Teehuteatuaonoa aka ‘Jenny’, the most traveled woman on the Bounty: Chronicling female agency and island movements with Google Earth

Abstract

Teehuteatuaonoa (or ‘Jenny’ by her English nickname) was one of 12 Polynesian women reaching Pitcairn Island with the HMS Bounty mutineers in 1790. She was the most traveled of these women and the first to return to Tahiti after 29 years away. Her journey is chronicled with Google Earth using a screenshot and caption for each waypoint. The journey included 15 links totaling 24,090 km or 60% of the Earth’s circumference. Her longest link was 7,400 km aboard the Sultan, an American ship from Boston, which brought her from Coquimbo, Chile, to The Marquesas. Jenny’s life provides an excellent example of female agency during a period controlled and reported on by men. Her life epitomized Nicholas Thomas’ understanding that islander-empire contact during the 18th and 19th Centuries involved both survival and suffering, invention and exploitation.