Around the World in 60 Cocktails: Mutiny

In 1790, the isolated and uninhabited Pitcairn Island became refuge – and then home – to the surviving mutineers of the HMS Bounty.  The tale of the famous uprising became common knowledge after Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall wrote a novel in 1932 inspired by the events.

The story follows the real-life happenings of the fateful trip that had occurred some 150 years previously. Half the ship’s crew, seduced by several months of the good life on Tahiti, rose up against Captain William Bligh in a bid to regain their independence. The revolution famously took place in Tahiti, although this was not where lead mutineer Fletcher Christian and his band settled.

That honour was saved for Pitcairn Island, some 1,000 miles east of Tahiti. However, fearing capture from the English judicial system, Christian and eight others, together with six Tahitian men, a dozen Tahitian women, and a child, decided to search the South Pacific for a safe haven. In January 1790, the Bounty settled on Pitcairn Island, an isolated and uninhabited volcanic island more than 1,000 miles east of Tahiti. 

With its sloped and varied landscape, lush tropical promise and equidistant location between Peru and New Zealand, Pitcairn would have seemed an ideal hiding spot for the mutineers to settle. The ship was burnt to avoid detection (the ballast stone remains of the wreck in Bounty Bay). Some of the mutineers’ descendants still live on Pitcairn Island.

Our very own mutiny uses Pusser’s Navy Rum. This powerful spirit is rich with notes of treacle, toffee and vanilla. Its name is taken from the naval tradition of giving sailors a daily ration – or tot – of rum, distributed by the purser or pusser.

Thankfully, on a Silversea all-inclusive cruise you’ll get more than your daily tot of rum! Enjoy this twist on the classic Daiquiri while you dream of tropical islands heaving with promise …