Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004 denied the island's colonial status, and with it the United Kingdom's judicial authority. Defence lawyers for the seven accused men claimed that British sovereignty over the islands was unconstitutional: HMS "Bounty" mutineers, from whom almost all of the current island population is descended (together with Polynesians), had effectively renounced their British citizenship by committing a capital offence in the burning of the "Bounty" in 1790, they said. According to the Public Defender of the Pitcairn Islands Paul Dacre (who was appointed in 2003), islanders still celebrated this act annually by burning an effigy of the "Bounty" in a symbolic rejection
The Mutineers of the Bounty The Mutineers of the Bounty Mutineers of the Bounty () is a short story by Jules Verne. The story is based on British documents about the Mutiny on the "Bounty" and was published in 1879 together with the novel "The Begum's Fortune" ("Les cinq cents millions de la Bégum"), as a part of the series "Les Voyages Extraordinaires" ("The Extraordinary Voyages"). Unlike many authors covering the topic, Verne concentrates on the deposed captain of the "Bounty", William Bligh. After mutineers forced Bligh into the "Bounty"'s 23-foot launch on 28 April 1789, he led loyal crew members on a 6,710 kilometer