Dark Secrets of the World’s Most Isolated Island

I am currently on a ship on my way to the most isolated inhabited island on earth where only 40 people somehow currently live to find the story of how these people ended up on this island , which only got stranger and more confusing , the more I tried to understand it because what makes this story fascinating is not the extreme remoteness of the island , but how the inhabitants got there and the anarchy that ensued once they got stuck , his Royal Britannic Majesty ship the bounty near the island of Tahiti .

Her crew muted and set the captain adrift in an open .

It's a story filled with betrayal , piracy and death .

One made famous worldwide and adapted over and over again as a cautionary tale of troubled leadership .

This is the story of Pitcairn Island , thrilled , intrigued and mesmerized all at once .

I truly had no idea what to expect from this trip .

I'm about to begin the longest journey that I've ever been on to just get to the place that I'm meant to be .

As you can imagine a trip to such an isolated place , takes a very long time around four days for me initially having flown from Paris to Los Angeles .

I then set off for French Polynesia where I linked with my friend Cory joining me all the way where we celebrated his 30th birthday in the presence of Giants .

We then took a local flight to Polynesia's most isolated airport .

Then a ferry to the main island and eventually another boat to take us on to our beloved ship .

The Silver Supporter , where we'd spend two days in the middle of the rocky South Pacific Ocean to finally arrive at our destination .

What the hell 0 21 Jump Street .

Look at us .

We're gonna watch a movie together .

Now , never mind .

This cargo looking ship was quaint yet equipped with movies .

A chef and a bed .

I couldn't have asked for much more than that .

We have officially made it on the MV Silver supporter .

I've been dreaming of making it onto this ship going to Pitcairn Islands for three years .

Now , only two days to get to Pitcairn , the waves are intense man .

As we approached the island , I felt the dark mystery of its past echoing through my mind .

So let me introduce you to its unbelievable history .

By winding back our clocks to 17 87 .

The British Navy commissioned the renowned sailor , Captain Bligh to set sail on the HMS bounty to Tahiti .

In order to bring bread fruit , a sheep and filling plant to feed British slaves in the Caribbean .

It took a long and dangerous 10 month journey where they almost shipwrecked at numerous occasions until the bounty arrived in Tahiti .

By then , the cruise morale hit an all time low and they became disgruntled by Captain Bly and his treatment of them .

After a five month layover on the island waiting for the bread , fruit plants to grow .

Many of the sailors grew intimate with some of the local women .

And as they lived on the beach in literal paradise , they started becoming increasingly insubordinate as it was time for them to set out on their mission and then head back to England .

The tension reached a boiling point and a mutiny broke out against Captain Bligh , led by his friend .

And second in command , Fletcher Christian Bligh and 18 of his loyalists were handcuffed and kicked off the ship on a small bark in the middle of the ocean with only a few days worth of water and a compass basically sent to their death .

Fletcher Christian took control of the bounty and since they were all now mutineers and traitors of the British Empire , a crime with a penalty of death , they had to find a way to vanish from the earth through unimaginable luck .

The Polynesians they had taken with them aboard had expert navigational skills and noticed that one island was mapped wrong on the British map , meaning that it was mapped wrong on every British map making it the perfect hiding place .

Pitcairn Island .

Once they arrived , they set fire to the ship who would be hidden by the passing British vessels searching for them .

Fletcher Christian along with eight other mutineers , six Taian men and 14 Ta Haitian women were now stuck on the world's most remote island for the rest of their lives .

Anarchy completely broke out once they got to the island around 200 years ago and only one man eventually survived .

Today .

There are four families and around 40 inhabitants left on the island that we will meet .

Most of them .

All direct descendants of the mutineers .

Good morning .

We should have arrived late last night .

The boat is currently not moving .

Let's take a look .

Oh , my God .

Here it is .

Pitcairn Island .

The world's most isolated inhabited island .

You can't believe that 250 years ago , a ship of British mutineers arrived here , parked their boat and never came back .

Good morning .

Did you see it in the back ?

Is your boy coming to pick us up ?

You kidding me ?

You have good adventure .

You see big .

It's very good .

It's very one .

Oh , my God .

It for you is the same .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Don't worry , don't worry .

Yes .

Oh , yeah .

Holy .

Yeah .

Right .

I'm Thomas .

Yes .

I know you .

And that , that a lot of people here .

Ok .

Ok .

Bye .

Everyone seems very friendly here .

Well , we've arrived a bit .

Wow , we're here .

We're here .

Come on here .

This is amazing .

You , I will .

Otherwise we'll have to lock you up .

Oh , police and immigration .

That's you welcome .

Welcome to pick one of the world's most unique stamps .

I like you sell all day at the what language is that ?

Did they get rid of all ?

Our , that one ?

I just tell a RD , what did we just witness ?

I did not like you're gonna have to teach us some pit , some English language .

You mean ?

Like how are you , what , what since supplies had just arrived with our ship ?

Our first stop along with most of the locals of the island was the grocery store .

I wasn't expecting this at all .

So I guess , yeah , you have to freeze a lot of the stuff and then your favorite side of the aisle .

Oh , that's my favorite place in the , on the store .

H I Naughty .

Well , this is where you'll have the most stuff in the sort of just stuff that the supply ships .

So we had , had one for about three months and there were empty shelves and I mean , no one on the island or everyone just for , it's not like culture shock .

It's just like interesting .

It feels like that we met that entire time when we landed , we got some food .

I love that .

Damn .

Damn .

That's good .

The most isolated island on earth .

This house is the direct descendants of the main mutineer uh Fletcher Christian who led the mutiny and brought them here in the first place .

So we are staying in the descendants home .

It's just incredible that they're still here .

Yeah , I would have thought that seven generations in , they might have left the island because living here is not easy .

But no , they're still here .

Well , this is one of the cannons that they took off the ship .

Holy shit .

This is a living museum .

We are walking up to the only known resting place of one of the mutineers .

He was the last one to survive .

John Adams buried right here and taught the whole island how to read how to cultivate the plant .

So he's very revered and beloved .

All of the other mutineers were killed and just chucked off , chucked off the island .

So this is the only grave and known resting place from the vegetation to the history to the people .

This island is very special and the vegetation is absolutely mind blowing .

I mean , the trees everywhere you look just are spectacular .

Look at this nature and these trees look straight out of avatar like I don't think I've seen such diverse fauna in nature before we're going to the highest point right now .

Freaking jungle .

Can you imagine arriving here 250 years ago and just saying , all right , here's home .

This is the highest point .

Wow , Paris , 15,000 , 127 kilometers away , Easter Island is one of the closest islands and it's 2000 kilometers away , Tahiti , 2325 kilometers away .

Wow , this drop is we are seeing a whale swimming far out in the distance .

He seems extremely playful .

So , Corey is going to shoot up the drone and see if we can get close to him .

Multiple whales that we can see from a distance from the coast .

Here we are continuing to find some spectacular views out here on Pickard Island .

And I wanted to take a second to thank one of the big sponsors for us this year , Shopify who have not only sponsored this trip but also our incredible trip to Italy , our cargo ship story , our recent trip to Hawaii where we went diving with sharks .

And now this one , there are not a whole lot of sponsors who give us the flexibility to basically choose what we feel most passionate about and go after it .

Shopify is one of them for those of you who don't know at this point , Shopify is an all in one commerce platform that allows basically anyone to open their own store online .

It allows you to transact with customers online in person and on all major social platforms , their goal is to democratize entrepreneurship to make it more accessible to anyone no matter technical skill .

They are the platform that we've been using for seek discomfort for the past four years and it's allowed us to open a store online in a way that we could probably not have nearly as easily beforehand .

So if you are an entrepreneur thinking of opening your own store or if you've been looking a way to expand your business .

Shopify is definitely the place to go .

You can sign up for a free trial at the link at the top of the description below .

I couldn't recommend them enough .

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I guess back to exploring this strange , mysterious and very remote island .

Although Pig Island was completely uninhabited when the bounty arrived on its shores .

It turns out that it was actually not the first time that humans had set foot on this island .

So this is where the Polynesians came and carved in the rock on the on the wall down there .

It's on the wall .

How on earth do we get down there ?

That looks like impossible to get down there ?

That doesn't look doable .

Polynesians came here potentially thousands years ago .

No one knows .

Nobody knows when the Polynesians are an ethnic group that we rarely speak about .

Give credit to .

Yet .

They were some of the most skilled and brave navigators to ever have lived to the point that they were basically using the vast and daunting Pacific Ocean as a massive highway traveling between such vast distances as Hawaii Eastern Islands and French Polynesia , mostly paddling at night while using the stars for direction .

And over 1000 years ago , small group of an estimated 50 to 100 Polynesians settled here for a period of time and disappeared in unknown circumstances , leaving only a few traces behind for which we would now scale down this cliff to go discover ourselves with our lovely and excited police slash immigration officer and guide Brenda .

You pain in the ass .

You're a pain in the ass .

They were a pain in the ass for like , so you ready ?

There's a toilet there while you going barefoot .

I always go barefoot .

I freaking hiking boots on when you're claiming don't hold on any of the roots because they're not solid .

Ok .

Wow .

Yeah , that's quite the drop , huh ?

Well , don't slip .

Are you good ?

I'm just testing it .

Wow .

You done at the bottom .

So , down on this beach there is a lot of remnants of an ancient Polynesian society that came and had that intricate navigational carvings on the walls .

Wow , they're right there .

Look at that , looking at the carvings and realizing the unimaginable feat it took for them to get here at the time .

I can only stop and wonder how much ancient knowledge and wisdom have we lost ?

What were they trying to tell us or what were they trying to remember ?

They've estimated around 1000 , 200 to 1000 600 years ago .

But even that is just a complete guessimate that I can't actually figure out when it was done , what do you think , seeing these carvings on the walls ?

How does it feel for you ?

You know , I'm part of it because this is my home .

So , you know , to me it's part of our life and our history .

Yeah , today , over 200 years after the mutineers landed on Pitcairn Island , the remaining locals have had to find a way to survive so far away from any connection to the rest of humanity .

Family dinner .

Yeah , family dinner .

You always point out on me .

This includes receiving occasional shipments of food and supplies which we saw earlier in the island's only grocery store .

But it also requires the locals to source their own food .

That's really high up .

Yeah .

Oh my God .

Look at all these bananas catching our own dinner here .

He has six fishes already .

Doctor Wow .

We got Chef Olive right here .

Look at this master chef .

This is the Hilton .

Now , cooking .

Is this the fish we caught ?

Wow .

Got a full meal .

How are we doing ?

Oh , delicious .

I'm doing deliciously doing deliciously .

Thank you .

You're welcome .

It was hard to connect that such horrible things had happened on such a paradise looking island that such a beauty and hell can somehow coexist in one place yet .

I guess such is the tale of our planet and species as a whole , right ?

We're leaving , we're going to miss you .

You miss you , miss me .

We've been blessed with the most abundant and beautiful planet .

There is yet we can't seem to find a way to coexist together peacefully as the population on Pitcairn is rapidly decreasing with young people leaving and the descendants aging , there are real concerns from the British government as to whether this island will be possible to maintain for now , the strange 200 year old history of these mutineers is still alive .

But will this isolated place remain inhabited or will our grandkids only ever hear about it through its myths and stories ?