Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing on an intriguing news item. A cannon said to be from HMS Bounty, the ship made famous by a mutiny in 1789, is being put up for sale at an upcoming auction. According to the provenance, the cannon was gifted to Captain Stewart of the Orealla in 1898. The letter is signed by JR McCoy, president of Pitcairn Island and great-grandson of one of the original mutineers. The cannon was reportedly found in Scotland.
How did this come to pass? Following the mutiny, the leader Fletcher Christian sailed off with a crew of nine mutineers, six Polynesian men, twelve women and a baby. They arrived at Pitcairn, a tiny volcanic island in the South Pacific, which had been conveniently miss-plotted on Admiralty charts. Shortly thereafter, they burned the Bounty in what is now known as Bounty Bay. The ship’s four 4 pound cannons sank with the ship when she was set ablaze.
For all intents and purposes, the Bounty and the remaining mutineers simply vanished for almost two decades until Mayhew Folger, captain of the American sealing shipTopaz, rediscovered Pitcairn in 1808. Bythen only one mutineer survived to tell the tale.
So again, how did a cannon sunk in Bounty Bay on Pitcairn end up in Scotland? The best information that I could come across was from Nigel Erskine, who lead an expedition in 1999 to raise the last of the four Bounty cannon from the seabed.
What became of the other three? According to Erskine, “two of Bounty’s cannons were raised in 1845. One was used to salute ships visiting Pitcairn until 1853 when an accidental firing killed the island’s magistrate. In 1856, one of the cannons was taken to Norfolk Island. The other remained on Pitcairn for a time, then was taken away, reportedly to America. A third cannon, raised in the 1970s, is on Pitcairn. Both it and the one on Norfolk are in poor condition.”
By default, the cannon gifted to Captain Stewart in 1898 must have been one of the two raised in 1845. Of the two, the most likely candidate is the one “taken away, reportedly to America.” America is not Scotland, but it in the general neighborhood, at least as compared to Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands.
If anyone has any better information on how one of the Bounty’s 4-pound cannon ended up in Scotland, I would love to hear it.
The cannon is being auctioned on June 9th by Thomson Roddick.
I can only add the following that is: In 1998 I visited Pitcairn with the sailing ship `Eye of the Wind’ we dived the remains and saw ballast bars in rows and one cannon. It is my understanding that this cannon was raised a year or two later and was taken to Australia by conservators for conservation. I would suggest contact with the Island that would tell you when J R McCoy died, I am sure that the Island museum would be able to help solve the connection with Captain Stewart of the Orealla in 1898.
Incidentally William McCoy Bounty mutineer was a direct ancestor of my wife’s Aunt Janet McCoy she married John McCoy in 1946 her descendants live in Canada and are 9th generation.
June 10 2018
I live here on Pitcairn and I am trying to get my head around it all.
Growing up, we were told about Mathew McCoy ramming the cannon with a stick and not knowing a nail was in the stick causing it to spark which mangled his arm and he later died of his injuries.One of these 2 cannons was spiked by the crew of the Bounty. Those cannons raised in 1845, one was taken to Norfolk Island, Our guys raised the 3rd Cannon in 1973 and the Nigel Erskin team in 1998-1999.
If it is a genuine Bounty cannon, it would be nice to have it back here in our PI museum.
Meralda Warren 7th Generation Bounty descendant