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 journey to safety, reaching Timor 47 days later. The original text was written by Gabriel Marcel (1843–1909), a geographer from the National Library of France. Jules Verne’s work was proofreading. Verne bought the rights to the text for 300 francs. 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