Gerben, PG5M will be active as VP6G from Pitcairn Island, IOTA OC - 044, 4 - 14 April 2024.
He will operate on 40 - 10m, CW, FT8 (MSHV).
QSL via M0OXO, OQRS.
Pitcairn Island
Pitcairn Island is hard to find in the waters of the vast Pacific Ocean. The area of the island is so small and the number of inhabitants is so small that, if it were not for historical facts related directly to Pitcairn, no one except geographers and enthusiastic travelers would even remember about the island.
So, one amazing event, which took place in the long past eighteenth century, made the island a corner of the planet, where many people want to go to imagine how and where everything happened. And what happened was the following...
The Bounty's direct relation to the pleasures of paradise
One day, a transport ship sailed from the coast of England with a crew of sailors headed by a young, despotic captain with an unbridled temper. The captain's surname was Bligh, and the ship was to cross three oceans and reach the shores of the distant tropical island of Tahiti.
The English were interested in the seedlings of the overseas breadfruit tree. The nourishing fruits of the breadfruit, which after cooking tasted like potatoes, could easily feed several people for a whole year, therefore, these fruits were a very profitable product in the menu for English slaves in the West Indies.
For about a year the poor sailors had toiled among the salty ocean expanses, and the autocratic captain had been testing their patience, which one day was bound to "burst." Therefore, when the "Bounty" (and that was the name of the ship) docked at the shores of Tahiti and the poor members of the crew landed on the shore, Tahiti seemed to them like the Garden of Eden, thanks to the nature, friendly attitude of the islanders and simply hard ground under their feet.
First, they had to wait for the season when the seedlings were suitable for digging and transportation, then the sailors deliberately procrastinated, not wanting to leave the island. Thus five months passed. Well, five months in paradise is no joke! Therefore, it is not surprising that as soon as the Bounty, loaded with seedlings, departed from the shores of Tahiti, the sailors felt that their fairy tale, which had lasted so short a time, had been unfairly taken away from them.
The mere thought that Bligh would continue his abuse made the crew nervous. They had a long time to decide what to do about all this, and then they made the only decision they thought was right: the sea would do justice to the sailor. The rebellious part of the crew sent the captain and his supporters into the open waters of the Pacific Ocean, putting nineteen men in a seven-meter dinghy, even providing some food and fresh water for their enemies.
The rebels themselves, led by the crew's favorite, navigator Christian Flatcher, returned safely to the much-loved island of Tahiti. One part of the rebels remained to live there, while Flatcher and eight other men, after a year of living in Tahiti, being wiser, took with them 12 Tahitian women, as well as 6 Tahitians and went on their "Bounty" to the island of Pitcairn, recently discovered and still uninhabited.
In the end, the British who remained in Tahiti were very soon taken by their compatriots who had arrived on a punitive expedition ship and brutally massacred in their homeland. Bligh's lead, who oddly enough survived and returned to England, worked (of course, Bligh's courage and professionalism are to be respected, if not for his character). Well, and Fletcher and twenty-six friends in 1790 laid the beginning of civilization on the island of Pitcairn.
VP6G. Pitcairn Island. Logo.
Two and a quarter centuries have passed....
During these long years, families of the descendants of the rebels were created and grew. Some were born, some died... In different years, the four and a half square kilometers of the island were inhabited by different numbers of people. In some years, the number of inhabitants reached even two hundred. But, unfortunately, today there are only about fifty people living on the island, and the population is decreasing every year.
Almost all the inhabitants have only four surnames - the surnames of their rebellious ancestors. They all speak in their native English, but if they communicate among themselves, the speech is full of Tahitian idioms, so that the islanders' speech is almost incomprehensible to an outside listener.
Pitcairn has its own capital (the smallest capital in the world) - a neat town Adamstown, named so in honor of one of the rebels and more like a very small village. The capital has a main square, as it should. Unlike Moscow, for example, where the square is named Red Square, in Adamstown everything is simple: no names. It's just a Square. And this Square is also covered with a roof.
The capital even has developed infrastructure: there is a school, which in the best of times had ten children of different ages, and now there is one girl. There is one court, one prison (empty), one church, one post office, a cafe, a bar, a museum, a medical center, a cemetery (all of them - one by one) and for something - a dozen public toilets (this strange fact cannot be explained).
There are no hotels, though. But guests are kindly welcomed by any family on the island, including the family of the capital's mayor (we think of him as the chairman of the village council) and the only local oligarch with a car. Also the only one on the island (unless you take into account the municipal concrete mixer).
The guests are greeted with wreaths of flowers and taken to their place of residence on a quad bike. So what if the trip takes only five minutes? So if you want to feel triumphant, welcome to Pitcairn!