Stamp Story—No. 67 Back To Pitcairn Islands, In A Smuggler’s Ship

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29798, 14 April 1962, Page 8

Stamp Story—No. 67 Back To Pitcairn Islands, In A Smuggler’s Ship

[By

KEN ANTHONY)

TPHE SHIP shown on this new stamp from the remote Pacilc settlement of Pitcairn is described as a migrant vessel—and so she was. But that was just incidental. Her real job was smuggling. The story of how the survivors of the Bounty mutiny settled in Pitcairn in 1790 is well-known. Less familiar is the fact that twice since then the island has been abandoned. In 1831, the community moved to Tahiti, but returned after a few months. Then in

1856. after a severe drought which caused famine and disease, the entire population of 187 was taken 4000 miles across the Pacific to Norfolk Island, formerly a convict settlement. But some of the islanders soon grew homesick for Pitcairn, and decided to return, Pitcairn’s present population is descended from the 43 islanders who made the move.

It was at this time that the authorities in New South Wales were beginning to take an interest in the activities of a notorious character named Stewart, who had been busy smuggling wine

and spirits into the colony. His ship was the Louisa, a 77-ton schooner described as the swiftest craft in Australia at that time. To escape arrest, Stewart fled the country, changed the ship’s name to Mary Ann, and sailed to Norfolk Island, bound for Central America. He arrived at Norfolk just as the advance party, 16 strong, were wondering how to get to Pitcairn. For £3OO Stewart was only too ready to oblige—and he safely set the pioneers ashore in their old island home.

But the settlers must have speculated about the mysterious ship that picked them up. One of them afterwards alleged that “her former name could still be distinguished underneath.” However, as the ship was known to the Pitcairn community as the Mary Ann, her false name was chosen to appear on the stamp. The remainder of the group followed the advance party five years later—hence the two dates on the stamp, one of three values marking a century of uninterrupted and peaceful settlement of Pitcairn.—(Central Press Fea-

tures, Ltd. All Rights Reserved).