Wooden fragment from the Rudder of the BOUNTY

Fragments recovered from the wreck of the BOUNTY at Pitcairn Island. After Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers reached Pitcairn Island they stripped and burnt the BOUNTY as they knew that the British navy would come after them and the BOUTNY would betray their presence if it were to be found at Pitcairn Island.

These items were brought back from Pitcairn Island by Kenneth M Dodson who served in the Pacific aboard the USS PIERCE during World War II. He was given the items on the island by David Young, a 5th generation descendant of Midshipman Edward (Ned) Young, one of the nine original mutineers who settled on the island in 1790. In 1793, conflict broke out between the mutineers and the Tahitian men driven by disputes over the women, exacerbated by the increasing alcoholism. Five of the mutineers, including Christian, and many of the Tahitian men were killed.

The four surviving mutineers were Ned Young, Matthew Quintal, William McCoy and John Adams. McCoy later fell off a cliff while seriously drunk, and Adams and Young killed the aggressive Quintal making themselves the only surviving mutineers. Young’s health then progressively deteriorated and he died of asthma in 1800, leaving Adams as the only mutineer still alive when Pitcairn was rediscovered by Matthew Folger, captain of the American whaler TOPAZ, in 1808.

Many of Young’s descendants continue to live on Pitcairn Island or Norfolk Island to this day.