Overseas Territories
Fourteen territories remain under British sovereignty, the British Overseas Territories, which spread throughout the globe, ranging from the island of Pitcairn in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with its less than 50 inhabitants (even though worldwide known because of the “Mutiny of the Bounty”), to Cayman Islands, one of the world's major offshore financial centres.
The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty in 1789, led by Fletcher Christian against the commanding officer, William Bligh. According to most accounts, the sailors were attracted to the idyllic life on the Pacific islands and so some of them decided to set Lieutenant Bligh and the members of the crew who were loyal to him in a small boat, while the rest settled on Pitcairn Island. Descendants of the mutineers with Tahitians women still live on Pitcairn Island. As for Bligh and his crew, they made an epic journey in the small boat to Timor (Dutch East Indies), from where he returned to England and reported the mutiny. The episode has been commemorated by several writers (Lord Byron, Mark Twain, Jules Verne), films (among them, “The Bounty”, starring Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian). and popular songs (the English punk rock band The Mekons included a song titled "Sometimes I Feel Like Fletcher Christian")
The current Overseas Territories are: 1. Gibraltar, in the Iberian Peninsula and currently claimed by Spain; 2. the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus Island, in the Mediterranean Sea; 3. the British Indian Ocean Territory, claimed by both Republics of Mauritius and Seychelles, 4, the Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific Ocean; in the Caribbean and North Atlantic Ocean: 5. Anguilla, 6. Bermuda, 7. British Virgin Islands, 8. Cayman Islands, 9. Montserrat, 10. Turks and Caicos Islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean: 11. Falkland Islands and 12. South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (both claimed by Argentina), 13. Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, and 14. British Antarctic Territory (regarding which there are also overlapping claims made by Chile and Argentina)
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the main settlement of the island of Tristan da Cunha. It is regarded as the most remote permanent settlement in the world, being over 1,500 miles (2400 kilometres) from the nearest human settlement.
