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pitcairn island, 1821
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Nicholson, Robert B.: The Pitcairners With the assistance of Brian F. Davies Angus and Robertson, 89 Castlereagh Street, Sydney,1965. |
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Clarke, Peter: Hell and Paradise: the Norfolk - Bounty - Pitcairn Saga. Viking- Penguin Books Australia Ltd. 487 Maroondah Highway PO Box 257 Ringwood Victoria, 3134, Australia.1986, Reprinted 1998. |
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Page 92
...and, when
he came across it in the Sandwich Islands, he believed it to
be unique.
Clarke
reproduces the quotes of Ramsay and Raine on surfboard riding
as noted by Nicholson, above.
...
Two years
later (in 1808), Pitcairn had her first visitors.
After
landing her rum and gin at Hobart Town (to Bligh's disgust),
the Topaz sailed north across the Pacific and
chanced across Pitcairn with no inkling that it was
inhabited.
In his log,
Captain Folger wrote: 'I discovered a boat paddling towards
me'.
It was a
Tahitian-style canoe containing three young men 'as dark as
natives' and almost naked.
The
'natives' yelled to them- in English!
Page 94
...
Captain
Folger had discovered a race of 'Noble Savages', a race
which would have thrilled Rousseau himself.
The people
were 'tall, robust, golden-limbed and good-natured of
countenance'.
All were
extremely athletic and adept at surf-board riding.
...
Folger sent
a copy of his log to the Admiralty in 1809 and, when this
was ignored, personally wrote to them in 1813.
Preoccupied
with the activities of Napoleon, the authorities still chose
to do nothing about punishing the sole survivor of a
twenty-year-old mutiny; moreover, they apparenty
disseminated this information to very few; possibly not even
to Captain Bligh.
Page 99
...
Four years
after Bligh's death, the Surry arrived at Pitcairn,
her crew well aware of their responsibility to record
accurate accounts of this intriguing race to add spice to
the soirees of the British aristocracy and conviction to the
hope of various religious groups that here were potential
missionaries.
Chapter 13
Page 111
On 10th
December, 1823, the British whaler, Cyrus, arrived at
Pitcairn bearing two men who were to introduce to the island
its first (and almost its last) non-Bounty;
non-Polynesian blood.
As John
Adams's wife, Teio, whom he called Mary, was now blind,
Adams was finding It difficult to care for her and
simultaneously cope with the teaching of an ever-increasing
horde of children.
Upon his
request, Captain John Hall agreed to allow one of his
complement to remain on Pitcairn in the role of
school-teacher.
This was
John Buffett, a man with a remarkable history of survival.
He had
survived ferocious storms in Manila Bay and the Moluccas.
He had been
shipwrecked in the Bay of St. Lawrence, witnessing the death
of 42 souls, then shipwrecked again south of Boston.
In manner,
however, this adventure-toughened seadog appears to have
come across as a mild, soft- spoken scholar.
His friend, John Evans, was not invited to stay but jumped ship and hid in a tree until Cyrus sailed.
Chapter 17
Page 145
A dozen
years of relative tranquility followed the departure from
Pitcairn of the odious Joshua Hill. When Captain Wood of
H.M.S. Pandora visited the island (in 1850), sixty
years after the burning of the
Bounty (in
1790) he found the community in fine shape.
The Captain reported:
"The children are not swaddled and tormented as they are in England, in consequence of which they are strong and independent looking, not an ill-formed or deformed child was to be seen; they go into the water when very young, which tans their skins and renders them some shades darker than their original coloul: The women are as expert as the men in the surf, some of them being able to swim entirely round the island.
The way
they effect a landing is thus: One whose experience can be
trusted mounts a rock that commands a view of the sea,
watches for the proper moment, when, at a signal from him,
the boat which has been lying as close to the breakers as
possible makes a rush and, by takmg one of the less heavy
breakers, goes flying in before it, frequently without a
stroke of the oars being necessary except to steer her ...
a trifling deviation on either side would dash it to
pieces on the rocks."
2.
"Captain Folger had discovered a race ... adept at
surf-board riding."
The implication
that
Folger, the first to discover an inhabited Pitcairn in 1808,
also observed surfboard riding seems highly unlikely as he
remained at Pitcairn for only ten hours.
There were
several published accounts:
"The
discovery was reported by Folger to the Royal Navy 1808, a
report of which reached the British Admiralty on May 14, 1809.
It was
published in the Quarterly Review in 1810.
Captain Folger
also related an account of the discovery to his friend Captain
Amasa Delano, who published the account in his book A
Narrative of Voyages and Travels in 1817.
This account is
also included in the book Pitcarin Island, written by
Charles Nordoff and James Hall."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayhew_Folger
3. "John
Buffett,
a man with a remarkable history of survival" - page 111.
Buffett
published A Narrative of 20 Years' Residence on
Pitcairn's Island in The Friend,
Honolulu, in 1846, Volume 4, pages 2-3, 20-21, 27-28, 34-35,
50-51, and 66-68.
Pitcairn
Islands Study Center : Historic Papers
http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/studycenter/store/papers.shtml
His
recollections contain no account of the Islander's surfriding.
S&G
Champion report:
"The
North Steyne Club forwared for confirmation to the Surf
bathing association a programme for the club's annual
carnival.
Fifteen
life saving clubs would be represented, and an exhibition
of surf-shooting given by Mr. L. Bouffett, of Norfolk
Island.
48.
Sydney Morning Herald 1 December 1911."
Drowning,
Bathing
and Life Saving (2000) page 159.
Mr L. Bouffett
was probably a decendant of John Buffett who arrived
on Pitcairn Island in December, 1823 on the British
whaler, Cyrus.
The Pitcairn
islanders, largely decenced from Bounty mutineers and
Tahitian women, were renowned surfriders.
Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge: Sketches of the Life of
Bishop Patterson in Melanesia.
London, 1873.
Notes from an
online book trader:
b/w
plates. (illustrator). iv, 204 pp.
The Bishop's
adventures in New Zealand, Melanesia, Norfolk Island.
Not in
Ferguson, but see Ferguson 13938-40 for similar items related
to Patterson and his Melanesian
mission.
Interestingly
this book has a wood engraving of surfing on p. 64, and a
lengthy description of surfing as
practiced on
Norfolk Island.
It must be an
early appearance of such a description.
Also note held
by the Mitchell Library, Sydney:
Call
Number: DSM/ A922.3/ P
Sketches of
the life of Bishop Patteson in Melanesia : a revised edition
of "The life of Bishop Patteson",
Published under
the direction of the Tract Committee.
London :
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1873?
| C. Schwatzburger
Sc.: Pitcairn Island Garran, Andrew (editor): Picturesque Atlas of Australasia. Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company, Sydney, 1886-1888, page 607. Carl Schwarzburger (1850-) Engraver (wood-engraver); xylographers Studied in Germany before moving to America in 1874. He visited Australia (NSW) between c.1886 - 1889, and then returned to the US. |
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Allward, Maurice: Pitcairn Island - Refuge of the Bounty Mutineers. 2000, Great Britain. Tempus Publishing Limited The Mill, Briscombe Port, Stroud, Gloustershire, GL5 2QG |
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The waves breaking on the far shore give some idea of the danger of the task." Allward,
Maurice: Pitcairn Island
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Note the lookout standing in the stern who watches for a 'safe' wave before entering the bay." Allward,
Maurice: Pitcairn Island
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