Name/TitleStone axe head from the pre-European settlement of Pitcairn Island
About this objectWhen the BOUNTY mutineers arrived on Pitcairn Island, it was uninhabited. However, they found the remains of an earlier Polynesian culture. There were roughly hewn stone gods still guarding scared sites; carved in the cliff faces were representations of animals and men; burial sites yielding human skeletons; and there were earth ovens, stone adzes, and other artefacts of Polynesian workmanship.
Archaeologists believe that Polynesians lived on the island from the 11th to the 15th century. These first Pitcairners seems to have operated a trading relationship with the more populous island of Mangareva, 250 miles to the west, in which food was exchanged for the high-quality rock and volcanic glass available in Pitcairn. It is not certain why this society disappeared, but is probably related to the deforestation of Mangareva and the subsequent decline of its culture.
The axe head was given by Pitcairner David Young to Kenneth M. Dodson aboard USS PIERCE when the ship visited Pitcairn Island during World War II. Young was a 5th generation descendant of Midshipman Edward (Ned) Young, one of the nine original BOUNTY mutineers who settled on the island in 1790.
Period11th-15th century?
Place MadePitcairn Island
Medium and MaterialsStone
Object TypeMaritime Archaeology
Object numberSF001084
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
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The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art