Their Biggest

Pitcairners To Tackle Their Biggest Construction Job

The biggest construction programme ever at tempted on Pitcairn Island at one time since the Bounty mutineers settled there 173 years ago will begin in January when the Bounty Bay landing and an area known as The Square will be transformed.

FN The Square, the present separate L buildings housing the post office nd dispensary will be replaced by a ngle building, which, besides providig space for the postal and medical epartments, will include a room for se as a library and museum. The ew building will be 40 ft. long by 4 ft. wide, and will have a verandah ft. wide along the front.

Rooms for the dispensary and post ffice will each measure 24 ft. by 4 ft. The library, which will be stween these rooms, will be 24 ft. y 12 ft.

The new building will be made of mber and will have a concrete aor and an iron roof.

A new skidway and boat shed will ; built at The Landing at Bounty ay. The skidway will be 143 ft. mg, and over 75 ft. of this the new 3at shed will be erected.

The shed will house the three 3ats now in use. It will be an opended building, 20 ft. wide, with a ible roof of corrugated iron.

The present winch, which is used

for hauling up the boats, will be re placed. It has been worn out for years, and only the ingenuity of the local engineers has kept it in work ing order.

The new winch will not only haul up the boats, but, by the use of a warping block, will also haul them down. When it is in use, the familiar cry at The Landing—“one, two, three, haul!”—will be a thing of the past, The flying fox, which, like the winch, has seen better days, will also be pensioned off as a new engine and overhead gear are to be installed.

The islanders will also work on extensions for their radio station and a new launch.

The construction programme will be under the supervision of Mr. F.

E. D. Bradnam, of Fiji, who visited Pitcairn last year to supervise the first stage of what the islanders call the Bounty Bay Development Scheme.

However, because of ill-health, Mr.

Bradnam had to leave before the job was completed. (P/M, Oct., 1961, p. 47.)

This unusual photograph of a whale boat entering Pitcairn's Bounty Bay was taken by a BP official, when the 15,000-ton tanker "British Curlew" stopped at Pitcairn en route to New Zealand to deliver some 1,600 gallons of kerosine, light diesel oil, petrol and lubricating oil from BP's Kent refinery. After waiting 24 hours for a heavy swell to subside, the oil—in 10 and 12½ gallon drums—was landed into Pit cairn's whale boats and ferried ashore.

Below is Pitcairn's post office, which is soon to be replaced. The picture was taken soon after it was opened in 1941.