I first saw the colour image of Pitcairn's sandy beach on the front of a book which I purchased at one of the PISG UK auctions. The book is 'self published' containing letters from Lincoln Clark to Benjamin Wall. It was published by Benjamin's daughter, the late Dixie Wall Fraser, in 1993. After Lincoln's death, Benjamin wrote to Roy Clark, but Dixie described those letters as uninteresting and decided not to publish them!

In the July 2009 edition of the UK Log, I published two maximum cards belonging to Ian Wilkinson, and also a cover from my collection, containing part of the image. In January 2010 an envelope with the image on it, owned by Martin Weidenegger, was included in our magazine. Six months later, yet another maximum card style item was shown, this time from Paul Burnett. Then, in January 2011, another two! One was from an eBay listing and another from Walter Kramarski's collection. By now I was sure that the images had been cut from a magazine by the Pitcairners, but what magazine?

In February 2011, Ron Edwards of Australia came to my rescue by sending me a maximum card from his collection, and also scans of the front and back covers of the July 15th, 1945 edition of The Watchman magazine. The front cover shows the Seventh Day Adventist mission ship Pitcairn, and apparently there is a seven page article on Pitcairn inside.

David Ransom