Mutiny on the Bounty / Mutiny on Pitcairn Island

The Mutiny on the Bounty really did happen. It’s not just a movie that was made in Hollywood starring Marlon Brando or Mel Gibson or potentially some future leading man depending on what generation you belong to. One component of the story is that some of the crew members, led by Fletcher Christian, were so enamored with the beauty of the women and way of life on the island of Tahiti that they turned against their ship’s captain, set him adrift in a lifeboat, and ultimately made course for another island of the South Pacific to live blissfully with these native women for the rest of their lives.

Fast forward a few hundred years and holes in the fabric of this exotic and romantic fantasy begin to appear. Much like in the Lord of the Flies, the dark side of human nature manifested itself in the form of some very unsavory cultural practices. The natives, who are all the direct descendants of the mutineers, contend that these practices are in keeping with other island cultures of the region. The British authorities, who have very loosely governed Pitcairn Island from a very long distance for hundreds of years, did not agree. Read all about these troubling occurrences in a new work entitled, Lost Paradise: from Mutiny on the Bounty to a Modern-Day Legacy of Sexual Mayhem, the Dark Secrets of Pitcairn Island Revealed. Find this and other resources associated with this infamous historical event at the Austin Public Library. I’ve listed a few titles below just to get you started.

The Bounty : the True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

The Mutiny of the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty