Researchers from Australia's Lions Eye Institute have found that the mutineers living on an isolated Pacific Island have among the lowest rates of myopia or short-sightedness on Earth, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
The mutiny which had taken place aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on April 28, 1789 was led by Fletcher Christian against commanding officer Lieutenant William Bligh.
A study of residents on Australia's Norfolk Island, 1609 kilometres northeast of Sydney, showed the rate of myopia, or short-sightedness, among Bounty descendants was about half that of the general Australian population.
The genetic differences in the tiny population could offer a breakthrough in the causes of short-sightedness, researchers said.
The mutineers settled in Tahiti but later fled, along with their Tahitian women, to remote Pitcairn Island to escape arrest.
Some 60 years after arriving on Pitcairn, almost 200 descendants of the original mutineers relocated to Norfolk Island to avoid famine.
"We found the rate of Pitcairn group myopia is approximately one-half that of the Australian population and as a result would be ranked among one of the lowest rates in the world," David Mackey, the managing director of the institute was quoted by the paper as saying.
Mackey said there may be genetic differences in the Norfolk Island population that could lead to breakthroughs in the causes of short-sightedness, but added it was also apparent that spending too little time outdoors raised the risk of myopia.
The big cities of East Asia like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mountain cities of China, myopia has become very common and we think that there are environmental factors that have changed," he said.
