22 June 1994 20c, 90c, $1.80,
$3.00
Mint and CTO $5.90
FDC
$6.40
Release Date:
22 June 1994
Tablet Values:
20c, 90c, $1.80, $3.00
Artist:
Clive Abbott
Printer:
Walsall Security Printers Ltd
Process:
Lithography
Paper:
CA Watermark
Stamp Size:
30.56 x 38.00 mm
Perforation Gauge:
14.2 per 20 mm
Pane Format:
50 (2 x 25)
Mint and CTO:
$5.90
First Day Cover:
$6.40
The first locally recorded shipwreck was that of the Wildwave when she was outward bound from San Francisco and struck the reef of Oeno Island in March 1858. Leaving thirty men on Oeno the captain and six others sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn which they found to be uninhabited, the population having been removed to Norfolk Island two years earlier. With their small boat destroyed by surf shortly after landing they built a cutter under very difficult conditions using timber and nails from the vacant houses. The captain and four men then sailed to Nukuhiva in the Marquesas where they met the American sloop "Vandalia" which took them to Tahiti. The "Vandalia" immediately went to the rescue of the thirty men marooned on Oeno and those left on Pitcairn. We are told that in San Francisco Maritime Museum there is a display featuring a picture of the 30' cutter built on Pitcairn, the Captain's pistol and the flag sewn on Pitcairn (the trappings of the old pulpit in the church supplied the red and a bit of blue calico taken from an old bedstead served for the background on which were arranged the white stars of the American flag).
In January 1875 the sailing vessel Cornwallis, homeward bound to Liverpool from San Francisco, visited Pitcairn. The Captain, deciding to go ashore, took with him his apprentices and left the ship in charge of the first officer. A short time after they landed, the ship was seen to be drifting towards shore, coming in swiftly and surely to destruction. The poor captain half frantic, rushed to the landing place to launch his boat and put off to the ship which every moment was drifting nearer the rocks. No amount of effort could save her and she soon struck some submerged rocks a few feet from the shore. In a short time all the crew were safely landed. Darkness was falling and with the rising wind it was deemed unsafe to return to the vessel. Overnight the ship was lashed by gales and heavy seas, and ultimately little was saved but the ship's gig and lifeboat. The next day the American ship "Dauntless" arrived and learning what had taken place, the Captain gave the crew of the "Cornwallis" passage to New York.
There were no further recorded shipwrecks until 23 August 1883 when
the islanders were startled from their sleep by the blowing of a fog horn
and the sound of shouts from over the water. Hastily launching a
boat, the Pitcairners found a boat belonging to the barque Oregon
bound from Oregon to Chile which had struck the reefs of Oeno. Captain
Hardy, having landed all his Chilean crew and three passengers on Oeno,
decided to take three crew members with him and try to find a passage through
the heavy surf that surrounded the lagoon. Unfortunately, as the
boat passed from the smooth waters of the lagoon into the surf, it capsized
and the captain was drowned. The rest of the party, following soon
afterwards in another boat passed safely through the rolling surf and rescued
the two survivors. Upon reaching Pitcairn the crew and passengers
were treated to the customary hospitality before being taken from the island
before being taken from the island by the "Leicester Castle".