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A Presentation by world renown Tom Christian VP6TC visiting from Pitcairn Island

Saturday, July 27

For an event that was planned with only a few days notice, attendance was great with thanks to Roy Adam N6FUN, SFARC president.

Roy got things underway with his first introduction

Tom Christian's close friend Howe Phelps, WA6TUJ from Sacramento introduces our special guest

Tom Christian, VP6TC

Tom has been very busy making presentations since he flew out of Auckland New Zealand on June 1st. Prior to visiting us he appeared at the Sacramento radio club, a Dallas Lone Star DX Association meeting in Texas, and flew to London to attend a big festival on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea northwest of the U.K.

Here is a brief history. HMS Bounty sailed from Spithead, England on December 23, 1787 with Captain William Bligh and a crew of 45 men bound for Tahiti.  Their mission was to collect breadfruit plants to be transplanted in the West Indies as cheap food for the slaves.  After collecting those plants, Bounty was underway toward home, when, on the morning of April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian and part of the crew mutinied, took over the ship, and set the Captain and 18 members of the crew adrift in the ship’s 23-foot launch. The Captain sailed the launch and 17 of the crew 3618 miles back to civilization. The mutineers took HMS Bounty back to Tahiti, and, with 6 Polynesian men and 12 women, took the ship to the isolated site at Pitcairn Island. After burning the ship and a violent beginning, they established a settlement and colony on Pitcairn Island. Six movies, one play, and over 2,000 books and articles have been written about this event. Tom is the one of many descendents of Fletcher Christian.

 This paragraph provided through the courtesy of the Lareau Web Parlour. 

After Tom's presentation, t-shirts, caps, postcards, as well as other souvenirs went on sale. Attendees were waiting in line to buy.

While brisk sales were going on at one end of the auditorium, Tom was autographing  VP6TC and some VR6TC QSL cards (below) that amateurs brought with them from home. The Island had to give up the VR prefix when the People's Republic of China took over Hong Kong in 1997.

When t-shirts are purchased, they have to be autographed.

Our own Chris Palm, WY6Z is thrilled to have his t-shirt autographed by Tom

Even Dave, WA6UHA gets in the act