Pitt Island - History

History

Pitt Island was originally inhabited by the Moriori the indigenous peoples of the Chatham Islands, who called it Rangiaotea or Rangihaute. Their archaeological remains are found almost everywhere on the island; large quantities of artifacts are constantly coming to light. No remains of momori rakau are visible on the island, but there are records of them once being present

The first Europeans to see the island were the crew of William R. Broughton's ship HMS Chatham, who spotted it in 1791. It was named for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. Fifty years later the name was simplified to "Pitt" Island.

The Taranaki Maori who invaded the Chatham Island islands called it Rangiauria, a name which is still in use today.

Over the years there have been many ships wrecked around both Pitt and Chatham Islands. The Glory, a small brigantine was wrecked in what became known as Glory Bay in 1827.

Read more about this topic:  Pitt Island

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The visual is sorely undervalued in modern scholarship. Art history has attained only a fraction of the conceptual sophistication of literary criticism.... Drunk with self-love, criticism has hugely overestimated the centrality of language to western culture. It has failed to see the electrifying sign language of images.
    Camille Paglia (b. 1947)

    Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.
    Norman Mailer (b. 1923)

    The history of work has been, in part, the history of the worker’s body. Production depended on what the body could accomplish with strength and skill. Techniques that improve output have been driven by a general desire to decrease the pain of labor as well as by employers’ intentions to escape dependency upon that knowledge which only the sentient laboring body could provide.
    Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)