The Pitcairn island archipelago is a tiny spit in the middle of the Pacific. Its only inhabitable island, also called Pitcairn, is a 1.75 mile volcanic rock outcropping. But Pitcairn’s small size hides a legacy is much larger — its inhabitants going back to the time it was settled by a handful of survivors of the mutiny on the British merchant ship HMS Bounty. A combination of the the Bounty’s tyrannical captain William Bligh, and a taste of paradise on the islands of Tahiti led a revolt by the crew who wanted to return.

On this day, April 28. Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate on the HMS Bounty, led a revolt by the crew of this ship against Captain Bligh and his supporters. Bligh and his supporters were given a small life raft, a supply of provision, and set adrift near the island of Tonga, in the middle of the Pacific. Christian and the 25 other petty officers steamed back to Tahiti.

Against all odds, Bligh led his crew back to safety in the East Indies, and eventually went on to command more trade ships. Christian and most of his crew, meanwhile, knowing the British would come looking for them on Tahiti, moved to Pitcairn island, uncharted around that time, where their biggest danger was each other. By the time an American ship happened upon the island, eighteen years later, only one member of the crew, John Adams, was still alive.