Tinafanaea

Consort of Tetahiti and Oha

She was also known as:

• NANAI - The name she was given in Nordhoff & Hall's "Mutiny on the Bounty" novel.
• TINAFORNEA - The way her name would have been pronounced by the mutineers.

She may have been from Tubuai and it is likely she came along voluntarily when the Bounty sailed from Tahiti for the last time. On Pitcairn, she was shared as a consort by the two Tubuaians, Titahiti and Oha. Some sources claim she was Titahiti's wife, but that he shared her with Oha.

When Adams' consort, Obuarei, died towards the end of the first year on Pitcairn, Tinafanaea was "given" to Adams. Earlier, Tararo's consort, Toofaiti, had been "given" to Williams. This was more than the Tubuaian men and Tararo could tolerate, and the two outrages combined to set off the bloodshed that eventually wiped out almost all the men on the island.

Tinafanaea seems to have stayed in Adams' household even when he, after Mills was killed on Massacre Day, took Vahineatua as his consort. Tinafanaea died sometime between the visit of the Topaz (1808) and the Briton and the Tagus (1814). She left no descendants.

From: WAHLROOS, Sven. "Mutiny and Romance in the South Seas". Topsfield (MA), Salem House, c1989. p415-6.