Bounty Day Celebrations
Pitcairners celebrated Bounty Day on January 23, 2025 with a fish fry and burning of the ship’s replica at The Landing, looking out to Bounty Bay.
Ancestors watched 235 years earlier as His Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty went up in flames. When news reached England of the mutiny, King George’s own Royal Navy began a search which failed to find the ship or the mutineers.
In 1790, the English sailors and the Polynesian who sailed with them would have been hard-pressed to imagine their descendants marking the event.
Never would they have dreamed that King Charles, would send a warm, congratulatory message to be read by Mayor Simon Young to this year’s gathering of Pitcairners, extolling the overseas territory and noting international recognition of its environmental protection efforts including establishment of the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve.
Barely a stone’s throw from today’s harbor, according to author Sven Wahlroos, “The Bounty was run up on the rocks close to the slight indentation in the shore line now known as Bounty Bay, and livestock and goods were shipped ashore. Most students of the Bounty story seem to assume that everything valuable and useful was salvaged from the vessel. This is highly improbable. The Bounty carried pigs, goats, chickens, cats, dogs, and several varieties of plants. These all had to be ferried ashore (plus the Tahitian baby girl called Sully who was floated ashore in a barrel). Those who have visited Pitcairn know that even on the calmest day there is heavy surf thundering into Bounty Bay and the waters there are extremely turbulent and dangerous. So, it must have taken at least the best part of the day to get the animals and plants ashore. But the Bounty was burned on January 23, three days after it was beached. In this short time, it would simply have been impossible to salvage everything valuable, let alone everything potentially useful.” From Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas, Sven Wahlroos, Salem House Publishers (Topsfield, Massachusetts, USA), 1989
Where search vessels combed the South Pacific two centuries ago, at least 1,249 species of marine mammals, seabirds, and fish --- and the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island --- now call the reserve home. Covering about 841,910 square kilometers, which is slightly larger than New South Wales, Australia, the reserve protects endangered species and species unique to the area, supports research on humpback whales, green turtles, seabirds, and coral reef ecosystems, and attracts scientific research and tourism. The reserve was formally established in March 2015 by the British Government. The Pew Environment Group's Global Ocean Legacy project worked closely with Pitcairn islanders to create the reserve, which was awarded the Platinum-level Blue Park Award in 2023
Bounty Day is marked each year on January 23 as an official holiday on Pitcairn Island. On Norfolk Island, where nearly half the population traces its roots to Pitcairn, Bounty Day (otherwise known as Anniversary Day), is celebrated on the 8th of June in remembrance of the day their ancestors arrived from Pitcairn Island.