| [00:00.37] |
Specks of land were just as vital to our shipwrecked survivors. |
| [00:05.29] |
Not that they were easy to find. |
| [00:08.19] |
Only 1% of the Pacific is land. |
| [00:10.94] |
On 20th December, |
| [00:13.31] |
the sailors arrived on the Pitcairn Islands, |
| [00:16.60] |
over 2,000 miles from where they were first shipwrecked. |
| [00:19.93] |
Described by them as "a paradise before our very eyes", |
| [00:24.31] |
the starving sailors quickly set to work on the island's wildlife. |
| [00:28.83] |
But the good times were not to last. |
| [00:31.37] |
Within a week, they had eaten all its seabirds. |
| [00:35.67] |
Leaving three of their group behind on this now impoverished island, |
| [00:40.20] |
the others chose to take their chances back at sea. |
| [00:43.76] |
They could have ridden the prevailing winds to the nearby Society Islands, |
| [00:48.34] |
but they were terrified of cannibals. |
| [00:50.42] |
Instead, they struck out east, |
| [00:52.71] |
to the distant shores of South America, |
| [00:54.75] |
two and a half thousand miles away, |
| [00:57.02] |
and back into the dreaded Desolate Region. |
| [01:01.04] |
|