Thursday October Christian
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ThursdayOctoberChristian.JPG
Thursday October Christian (October 14, 1790–April 21, 1831) was the first son of Fletcher Christian (leader of the mutiny on the HMAV Bounty) and his Tahitian wife Maimiti. He was conceived on Tahiti, and was the first child born on Pitcairn after the mutineers took refuge on the island. Born on a Thursday in October, he was given his unusual name because Fletcher Christian wanted his son to have "no name that will remind me of England".
Thursday married into his parents' generation. At age 16 he married Teraura (Susannah), who had been Edward Young’s original consort, and was past 30 then. The ceremony was carried out with a ring belonging to Ned Young.
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Negotiating with the British
When the British frigates Briton and Tagus arrived at Pitcairn on the morning of September 17 1814, Thursday and George Young paddled out in canoes to meet them. Both spoke English well, and gave a good impression to the officers and men of the ships as they met on the deck of the Briton. Their demeanor helped persuade the two captains that John Adams had created a civilized society, and did not merit prosecution for the mutiny. The ships stayed only for a few hours, and sailed away later that evening. This was when the only surviving portrait of Thursday was drawn.
Captain Philip Pipon, commander of the Tagus, describes Thursday as being "about twenty five years of age, a tall fine young man about six feet high, with dark black hair, and a countenance extremely open and interesting. He wore no clothes except a piece of cloth round his loins, a straw hat ornamented with black cock’s feathers, and occasionally a peacock’s, nearly similar to that worn by the Spaniards in South America, though smaller."
Pipon refers to him as "Friday October Christian", because they had discovered that the islanders' calendar was off by one day. The Bounty had crossed the international date line going eastwards, but the mutineers had not adjusted their calendar for this. (This suggests another miscalculation, because by this reasoning he should really have been called "Wednesday.") Thursday soon went back to his original name, but the Pitcairn Islands stamp that shows his picture identifies him as Friday October Christian.
Death in Tahiti
Along with a number of other Pitcairners, he migrated to Tahiti in 1831, but having no immunity to the diseases of the island he died on April 21. At that point he had been "the oldest and perhaps the most respected of the first generation of native born islanders." Eleven other Pitcairners died in the same epidemic. Deprived of leadership, the group left Tahiti on August 14 1831 to return to Pitcairn. His wife outlived him by 19 years. Thursday's third son was also called Thursday October Christian (II) (1820–1911).
For many years Thursday's house was the oldest building still standing on the island, until it was demolished on March 1 2004 because of termite damage.
Literary references
Thursday's life story was written by RM Ballantyne in The Lonely Island; or, The Refuge of the Mutineers (1880). He is also mentioned by Mark Twain in The Great Revolution in Pitcairn, published in Alonzo Fitz and other stories, and by Charles Dickens in The Long Voyage.
External links
- The complete text of Ballantyne's The Lonely Island. (http://www.athelstane.co.uk/ballanty/lonelyis/lonelyis.htm)
- A picture of Thursday's house. (http://www.pitcairn.pn/thursdayoctobershouse.htm)