A vessel (built as a schooner, refitted as a brigantine) used by Seventh-day Adventists for transporting missionaries across the Pacific Ocean from 1890 to 1900. This ship is probably the best known of Seventh-day Adventist missionary vessels. M. C. Wilcox, who was present at the Pitcairn’s dedication, described the schooner as follows: “The length of the ship is 100 feet [30 meters], breadth of beam 27 feet [eight meters], depth of hold 10 feet [three meters]; and it is of about 120 tons [110 metric tons] burden. It is made of the very best timber, and the workmanship is of the best character. The ship has two masts, foremast and mainmast, each 79 feet [25 meters] long. She is capable of spreading to the breeze 1,576 square yards [1,300 square meters] of canvass”( Review and Herald 67:636, Oct. 14, 1890).
The decision to build a missionary ship was made at the General Conference session of October 1889, and construction began soon after. The ship was paid for by Sabbath school offerings. The vessel was to have been named Glad Tidings, but on further consideration the Foreign Mission Board settled on the name Pitcairn.
The ship, completed in the fall of 1890, cost $11,746.33, and furnishings an additional $2,125.30; various expenses amounted to $4,811.42, and stocks of books for missionary purpose cost $3,415.30. This made a grand total expenditure of $22,098.35 by the time the ship sailed on her first voyage.
Dedication services for the Pitcairn were held Sept. 25, 1890, during the California camp meeting, and were attended by about 1,500 persons.
The schooner set sail from Oakland, Oct. 20, 1890, with the following crew: captain, J. M. Marsh; first mate, J. Christiansen; carpenter, J. I. Tay; sailors, G. A. Anderson, Peter Hansen, C. Kahlstrom; cook, Charles Turner; and cabin attendant, Nicholas Garthofner. The missionary work was under the supervision of E. H. Gates, who was accompanied by his wife. Other missionaries were A. J. Read and his wife, and J. I. Tay and his wife.
The ship sailed directly to Pitcairn Island, arriving there Nov. 25, 1890. During the next 10 years the Pitcairn made six missionary voyages with various crews and missionaries, who established missions in many of the islands of the South Pacific between 1890 and 1899. Because maintenance of the missionary ship was expensive, the Pitcairn was sold in 1900, by which time steamship connections with the islands had improved. See also Missionary Vessels .