How Pitcairn Works

Extremities

Wendover Productions

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2019

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From the school, to the internet, to the economy, to the language, this episode explains all about how Pitcairn works.

This episode was supported by: http://Hover.com/ext - Buy your first domain in minutes before its gone for 10% off

http://Skillshare.com/extremities - Learn from over 25,000 classes for free for two months

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:16.1	Just 18 months after the entire population of Pitcairn Island resettled on Norfolk Island, some 3,700 miles or 6,000 kilometers away, a small group decided to leave and rejoin their island of birth.
0:19.7	In 1864, 27 more islanders decided to return to Pitcairn, unhappy with the interference of the British government on a territory promised to them.
0:28.0	However, this generation of settlers were immediately at a disadvantage upon their homecoming.
0:34.6	Many of the islands resources had been destroyed by the shipwreck sailors while the islanders had
0:38.5	been away and other belongings and resources had been taken to Norfolk in the move.
0:43.0	Not to mention, this group of islanders had been, essentially dropped off by other boats and
0:47.4	had no ships or sails of their own to pull resources from, unlike the original mutineers
0:51.8	of the bounty.
0:53.0	After repairing their weathered and vandalized homes, there were no resources and honestly no energy
0:58.1	left to continue developing the island and the rest of it was reclaimed by nature.
1:03.0	To make matters much worse, visits from passing ships were becoming increasingly rare.
1:08.0	Due to the fickle nature of the whaling industry, the amount of fishermen and whaling crews from abroad visiting the South Pacific began to drop.
1:16.1	The islands originally saw about 40 ships visit a year, decades before the move to Norfolk,
1:20.9	but now, about 20 years later, they were lucky to get more than 10 ships to stop a year.
1:26.0	Meanwhile, over at Norfolk Island, the former Pitcairn people went on with their lives for a time
1:32.0	going on to try to cultivate the land and work with technology
1:34.6	they didn't have on Pitcairn.
1:36.8	Allegedly, they were very amused by anything that had wheels.
1:41.2	Though, instead of properly utilizing the tools that the prisoners had left behind, they went
1:45.2	on to allow carts to roll off the hills and smash into the rocks below.
1:49.7	Over time, they developed a real hit or miss relationship with exporting crops.
1:54.0	Whaling was still popular enough that it kept Norfolk afloat even though it wasn't enough to drive fishermen to Pitcairn's area.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Wendover Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Wendover Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.