1 May 2014

Pitcairn people laugh off reports of make-up over mutiny

4:41 am on 1 May 2014

A Pitcairn descendant of Fletcher Christian has laughed off reports of a symbolic reconciliation with the Bligh family 225 years after the legendary mutiny on the Bounty.

There have been reports in overseas media that Pitcairner Jacqui Christian would be returning Captain William Bligh's bible to one of his descendants who would hand it straight back as a way of putting an end to a so-called fictionalised silly feud.

Jacqui Christian says a bible does exist and is one of the Pitcairn Islanders' proudest posessions and she says there is no such plan for it to leave the island.

"We heard it was Fletcher Christian's, given to Fletcher Christian by his mother and found in his sea chest so I'm not quite sure whether it was Bligh's actually at all. The Pitcairners certainly don't want this bible leaving the island. That's not part of a plan that I'm aware of."

Jacqui Christian says the idea of a symbolic reconciliation between the Christian and Bligh families is a good one but it's not really necessary so long after the 1789 mutiny.