Artifact from Bounty Wreckage Gifted to Nantucket Historical Association

Courtesy: Nantucket Historical Association

NANTUCKET – The Nantucket Historical Association recently received an artifact from the wreck of the Bounty.

Glynn Christian, who is a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian – the leader of the 1789 mutiny on the British Royal Navy vessel – gifted the piece of wreckage to the whaling museum.

The piece of the ships copper hull sheathing was donated the piece to the NHA during a lecture he gave at the Museum at the end of June.

“He decided to gift it to us because of the Nantucket connection to the wreck of the Bounty,” said Lindsay Scouras, the manager of communications for the Association.

The vessel was taken to the Pitcairn Island in the southern Pacific Ocean where it was burned.

A Nantucket man, Mayhew Folger, captained the sealing ship Topaz to the island in 1808 and found the last surviving crew member from the mutiny.

Folger brought back to Nantucket a Chinese export porcelain bowl owned by one of the Bounty’s officers, which was given to him by the islanders during his visit. That item is now in the NHA collection.

The Association also holds a tea caddy from the Bounty which was taken from the island in March of 1851 by a member of the Nantucket whaler Peruvian, which was captained by George B. Folger.

“Nantucket does actually have a little bit of a connection and that’s kind of an interesting piece to share to people,” Scouras said.

The new artifact is not yet on display at the Whaling Museum, but Scouras said it is only a matter of time.

“I’m sure that there are plans for it very soon to make an appearance out in the museum,” Scouras said. “I’m not sure exactly when but I can see it definitely being something that would be featured at some point in there because it is a really, really, neat artifact.”

The Association has to go through the process of cataloging it and photographing it.

“It is summer on Nantucket so we don’t tend to do a lot of changes to our museum collections at this time of year,” she said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised once things slow down a little bit if we can kind of re-evaluate and see where it might be a good place to display that so that people can enjoy it.”

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter