Pitcairn was a schooner built in 1890 for the Seventh-day Adventist Church for use in missionary work in the South Pacific. After six missionary voyages, the schooner was sold in 1900 for commercial use, and renamed Florence S. She was lost by stranding on the island of Mindoro, Philippine Islands, on 17 October 1912.
Background
The Seventh-day Adventist John Tay, a former sailor, was advised by his doctor to take a sea voyage in 1886. He paid his way by working as a carpenter. At Tahiti he found passage on , a British man-of-war. Tay reached Pitcairn Island on HMS Pelican on 18 October 1886, and stayed until the last week of November. Pitcairn was and still is inhabited by descendants of the mutineers on . The islanders were already familiar with Adventist concepts, as they had received a box of Adventist tracts about ten years earlier. In five weeks Tay converted the whole population to Adventism. He was unable to perform baptisms since he was not ordained, but promised to return with a minister.
The Adventists had devoted relatively little effort to foreign missions up to the time of Tay's voyage, despite the urging of Ellen G. White. The news of Tay's success galvanized the church. A resolution was passed at the California Adventist conference in October 1887 to buy a ship for use in missionary work in the Pacific islands. At the General Conference in Oakland that started on 13 November 1887 a committee was established to consider a resolution to use up to $20,000 to buy or build a ship, to be ready early in 1888. The committee recommended postponing the project so funds could be raised and the requirements studied.
In April 1888 the committee decided to dispatch Elder Andrew J. Cudney with Tay to Pitcairn and other islands to determine what type of vessel would be needed. Cudney left for Honolulu on 20 May 1888 on Sonomo. When he arrived he arranged to outfit a schooner at a cost of about $900 to the Conference, with the option for the Conference to buy the ship for $1,100 after a trial voyage. Cudney left Honolulu for Tahiti on Phoebe Chapman on 31 July 1888. There he was to join Tay, who had left Oakland for Tahiti on 5 July 1888. The plan was for Cudney and Tay to continue to Pitcairn Island, where Cudney could perform the promised baptisms.
Tay reached Tahiti early in August 1888 and waited there for Cudney. After three months he met a man who had seen Phoebe Chapman in Honolulu, and who described how the schooner had been altered and loaded. Tay did not consider the changes and ballast arrangement to be safe, and wrote a letter saying he did not want to sail in the schooner. After six months he gave up waiting for Phoebe Chapman, and on 14 January 1889 sailed on Tahiti for San Francisco. Cudney had vanished without trace.
Construction
The General Conference of October 1889 resolved to immediately buy or built a suitable vessel for missionary work in the Pacific Islands, to be ready by the end of 1890, with at least $20,000 raised by donations to fund the project. The sum was later changed to be no more than $12,000. It was agreed to devote the world-wide Sabbath School contributions for the first six months to the cost of the ship. On 22 April 1890 Charles H. Jones and John Tay signed a detailed contract with Captain Matthew Turner, who had a shipyard at Benicia, California, to deliver a schooner complete in "hull, spars, and iron work" by 31 July 1890 at a cost of $7,400, to be paid in installments as the work progressed. Turner agreed to donate $500 of his own money, so the cost was lowered to $6,900. The cost of the schooner when fully rigged was under $12,000, although the final cost of the fully furnished vessel was $18,683.05. Donations of almost $16,000 almost covered the cost, and various publishing houses donated books worth thousands of dollars.
Pitcairn, as the schooner was named, had two masts, both about tall. The ship was about long and wide, with a depth of . It had a net register tonnage of 115 tons. There were almost of sails, made in Chicago. Pitcairn was initially rigged as a topsail schooner. The hull was sheathed in copper to protect it from worms, and held fifty tons of slag as ballast. The forecastle had eight berths for a crew of up to twelve seamen. Beside this was the galley, and then the cabin, which held a bookcase and an organ besides the furniture. Six staterooms were provided for up to eighteen passengers. There were two toilet rooms and one bath room. There were two large water tanks in the aft of the vessel, which was otherwise left empty for cargo.