"The Robinson Cove": in the wake of Captain Cook and of the Bounty

If you are a movie fan, passionate of history or a fan of sail ships, you certainly will love to stay in Opunohu Bay, in the island of Moorea.

Captain Cook

This is exactly where Captain Cook dropped his anchor the first time on September 30, 1777 during his third trip in the Pacific. During his first two trips, he stayed in Tahiti and never visited Moorea. It appears today that it is Opunohu Bay which should have been named after him and not the Paopao Bay, known today as Cook's Bay. It is indeed in this famous sheltered Cove in the heart of Opunohu that the two ships of Cook anchored.

The engravings of John Cleveley the younger An engraving, kept at the London National Maritime Museum, was done to show exactly this mooring with Cook's two ships, "HMS Resolution and the Discovery in Moorea" in Opunohu Bay in Robinson's Cove (see the photo gallery up on the page.) See portions of Cook's Travel Log, on September 30 1777 when he arrived in Moorea.

Mutiny on the Bounty

It is still in that same cove where about twelve years later the Bounty made a stop in Moorea to gather the breadfruit trees to bring them to Jamaica. This expedition ended up some time later with the most famous mutiny in history and the rivalry between Fletcher Christian and Captain Bligh, who was forced to leave the ship with some of the crew in a long boat and succeeded in crossing the Pacific Ocean. As to the Mutineers, they ended up seeking refuge in the island of Pitcairn, where they burned down their ship so they wouldn't be found. The most famous movie about this episode featured Marlon Brando, but the most faithful to history was certainly the 1984 "The Bounty" with Mel Gibson. The sequence of the ship's arrival surrounded by all the canoes and the crowd of vahines and armed warriors was precisely shot in Opunohu Bay.

What is most remarkable, is that since the arrival of Cook and the Bounty in this cove 230 years ago, nothing has changed.