Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Bounty cannon returned to Pitcairn

Posted at 06:55 on 23 April, 2009 UTC

A cannon recovered from the watery grave of the HMS Bounty has been returned to Pitcairn Island .

The cannon had been lying on the seabed at Bounty Bay until it was recovered 10 years ago by a team from the Museum of Tropical Queensland .

The cannon had to be preserved in salt water and restored under the supervision of marine archaeologist, Nigel Erskine from the Brisbane-based museum.

After a campaign by the curator of Pitcairn’s museum, Lea Brown, the cannon has been returned and will now be displayed on the island.

The HMS Bounty was scuttled and burnt in 1790 and the survivors and families of the mutineers were not discovered until 1808 .