was taken ashore and the ship was completely destroyed by fire to avoid detection. The new community took time to settle and murder seems to have been particularly rife in the earlier years, with victims including some of the mutineers and all the male Tahitians. Fletcher Christian died a few years after the landing, although he left a son to continue the family name on the island, where it is still very common today. TV chef Glynn Christian is Fletcher's most famous descendant.

In 1794, the remaining mutineers were Midshipman Edward Young, a London orphan called Jack Adams, a Cornishman called Matthew Quintal and Scotsman William McCoy, all with surnames found throughout Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands to this day. Quintal was murdered in 1799 and, by 1800, only Adams remained of the original mutineers, along with ten Tahitian women and 23 children. The colony was discovered in 1808 by an American ship but the British were occupied by the Napoleonic Wars and took no action. British ships finally arrived in 1814, but Adams escaped punishment because of his role as a community leader.

In 1838, Pitcairn was formally incorporated into the British Empire and a simple constitution was drawn up. By the 1850s, Pitcairn's population was almost 200 and overcrowding caused the British government to assist the islanders in a move to the much larger Norfolk Island, a deserted convict colony thousands of miles away. Pitcairn Island is particularly isolated, having no airport and no computers. The islanders have telephones, but share a line so that the number of rings determines whom the call is for. Children are educated in New Zealand and many choose not to return.

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Published: Monday, June 18, 2001