147-495: William Henry "Bully" Hayes (1827 or 1829 – 31 March 1877) was a notorious American ship's captain who engaged in blackbirding in the 1860s and 1870s. Hayes operated across the breadth of the Pacific Ocean from the 1850s until his murder on 31 March 1877. He has been described as a South Sea pirate and " the last of the buccaneers ". However, in their account of his life, James A. Michener and A. Grove Day warn that it
294-623: A High Court verdict in their favour on 1 February 2007. The court refused a claim by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to force the islanders to vacate the land on which they had been living for seventy years. In 1863, British capitalist William Stewart set up the Tahiti Cotton and Coffee Plantation Company at Atimaono on the south-west coast of Tahiti . Initially Stewart used imported Chinese coolie labour but soon shifted to blackbirded Polynesian labour to work
441-712: A ketch , the E.A. Williams from Apia , Samoa to Mili Atoll to deliver it to Hayes. Becke then joined the Leonora , as a passenger until it was wrecked on 15 March 1874 during a storm while in Utwe harbour at Kosrae . at what is now the Utwe-Walong Marine Park on Kosrae , After the wreck Hayes brawled with the European traders on Kosrae and with his crew, with the islanders being subject to seven months of oppression and violence. Becke chose to stay with
588-720: A pirate or privateer , acts of fraud having been his preferred means of gaining command of a ship; however, if the suspicion that he disposed of Ben Pease to gain command of the Pioneer is true then he may well have been a murderer. Much of his legend is due to the writing of Louis Becke, who used his time with Hayes in his Pacific stories: In some he tells stories of Hayes that are based on first-hand experience, but there may be some fictional elements. Joan Druett, The Notorious Captain Hayes Sydney: HarperCollins, 2016' Blackbirding Blackbirding
735-494: A "half-naked and wholly starved" condition and on arrival at the plantation they were treated as slaves. Captain Blackett of the vessel Moaroa , was also chartered by Stewart to acquire labourers. In 1869, Blackett bought 150 Gilbert Islanders from another blackbirding ship for £5 per head. On transferring them to Moaroa , the islanders, including another 150 already imprisoned on the vessel, rebelled killing Blackett and some of
882-494: A Queensland Slaver. By a Medical Student" was written in a tone of wonder, expressing "only the mildest criticism"; six months later, Morrison "revised his original assessment", describing details of Lavinia 's blackbirding operation, and sharply denouncing the slave trade in Queensland. His articles, letters to the editor, and The Age editorials, led to expanded government intervention. The usual recruiting grounds of
1029-641: A burgeoning new slave trade. These fears were realised when French officials in New Caledonia complained that Crossley had stolen half the inhabitants of a village in Lifou , and in 1868 a scandal evolved when Captain McEachern of Syren anchored in Brisbane with 24 dead islander recruits and reports that the remaining ninety on board were taken by force and deception. Despite the controversy, no action
1176-480: A considerable number were in a dead or dying condition. As the blackbirding activities increased and the detrimental results became more understood, resistance by the Islanders to this recruitment system grew. Labour vessels were regularly repelled from landing at many islands by local people. Recruiter, Henry Ross Lewin, was killed at Tanna Island , the crew of May Queen were killed at Pentecost Island , while
1323-674: A few islanders between fourteen and sixteen years of age, but that they, like all the others who accompanied them, had engaged without any pressure and were perfectly happy and contented". It was alleged by missionaries in the New Hebrides that one crew member of Spunkie murdered two recruits by shooting them, but the immigration agent Charles James Nichols who was on board the vessel denied this occurred. Charges of kidnap were made against Captain John Coath of Jason . Only Captain Coath
1470-515: A figure which does not include those who died in transit or who were killed in the recruitment process. This represents a mortality rate of at least 30%, which is high considering most were only on three year contracts. It is also similar to the estimated 33% death rate of enslaved Africans in the first three years of being taken to America. In 1863, Robert Towns , a British sandalwood and whaling merchant residing in Sydney , wanted to profit from
1617-531: A government agent to observe the recruitment process, was poor in protections and even more poorly enforced. Government agents were often corrupted by bonuses paid for labourers 'recruited,' or blinded by alcohol, and did little or nothing to prevent sea-captains from tricking islanders on-board or otherwise engaging in kidnapping with violence. The Act also stipulated that the Kanakas were to be contracted for no more than 3 years and be paid £18 for their work. This
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#17327809027671764-514: A group of South Sea Islanders murdered Mr Gibbie and Mr Bell, owners of Conway station . One, possibly two of the labourers were shot by Gibbie, while the others were captured by Native Police , one dying while in their custody. When the owners of the properties went bankrupt, the Islanders would often either be abandoned or sold as part of the estate to a new owner. In the Torres Strait, Kanakas were left at isolated pearl fisheries such as
1911-578: A massive public petition signed by 28,000 Queenslanders. This case sparked a Royal Commission into the recruitment of Islanders from which the Premier of Queensland concluded that it was no better than the African slave trade, and in 1885 the vessel S.S. Victoria was commissioned by the Government of Queensland to return 450 New Guinea Islanders to their homelands. Just like the global slave trade,
2058-580: A mission to Ambae Island , killing a chief suspected of murdering blackbirders, while HMS Diamond went on a "savage-hunting expedition" throughout the Solomon Islands which resulted in no casualties on either side. At Ambrym , the marines of HMS Dart under Commander Moore, raided and burned down a village in retaliation for the killing of Captain Belbin of the blackbirding ship Borough Belle . Likewise, HMS Undine patrolled
2205-500: A number of employers and contractors were fined, the inquiry found that much more regulation was needed. Despite this report, the government expanded the programme in 2018 with the Pacific Labour Scheme which includes three-year contracts. Strong parallels have been drawn with the working conditions observed under this programme to those of blackbirded Pacific Islander labourers in the 19th Century. The introduction of
2352-526: A number of young women from Maiana but was interrupted by the presence of another ship. Stormbird made around another five recruiting voyages involving further violence and kidnapping, mostly sailing to the Gilbert Islands . On one occasion, the government agent aboard the vessel, Henry Freeman, bought a boatload of Gilbert Islanders from another blackbirding vessel named the Sea Waif . By 1880
2499-613: A profitable quota of human cargo. Other ships involved were Kaluna , Elsinore , Hawaii , Nickolaus , Mana and Allie Rowe . Allie Rowe undertook the last recruiting voyage to the Pacific Islands for the Hawaiian plantations in 1887. This vessel, commanded by Captain Phillips, proceeded illegally without a license and Phillips was also later charged and convicted of kidnap in relation to this final voyage. From 1868 until
2646-581: A recruiting voyage under the command of Captain Greuber. The Queensland labour trade in South Sea Islanders , or Kanakas as they were commonly termed, was in operation from 1863 to 1908, a period of 45 years. Some 55,000 to 62,500 were brought to Australia, most being recruited or blackbirded from islands in Melanesia , such as the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu ), the Solomon Islands and
2793-587: A religious service, Murray and his men would produce guns and force the islanders onto boats. During the voyage Murray and his crew shot about 60 islanders. He was never brought to trial for his actions, as he was given immunity in return for giving evidence against his crew members. The captain of Carl , Joseph Armstrong, along with the mate Charles Dowden were sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment. Some Islanders brought to Fiji against their will demonstrated desperate actions to escape from their situation. Some groups managed to overpower
2940-622: A riot at the Mackay racetrack , several South Sea Islanders were beaten to death by mounted white men wielding stirrup irons. Only one man, George Goyner, was convicted and received a minor punishment of two months imprisonment. In 1884, in one specific case, a significant judicial punishment was imposed on the blackbirders. This was in regards to the crew of Hopeful vessel which was owned by Burns Philp . Captain Lewis Shaw and four crew were charged and convicted of kidnapping people from
3087-579: A small amount of Melanesian labour imported for the beche-de-mer trade around Bowen , Robert Towns was the primary exploiter of blackbirded labour up until 1867, when Captain Whish, formerly an officer in H.M. Light Dragoons and subsequently the owner of a plantation near Brisbane was a leading exploiter of Melanesian labour. Captain Louis Hope applied Melanesian labour to his twenty acres of sugar cane at Ormiston, Queensland , and later on his farm near
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#17327809027673234-399: A vessel owned by the sugar magnate Robert Cran, was another ship regularly involved in blackbirding investigations and conflict with Islanders. In 1890, it was involved in the shooting of people at Ambae Island , and evidence of kidnapping by the crew was later published. In 1893, conflict with Islanders at Espiritu Santo resulted in the death of a crew member of Roderick Dhu . In 1901,
3381-420: Is almost impossible to separate fact from legend regarding Hayes; they described him as "a cheap swindler, a bully, a minor confidence man, a thief, a ready bigamist" and commented that there is no evidence that he ever took a ship by force in the tradition of a pirate or privateer . Hayes was a large man who used intimidation against his crew, although he could reportedly be very charming if he chose to be. He
3528-574: Is indirectly named for him; originally called Hay's Lake after an early settler, the spelling changed over the years as locals came to associate the name with that of Bully Hayes. Hayes had a falling out with the Buckingham family who offered any barber £5 to cut his hair off short. Eventually this happened and it was revealed, as rumoured, that Hayes had been deprived of an ear in California where he had been caught cheating at cards. After this he
3675-501: Is the coercion and/or deception of people or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The practice took place on a large scale with the taking of people indigenous to the numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean during the 19th and 20th centuries. These blackbirded people were called Kanakas or South Sea Islanders . They were taken from places such as Papua New Guinea ,
3822-543: The Bismarck Archipelago , while the recruiter Neil McNeil and the boatswain were charged and convicted of murdering a number of Islanders. The kidnappers received jail terms of 7 to 10 years, while McNeil and the boatswain were sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. Despite evidence showing that at least 38 Islanders had been killed by Hopeful 's crew, all the prisoners (except for one who died in jail) were released in 1890 in response to
3969-612: The Burns Philp company on the ship Lizzie , freely acknowledged in his memoirs that he took boatloads of young boys with no information given about contracts, pay or the nature of the work. Up to 530 boys were recruited per month from these islands, most of whom were transported to the new large company plantations in Far North Queensland , such as the Victoria Plantation owned by CSR . This phase of
4116-535: The Coomera River . By 1868, the extent of the cultivation of sugar cane exceeded that of cotton; which increased the demand for labour. Licences for recruiting ship were issued by Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, as well as Fiji. The high demand for very cheap labour in the sugar and pastoral industries of Queensland , resulted in Towns' main labour recruiter, Henry Ross Lewin, and another recruiter by
4263-657: The Ellenita in a storm, and others to creditors, he always found new ships to command and new cargoes to fraudulently acquire and sell. Between maritime adventures Hayes became a member of a blackface minstrel troupe in New South Wales , Australia. Hayes was a notable early figure in the history of the Otago region of New Zealand. After facing bankruptcy in Australia in the late 1850s, he sailed to Otago in 1862 (at
4410-624: The Gilbert Islands where they faced further destitution in a land they had been absent from for twenty years. Blackbirding and recruitment of South Sea Islanders as labourers to the French colony of New Caledonia began in 1865 and lasted until the 1930s. Around 15,000 people were transported during this period, the vast majority coming from the New Hebrides . In 1865, the French colonial government contracted sandalwood merchant Andrew Henry to bring 33 people from Erromango . Henry had previously been involved in sending labourers to Queensland for
4557-582: The Line Islands were recruited to work on the Hawaiian plantations owned by European colonists. Most of these people died and the operation was considered a failure. However, in 1877 British officials in Hawaii planned a more organised system of Pacific Islander recruitment. Captain H.W. Mist of the Royal Navy was employed to arrange a large shipment of Islanders to be recruited for Hawaii. Mist bought
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4704-450: The Lotus sailed to Kosrae , the island on which Leonora was wrecked, where Hayes intended to collect coconuts left at the time of the wreck. The commonly accepted version of the death of Hayes provided by Charles Elson, the mate of the Lotus , was that when leaving Kosrae on 31 March 1877, the ship's cook Peter Radeck, "Dutch Pete", responding to threats from Hayes, killed him. While
4851-581: The Modern Slavery Act 2018 into Australian law was partly based upon concerns of slavery being evident in the Queensland agricultural sector. Some commentators have also drawn parallels between blackbirding and the early 21st-century recruitment of labour under the (unconnected) 457 visa scheme. The early days of the pearling industry in Western Australia at Nickol Bay and Broome , saw Aboriginal Australians blackbirded from
4998-768: The New Caledonian nickel mines, and who was well known in the 1870s to 1890s, in Noumea, and Samoa . He was master of the Ika Vula and the Ernestine . He was also known as "Captain One Leg", and would put fear into people by firing his pistol into his wooden leg. He boasted of murdering 15 people, and was notorious for shooting the husband of New Hebridean woman who Proctor was sexually abusing. After an incident on Futuna in 1876 when he assaulted 2 missionaries, he
5145-465: The New Hebrides and Solomon Islands became too dangerous and too expensive to obtain labour from. However, the well-populated islands around New Guinea were soon targeted for recruiting as these people were less aware of the blackbirding system and had less access to firearms. A new rush for labour from these islands began, with James Burns and Robert Philp of Burns Philp & Co. purchasing several well-known blackbirding ships to quickly exploit
5292-750: The Nggela Islands and Lieutenant Luckcraft of HMS Cormorant being shot dead at Espiritu Santo . Numerous punitive expeditions were carried out by Royal Navy warships based at the Australia Station . HMS Emerald under Captain William Maxwell went on an extensive punitive expedition , shelling and destroying about 33 villages, while marines of HMS Cormorant executed various Islanders suspected of killing white men. Captain Dawson of HMS Miranda led
5439-507: The Queensland and Fiji markets. Captains of such ships would get paid about 5 shillings per recruit in "head money" incentives, while the owners of the ships would sell the Kanakas from anywhere between £4 and £20 per head. The Kanakas who were transported on Bobtail Nag had metal discs imprinted with a letter of the alphabet hung around their neck making for easy identification. Maryborough and Brisbane became important centres for
5586-535: The Royal Navy based at the Australia Station in Sydney , was sent to suppress the blackbirding trade. HMS Rosario , under Captain George Palmer, managed to intercept a blackbirding ship loaded with Islanders at Fiji . Daphne under command of Captain Daggett and licensed in Queensland to Henry Ross Lewin , was described by Palmer as being fitted out "like an African slaver". Even though there
5733-649: The Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , Niue , Easter Island , the Gilbert Islands , Tuvalu and the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago amongst others. The owners, captains, and crews of the ships involved in the acquisition of these labourers were termed blackbirders . The demand for this kind of cheap labour principally came from European colonists in New South Wales , Queensland , Samoa , New Caledonia , Fiji , Tahiti , Hawaii , and New Zealand , as well as plantations in Peru , Mexico , and Guatemala . Labouring on sugar cane , cotton, and coffee plantations in these lands
5880-780: The Western Pacific High Commission in 1877, which was based in Fiji, further legitimised the trade by imposing British authority upon most people living in Melanesia. Violence and kidnapping persisted with Captain Haddock of Marion Renny shooting people at Makira and burning their villages. Captain John Daly of Heather Belle was convicted of kidnapping and jailed but was soon allowed to leave Fiji and return to Sydney . Many deaths continued to occur upon
6027-809: The brig Rona and operated in the Pacific with bases in Apia , Samoa , and in Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands . Hayes became notorious in the Pacific because of his "recruiting" of Pacific islanders to provide labour for the plantations of Tahiti , Fiji , Samoa and Australia. While there was some voluntary recruitment of Pacific islanders, the activity predominantly involved kidnapping, coercion and tricks to entice islanders onto ships, on which they were held prisoner until delivered to their destination. On 17 April 1868, Hayes arrived off Suwarrow on
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6174-529: The measles epidemic of 1875, ships such as Jason arrived with Islanders either dead or infected with the disease. There were 30 deaths recorded of measles, followed by dysentery. From 1875 to 1880, at least 443 Kanakas died in the Maryborough region from gastrointestinal and pulmonary disease at a rate 10 times above average. The Yengarie , Yarra Yarra and Irrawarra plantations belonging to Robert Cran were particularly bad. An investigation revealed that
6321-547: The sexual assault of underage females. In 1860 he was brought to court in Sydney for the indecent assault of 15-year-old Cornelia Murray aboard his ship the Ellenita . In 1865 he tried to abduct a 17-year-old girl in New Zealand. However, the most shocking example was the brutal rape of a nine-year-old girl at Kosrae in 1872. In July of that year, Hayes went to the Micronesian island of Pingelap where he extorted
6468-482: The "Harvest Trail Inquiry" into the conditions of migrant horticultural workers. This inquiry confirmed widespread exploitation, intimidation and underpayment of workers with at least 55% of employers being non-compliant in regard to payments and conditions. It found many workers were contracted under a "piece rate" of pay with no written agreement and no minimum hourly rate (as is typical for Australian seasonal agricultural workers). Even though some wages were recovered and
6615-496: The 1860s, the recruitment of Islanders was highly unregulated and open to abuse. Children as young as six years old could be legally recruited on lengthy contracts of up to twelve years. These children could also be legally paid at only half the rate of adults and given only half the required rations. Somewhere between a quarter and half of all the Islanders transported and forced to labour at New Caledonia were children. Lake Hayes Too Many Requests If you report this error to
6762-535: The 1870s, South Sea Islanders were being put to work not only in cane-fields along the Queensland coast but were also widely used as shepherds upon the large sheep stations in the interior and as pearl divers in the Torres Strait . They were taken as far west as Hughenden , Normanton and Blackall . In 1876, several Islanders died, one by scurvy , on the 800 km journey they were required to make from Rockhampton to Bowen Downs Station . No police report
6909-478: The 1875 Act did not specify any Pacific islands to which this authority was to be applied. The 1872 & 1875 Acts were intended to work in conjunction with the British Slave Trade Act 1839 to provide the authority to arrest blackbirding ships, and charge their captains and owners with slavery charges. However, this approach to suppressing blackbirding was not successful. In 1869, a vessel of
7056-538: The 1890s, other important recruiting vessels were Para , Lochiel , Nautilus , Rio Loge , Roderick Dhu and William Manson . Joseph Vos, a well known blackbirder for many years and the captain of William Manson , would use phonographic recordings and enlarged photographs of relatives of Islanders to induce recruits on board his vessel. Vos and his crew were involved in killings, stealing women and setting fire to villages and were charged with kidnapping . However, they were found not guilty and released. Roderick Dhu ,
7203-554: The 2016 census, 6830 people in Queensland declared that they were descendants of South Sea Islander labourers. In 2012, the Australian government introduced a seasonal worker scheme under the 416 and 403 visas to bring in Pacific Islander labour to work in the agricultural industry performing tasks such as picking fruit. By 2018, around 17,320 Islanders, mostly from Vanuatu , Fiji and Tonga , had been employed with
7350-530: The Bishop Patteson murder and other conflicts between islanders, settlers and missionaries as the Commander describes in his book. And later HMS Beagle under Captain de Houghton and HMS Wolverine under Commodore John Crawford Wilson conducted several missions in the late 1870s that involved naval bombardment of villages, raids by marines, burning of houses, destruction of crops and
7497-463: The Fiji market quickly forced the prohibition of taking people from there. Although the death rates of recruits from New Britain and New Ireland were also high, the trade in humans from these islands was allowed to continue. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company made major investments in the Fijian sugar industry around this time with much of the labour being provided by workers from New Britain . Many of
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#17327809027677644-477: The Fiji plantations difficult. Beginning in 1879 with the arrival of Leonidas , the transport of Indian indentured labourers to Fiji commenced. However, this coolie labour was more expensive and the market for blackbirded Islander workers remained strong for much of the 1880s. In 1882, the search for new sources of Islander labour expanded firstly to the Line Islands and then to New Britain and New Ireland . The very high death rate of Line Islanders taken for
7791-521: The Islanders were overworked, underfed, not provided with medical assistance and that the water supply was a stagnant drainage pond. At the port of Mackay , the labour schooner Isabella arrived with half the Kanakas recruited dying on the voyage from dysentery , while Captain John Mackay (after whom the city of Mackay is named), arrived at Rockhampton in Flora with a cargo of Kanakas, of which
7938-553: The Islanders' children to a distant mission school and that he had disrupted the local patriarchal hierarchy. At other islands blackbirding vessels, such as Mystery under Captain Kilgour, attacked villages, shooting the residents and burning their houses. Ships of the Royal Navy were also called upon to investigate the deeds and deliver appropriate punishment upon islands involved in killings of blackbirding crews and missionaries. For example, HMS Rosario in 1871 whilst investigating
8085-531: The King putting them under his protection. These were mostly young females from different islands, his mistresses. The remainder of the crew were taken on board for passage to Sydney. Becke later became an author, and wrote a number of stories of the exploits of Bully Hayes. Hayes reached Guam . He purchased the schooner Arabia on credit in April 1875 and accepted a commission to help convicts escape from prison. He
8232-918: The Pacific was conducted out of Twofold Bay in New South Wales . A shipload of 65 Melanesian labourers arrived in Boyd Town on 16 April 1847 on board Velocity , a vessel under the command of Captain Kirsopp and chartered by Benjamin Boyd . Boyd was a Scottish colonist who wanted cheap labourers to work at his large pastoral leaseholds in the colony of New South Wales . He financed two more procurements of South Sea Islanders, 70 of which arrived in Sydney in September 1847, and another 57 in October of that same year. Many of these Islanders soon absconded from their workplaces and were observed starving and destitute on
8379-407: The Solomon Islands ensued. Around 350 of the South Sea Islanders banished from Queensland were transferred to plantations in Fiji . At least 27 of these died while being transported. Today, the descendants of those who remained are officially referred to as Australian South Sea Islanders . A 1992 census of Australian South Sea Islanders reported around 10,000 descendants living in Queensland. In
8526-473: The Warrior Reefs for years with little hope of being returned home. In this region, three ships used to procure pearl-shells and beche-de-mer, including Challenge were owned by James Merriman who held the position of Mayor of Sydney . Poor conditions at the sugar plantations led to regular outbreaks of disease and death. The Maryborough plantations and the labour vessels operating out of that port became notorious for high mortality rates of Kanakas. During
8673-518: The account of the owners of the cargo. Hayes arrived in Fremantle , Western Australia in January 1857 as captain of the C. W. Bradley, Jr. (which was the Canton , repurchased and renamed). The Bradley had excellent cabin accommodation, and made two trips to Adelaide ; in March and June 1857 with passengers. The South Australian authorities were not pleased as many of these migrants were convicts with conditional pardons. The Singapore ships chandlers caught up with Hayes in Perth , Australia and forced
8820-439: The adventures of Hayes and Pease. That of James A. Michener and A. Grove Day Hayes is different in detail to that provided by Alfred Restieaux , an island trader who had dealings with both Hayes and Pease. What is consistent between the accounts is that Hayes and Pease proceeded on a trading cruise in the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands in the 250-ton brig Pioneer . According to Restieaux, Hayes and Pease argued over
8967-496: The blackbirders more robust. Well known vessels that experienced mortality amongst their crews while attempting to recruit Islanders included Esperanza at Simbo , Pearl at Rendova Island , May Queen at Ambae Island , Stormbird at Tanna , Janet Stewart at Malaita and Isabella at Espiritu Santo amongst others. Officers of Royal Navy warships attempting punitive action were not exempt as targets with Lieutenant Bower and five crew of HMS Sandfly being killed in
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#17327809027679114-478: The blackbirding trade out of Queensland and allowed it to flourish. It also constrained the actions by naval commanders when dealing with incidents on the high seas and also crimes against the many missionaries working on the islands. The violence and death surrounding the Queensland blackbirding trade intensified in the early 1880s. Local communities in the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands had increased access to modern firearms which made their resistance to
9261-426: The blackbirding vessels bound for Fiji, with perhaps the worst example from this period being that which occurred on Stanley . This vessel was chartered by the colonial British government in Fiji to conduct six recruiting voyages for the Fiji labour market. Captain James Lynch was in command and on one of these voyages he ordered 150 recruits to be locked in the ship's hold during an extended period of stormy weather. By
9408-495: The brig Rona , with 109 islanders from Niue (then known as Savage Island) who were being transported to Tahiti . He found Captain Handley B. Sterndale, and a work crew of 18 men, 2 women and 3 children, whose food supplies had run out. Hayes agreed to rescue Sterndale and the islanders, notwithstanding the Rona was already crowded, with Sterndale and the Islanders being delivered to Rakahanga (Reirson island), from where they eventually were able to travel to Tahiti. Sterndale sold
9555-574: The captain and crew of Dancing Wave were killed at the Nggela Islands . Blackbirders would sometimes make their vessels look like missionary ships, deceiving then kidnapping local Islanders. This led to violence against the missionaries themselves, the best example being the killing of Anglican missionary John Coleridge Patteson in 1871 at Nukapu . A few days before his death, one of the local men had been killed and five others abducted by crew of Margaret Chessel who pretended to be missionaries. Patteson may also have been killed due to his desire to take
9702-493: The claim. The blackbirding era began in Fiji on 5 July 1865 when Ben Pease received the first licence to transport 40 labourers from the New Hebrides to Fiji in order to work on cotton plantations. The American Civil War had cut off the supply of cotton to the international market and cultivation of this cash crop in Fiji was potentially an extremely profitable business. Thousands of Anglo-American and Anglo-Australian planters flocked to Fiji to establish plantations and
9849-473: The coercive labour recruitment practices in the South Pacific Ocean: the Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1872 (the principal Act), which was amended by the Pacific Islanders Protection Act 1875. The principal Act provided for the Governor of one of the Australian colonies to have the authority to licence British vessels in the South Pacific Ocean to carry "native labourers". The 1875 Act amended that licensing system and stated that any "British vessel may, under
9996-404: The command of the Orestes sailing to Vancouver , Canada. Hayes was thrown off the ship in Honolulu by the supercargo for swindling passengers. He proceeded to gain command of a new ship, the 318-ton brig Ellenita with a cargo obtained by fraud. Hayes sailed back across the Pacific, abandoning Amelia in San Francisco. Another version has her falling from the Orestes in 1858 and drowning. On
10143-407: The committal of the outrage. Our Capt.(Dupuis) had no authority to make him a prisoner but would have taken him from the island if requested by the Missionary and King. The former acting as an American representative, but the delay in acting together ensured the time for flight. The Capt. visited Hayes' station next day and turned everything over to charge of the Mate, a Swede. The women he forwarded to
10290-399: The cotton plantations of Robert Towns . Another recruiter, John Higginson, entered the trade in 1868, and by 1870, around 720 Islanders had been brought to labour in New Caledonia. A mining boom in 1873 saw a large increase in labour demand and many more ships became involved in the blackbirding trade with 900 Islanders being recruited in 1874 alone. Apart from some early government controls in
10437-404: The crew. The remaining crew managed to isolate the islanders to a part of the ship and then used explosives to blow them up. Close to 200 people were killed in this incident with Moaroa still able to offload about 60 surviving labourers at Tahiti. Conditions at the Atimaono plantation were appalling with long hours, heavy labour, poor food and inadequate shelter being provided. Harsh punishment
10584-435: The crews of smaller vessels to take command of these ships and attempt to sail back to their home islands. For example, in late 1871, Islanders aboard Peri being transported to a plantation on a smaller Fijian island, freed themselves, killed most of the crew and took charge of the vessel. Unfortunately, the ship was low in supplies and was blown westward into the open ocean where they spent two months adrift. Eventually, Peri
10731-417: The demand for cheap labour boomed. Transportation of Kanaka labour to Fiji continued up until 1911 when it became prohibited by law. A probable total of around 45,000 Islanders were taken to work in Fiji during this 46-year period with approximately a quarter of these dying while under their term of labour. Albert Ross Hovell, son of the noted explorer William Hilton Hovell , was a prominent blackbirder in
10878-651: The early years of the Fijian labour market. In 1867 he was captain of Sea Witch , recruiting men and boys from Tanna and Lifou . The following year, Hovell was in command of Young Australian which was involved in an infamous voyage resulting in charges of murder and slavery being laid. After being recruited, at least three Islanders were shot dead aboard the vessel and the rest sold in Levuka for £1,200. Hovell and his supercargo , Hugo Levinger, were arrested in Sydney in 1869, found guilty by jury and sentenced to death. This
11025-680: The election in late 1883 of Samuel Griffith on an anti-Kanaka policy platform. Griffith quickly banned recruitment from the New Guinea islands and spearheaded a number of high-profile criminal cases against blackbirding crews operating in the area. The crew of Alfred Vittery were charged with the murder of South Sea Islanders , while Captain Joseph Davies of Stanley , Captain Millman of Jessie Kelly , Captain Loutit of Ethel as well as
11172-594: The end of each month which amounted from £10 to £16 per annum. In spite of these conditions during these years, the mortality rate of the workers was still over 10% for each year. Outside of these years, where protections were less, the death rate was much higher. When recruiting ended in 1887, 650 Pacific Islander workers remained or were left abandoned in Hawaii and by 1895 this number had reduced to less than 400. In 1904, 220 mostly Gilbert Islanders continued to live in poverty at Honolulu and at Maui . These people were gathered together and repatriated in that same year to
11319-485: The establishment of the port of Townsville . He organised the first importation of South Sea Islander labour to that port in 1866. They came aboard Blue Bell under Captain Edwards. Towns paid his Kanaka labourers in trinkets instead of cash at the end of their working terms. His agent claimed that blackbirded labourers were "savages who did not know the use of money" and therefore did not deserve cash wages. Apart from
11466-471: The estate. Resistance and conflict also continued. For instance, at Malaita six crew members of the recruiting vessel Young Dick were killed together with about six islanders in a skirmish, The boat crew of the labour recruiting schooner Mystery were killed in November 1878 at Longana , a district on the island of Ambae , Vanuatu (New Hebrides). Then in 1888 at Paama a large gun battle between
11613-404: The events are unclear, it is understood that Hayes was shot with a revolver, struck on the skull with an iron implement, and thrown overboard. Charles Elson and the remaining crew sailed the Lotus to Jaluit in the Marshall Islands and gave an account of the death of Bully Hayes. No one was concerned at his death – indeed Peter Radeck was treated as a hero. Becke's interpretation of the events
11760-525: The expiry of the three-year contract, the government required captains to transport the surviving labourers back to their villages, but many were disembarked at places distant from their homelands. A notorious incident of the blackbirding trade was the 1871 voyage of the brig Carl , organised by Dr James Patrick Murray, to recruit labourers to work in the plantations of Fiji. Murray had his men reverse their collars and carry black books, so to appear to be church missionaries . When islanders were enticed to
11907-953: The government of the newly federated British colonies of Australia legislated the "Regulation, Restriction and Prohibition of the Introduction of Labourers from the Pacific Islands" bill, better known as the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 . This Act, which was part of a larger White Australia policy , made it illegal to import South Sea Islanders after March 1904 and mandated for the forcible deportation of all Islanders from Australia after 1906. Strong lobbying from Islander residents in Australia forced some exemptions to be made, for example, those who were married to an Australian, who owned land or who had been living for 20 years in Australia were exempt from compulsory repatriation. However, many Islanders were not made aware of these exemptions. Around 4000 to 7500 were deported in
12054-605: The hanging of an Islander from the yardarms . One of these expeditions involved the assistance of the armed crew of the blackbirding vessel Sybil commanded by Captain Satini. Furthermore, two South Sea Islanders were hanged in Maryborough for the rape and attempted murder of a white woman, these being the first legal executions in that town. In 1872, the United Kingdom passed legislation in an attempt to control
12201-461: The human resource in this region. Plantation owners such as Robert Cran also bought vessels and made contact with missionaries like Samuel MacFarlane in the New Guinea area to help facilitate the acquisition of cheap workers. Kidnapping, forced recruitment, killings, false payment and the enslavement of children was again the typical practice. Captain William T. Wawn, a famous blackbirder working for
12348-645: The island. Hayes made money and purchased the brigantine Samoa . By coincidence Hayes lost both ships off Manihiki , Cook Islands in March 1869. Hayes then purchased the schooner Atlantic , although soon after he was arrested in February 1870 by the Consul Williams in Apia on charges related to his activities. Hayes escaped from Samoa on 1 April 1870 on the ship of Ben Pease , a fellow American of similar reputation. There are differing accounts of
12495-454: The islanders in the village of Leassé. In September of that year Rosario (1860) under Captain Dupuis arrived and Hayes was arrested, but escaped by a 14-foot boat built of timber from the wreck of the Leonora . In the words of a Petty Officer on board Rosario: Arrived here on 25th Sept and on approaching the harbour, a boat was seen making for the ship and soon the figure of a stranger
12642-417: The islands around New Guinea . Although the process of acquiring these indentured labourers varied from violent kidnapping at gunpoint to relatively acceptable negotiation, most of the people affiliated with the trade were regarded as blackbirders. The majority of those taken were male and around one quarter were under the age of sixteen. In total, approximately 15,000 Kanakas died while working in Queensland,
12789-476: The islands, protecting the crews of blackbirding vessels such as Ceara from mutinies of the labour recruits. In 1882, the Melbourne newspaper The Age published an eight-part series written by journalist and future physician George E. Morrison , who had sailed, undercover, for the New Hebrides , while posing as crew of the brigantine slave ship , Lavinia , as it made cargo of Kanakas . "A Cruise in
12936-504: The kidnapping trade. The famous blackbirder, Bully Hayes kidnapped Islanders for the Fiji market in his Sydney -registered schooner , Atlantic . Many captains engaged in violent means to obtain the labourers. The crews of Margaret Chessel , Maria Douglass and Marion Renny were involved in fatal conflict with various Islanders. Captain Finlay McLever of Nukulau was arrested and tried in court for kidnapping and assault but
13083-558: The labour trade in Pacific Islanders continued as before. In 1875, the year of the catastrophic measles epidemic, the chief medical officer in Fiji, Sir William MacGregor , listed a mortality rate of 540 out of every 1,000 Islander labourers. The Governor of Fiji , Sir Arthur Gordon , endorsed not only the procuring of Kanaka labour but became an active organiser in the plan to expand it to include mass importation of indentured coolie workers from India. The establishment of
13230-625: The labour trade to Hawaii expanded to the New Hebrides . Captain Cadigan of Pomare took people from these islands via night raids, armed attacks and firing cannon at canoes. The death rates of the recruits on board Pomare as they were transported to Hawaii were as high as 20%. Captain Tierney of the labour vessel Hazard was paid by the Planters' Labour and Supply Company of Hawaii $ 15 per recruit and consequently used much deception in obtaining
13377-464: The labourers at plantations, particularly those producing sugar cane. Examples of blackbirding outside the South Pacific include the early days of the pearling industry in Western Australia at Nickol Bay and Broome , where Aboriginal Australians were blackbirded from the surrounding areas. Chinese men were blackbirded from Amoy in the 1840s and 50s to work as unskilled labourers in
13524-615: The labourers were treated as slaves. They were given insufficient food, subjected to regular beatings and sold on to other colonists. If they became rebellious they were either imprisoned by their owners or sentenced by magistrates (who were also plantation owners) to heavy labour. The planters were allowed to inflict punishment and restrain the Islanders as they saw fit and young girls were openly bartered for and sold into sexual slavery . Many workers were not paid and those who survived and were able to return to their home islands were regarded as lucky. The British annexed Fiji in October 1874 and
13671-517: The lack of food, totaling £198. 14s. 4d. They received just £16. 16s. from the sale of Cadell's property at Shark Bay as Cadell had left the Colony of Western Australia some months previously. Broadhurst was also found to have underpaid 18 Malays totaling £183. 4s. 2d. however the judgement was set aside by the Supreme Court on the technicality that Broadhurst had not been given proper notice of
13818-432: The majority being placed on farms in Queensland . Workers under this programme have often been subject to working long hours in extreme temperatures and being forced to live in squalid conditions. Poor access to clean water, adequate food and medical assistance has resulted in several deaths. These reports, together with allegations of workers receiving as little as $ 10 a week after rent and transport deductions, resulted in
13965-514: The media. Legislation was passed to end the South Sea Islander labour trade in 1890 but it was not effectively enforced and it was officially recommenced in 1892. Reports such as those by Joe Melvin , an investigative journalist who in 1892 joined the crew of Queensland blackbirding ship Helena and found no instances of intimidation or misrepresentation and concluded that the Islanders recruited did so "willingly and cannily", helped
14112-433: The name of John Crossley opening their services to other land-owners. In 1867, King Oscar , Spunkie , Fanny Nicholson and Prima Donna returned with close to 1,000 Kanakas who were offloaded in the ports of Brisbane , Bowen and Mackay . This influx, together with information that the recently arrived labourers were being sold for £2 each and that kidnapping was at least partially used during recruitment, raised fears of
14259-452: The number of Melanesian labourers declined in preference to imported Indian indentured workers, but they were still being recruited and employed in such places as sugar mills and ports. In 1901, Islanders continued to be sold in Fiji for £15 per head and it was only in 1902 that a system of paying monthly cash wages directly to the workers was proposed. When Islander labourers were expelled from Queensland in 1906, around 350 were transferred to
14406-521: The owners of Forest King were all charged with kidnapping. All of these cases, despite strong evidence against them, resulted in acquittal. Charges of neglect resulting in death against plantation managers were also made. For example, Mr Melhuish of the Yeppoon Sugar Plantation was tried, but even though he was found responsible, the judge involved imposed only the minimum £5 fine and wished it could be an even lesser amount. During
14553-459: The ownership of the cargo; Hayes claimed the cargo was his and that Pease was merely carrying it as freight, while Pease claimed a half share in the cargo. Restieaux's account is that Hayes sold the cargo in Shanghai; with Restieaux recounting two stories that he had been told about Pease's death: the first was that he drowned after jumping overboard from a Spanish Man-of-War, the second was that he
14700-520: The pearl shell, beche-de-mer, copra and equipment to Hayes. Sterndale later discovered that John Lavington Evans (the superintendent of the Pacific Islands Trading Company Limited who had delivered the work crew to Suwarrow), had travelled to Samoa and sold the ship and departed to Sydney, and concealed that Sterndale and the islanders were on Suwarrow with a limited supply of provisions and no boats capable of leaving
14847-497: The pearling, gold and farming industries. Practices similar to blackbirding continue to the present day. One example is the kidnapping and coercion, often at gunpoint, of indigenous peoples in Central America to work as plantation labourers in the region. They are subjected to poor living conditions, are exposed to heavy pesticide loads, and do hard labour for very little pay. The first major blackbirding operation in
14994-416: The people to load his ship with 6,000 coconuts and to bring him a young girl. His demands were met and he sailed to his residence at the nearby island of Kosrae . Here it was reported through several verified written accounts that Hayes took the girl ashore and violently raped her. After Hayes had finished with her, the girl was taken back to the ship in severe pain, crying with blood running down her legs. She
15141-523: The period 1906 to 1908, while approximately 1600 remained in Australia. The Burns Philp company won the contract to deport the Islanders and those taken back to the Solomon Islands were distributed to their home islands by vessels of Lever's Pacific Plantations company. Deported Solomon Islanders who were unable to go to their villages of origin or who were born in Australia, were often put to work in plantations in these islands. In some localities, serious conflict between these workers and white colonists in
15288-545: The plantation owners secure the resumption of the trade. Helena under Captain A.R. Reynolds, transported Islanders to and from Bundaberg and in this region there was a very large mortality rate of Kanakas in 1892 and 1893. South Sea Islanders made up 50% of all deaths in this period even though they only made up 20% of the total population in the Bundaberg area. The deaths were due to the hard manual labour and diseases such as dysentery , influenza and tuberculosis . In
15435-584: The plantation owners, instead of being held criminally responsible, were financially compensated by the government for the loss of these returned workers. Fourteen sugar companies and individual planters including The Colonial Sugar Refining Company and David Adolphus Louis, took the Queensland Government to court to demand financial recompense and were collectively awarded £18,500. This is despite consistent evidence given in court of each plantation recording labourer death rates of up to 60% over
15582-579: The plantation. Bully Hayes , an American ship-captain who achieved notoriety for his activities in the Pacific from the 1850s to the 1870s, arrived in Papeete , Tahiti in December 1868 on his ship Rona with 150 men from Niue . Hayes offered them for sale as indentured labourers . The French Governor of Tahiti, who was invested in the company, used government ships such as Lucene to recruit South Sea Islanders for Stewart. These people were unloaded in
15729-467: The plantations in Fiji. After the system of recruitment ended in 1911, those who remained in Fiji settled in areas like the region around Suva . Their multi-cultural descendants identify as a distinct community but, to outsiders, their language and culture cannot be distinguished from native Fijians. Descendants of Solomon Islanders have filed land claims to assert their right to traditional settlements in Fiji. A group living at Tamavua-i-Wai in Fiji received
15876-574: The port of Brisbane on 17 August 1863. Towns specifically wanted adolescent males. Recruitment and kidnapping were reportedly employed in obtaining these boys. Over the following two years, Towns imported around 400 more Melanesians to Townsvale on one to three year terms of labour. They came on Uncle Tom (Captain Archer Smith) and Black Dog (Captain Linklater). In 1865, Towns obtained large land leases in Far North Queensland and funded
16023-485: The principal Act or of this Act". The 1875 Act also provided authority for "Her Majesty to exercise power and jurisdiction over Her subjects within any islands and places in the Pacific Ocean not being within Her Majesty's dominions, nor within the jurisdiction of any civilized power, in the same and as ample a manner as if such power or jurisdiction had been acquired by the cession or conquest of territory", although
16170-542: The principal Act, be detained, seized, and brought in for adjudication by any officer, all goods and effects found on board such vessel may also be detained, seized, and brought in for adjudication by such officer, either with or without such vessel" with the "High Court of Admiralty of England and every Vice-Admiralty Court in Her Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom shall have jurisdiction to try and condemn as forfeited to Her Majesty or restore any vessel, goods, and effects alleged to be detained or seized in pursuance of
16317-621: The prisoners discharged. Furthermore, Sir Alfred Stephen , the Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court found that Captain Palmer had illegally seized Daphne and ordered him to pay reparations to Daggett and Pritchard. No evidence or statements were taken from the Islanders. This decision, which overrode the obvious humanitarian actions of a senior officer of the Royal Navy , gave further legitimacy to
16464-498: The recruits taken from this island on the labour vessel Lord of Isles were put to work on the CSR sugar mill at Nausori . The Fijian labour report for the years 1878 to 1882 revealed that 18 vessels were engaged in the trade, recruiting 7,137 Islanders with 1270 or nearly 20% of these dying while in Fiji. Fijian registered ships involved in the trade at this stage included Winifred , Meg Merrilies , Dauntless and Ovalau . By 1890,
16611-521: The residents and the crew of Eliza Mary occurred. This ship later sank during a cyclone causing the drowning deaths of 47 Kanakas. The policy of extensive punitive expeditions carried out by the Royal Navy against the Islanders persisted as well. The official report of the lengthy mission of HMS Diamond which bombarded and burnt numerous villages in 1885 was kept secret. HMS Opal also bombarded numerous villages in punitive expeditions which elicited condemnation from some sections of
16758-428: The return trip to Sydney, Hayes lost the Ellenita off Navigator Islands on 16 October 1859 and with the women and children and a skeleton crew reached Savai'i to raise the alarm. After considerable difficulties, the remaining passengers and crew were returned to Sydney by H.M. brig Elk . There Hayes evaded a charge of having indecently assaulted one of the passengers, Miss Cornelia Murray, aged 15. While Hayes lost
16905-599: The sale of his ship, bankrupting him. The Bradley was sold in Adelaide on 22 July and was later renamed Federation . Hayes married the widow Amelia Littleton in the Clare Valley town of Penwortham on 20 August 1857, bigamously if, as is believed, Hayes had earlier married in the United States. Hayes had built up debts in Adelaide, but by a ruse escaped his creditors and in Melbourne , Australia he gained
17052-485: The streets of Sydney. Reports of violence, kidnap and murder used during the recruitment of these labourers surfaced in 1848 with a closed-door enquiry choosing not to take any action against Boyd or Kirsopp. The experiment of exploiting Melanesian labour was discontinued in Australia until Robert Towns recommenced the practice in Queensland when he fitted out the schooner Don Juan and, in August 1863, despatched her on
17199-671: The surrounding areas. After settlement the Aborigines were used as slave labour in the emerging commercial industry. During the early 1870s, Francis Cadell became involved in whaling , trading , pearling and blackbirding in North-West Australia . Cadell and others became notorious for their coercion, capture and sale of Aboriginal people as slaves. The slaves were often detained temporarily at camps known as barracoons on Barrow Island , 30 nautical miles (56 km) offshore. In 1875 magistrate Robert Fairbairn
17346-668: The term of their servitude. Forceful recruitment of South Sea Islanders persisted in the New Guinea region, as well as in the Solomons and the New Hebrides islands, as did the high death rates of these labourers at Queensland plantations. At the Yeppoon Sugar Company, deliberate poisonings of Kanakas also occurred and when this plantation was later put up for sale, the Islander labourers were included as part of
17493-529: The time the region was the center of a gold rush ). He travelled the region with a travelling company of vaudeville artists on a tour of New Zealand. In January 1863 they arrived at Arrowtown . Hayes married a widow Mrs Roma 'Rosie' Buckingham, whose four sons were vaudeville artists, performing as The Masters Buckingham . Hayes and Roma settled in Arrowtown where he opened a hotel, the "United States", later called "The Prince of Wales". The nearby Lake Hayes
17640-480: The time the ship arrived in Levuka , around fifty Islanders had died from suffocation and neglect. A further ten who were hospitalised were expected to die. Captain Lynch and the crew of Stanley faced no recriminations for this disaster and were soon at sea again recruiting for the government. This conflict together with competition for Pacific Islander labour from Queensland made recruiting sufficient workers for
17787-744: The trade was very profitable, with Burns Philp selling each recruit for around £23. Many of them could not speak any English and died on these plantations at a rate of up to 1 in every 5 from disease, violence and neglect. In April 1883, the Premier of Queensland , Thomas McIlwraith attempted to annex New Guinea to be part of Queensland. This was rejected by the British Colonial Secretary mostly because of fears that it would expose even more of its inhabitants to be forcibly taken to work and possibly die in Queensland. The large influx of New Guinea labourers also sparked concern from white supremacist anti-immigration groups, which led to
17934-490: The trade with vessels such as Spunkie , Jason and Lyttona making frequent recruiting journeys out of these ports. Reports of blackbirding, kidnap and violence were made against these vessels with Captain Winship of Lyttona being accused of kidnapping and importing Kanaka boys aged between 12 and 15 years for the plantations of George Raff at Caboolture . The Queensland Governor made enquiries and "found that there were
18081-491: The vessel Stormbird in Sydney and appointed another ex-navy officer, Captain George Jackson, to conduct the expedition. On this first voyage, Stormbird recruited 85 people from Rotuma , Nonouti , Maiana and Tabiteuea . Jackson called in at Pohnpei on the way to Hawaii where he chained up a local headman and shot another trying to attempt a rescue. During the voyage, Jackson had attempted to kidnap at gunpoint
18228-716: The world-wide cotton shortage due to the American Civil War . He bought a property he named Townsvale on the Logan River south of Brisbane , and planted 160 hectares (400 acres) of cotton . Towns wanted cheap labour to harvest and prepare the cotton and decided to import Melanesian labour from the Loyalty Islands and the New Hebrides . Captain Grueber together with labour recruiter Henry Ross Lewin aboard Don Juan , brought 67 South Sea Islanders to
18375-503: The year 1887 when the recruiting of Pacific Islanders to Hawaii was largely replaced with the more cost effective Japanese immigration scheme, some 2,600 Islanders were recruited. From 1880 to 1883 these people were protected by strong government measures which included an appointed Protector of Pacific Islanders, routine checks of worker conditions and the ability of the labourers to take employers to court for maltreatment. These workers, usually on 3 year contracts, were also paid cash wages at
18522-485: Was a government agent on board, the Kanakas on board the Daphne appeared in poor condition and, having no understanding of English and no interpreter, had little idea of why they were being transported. Palmer seized the ship, freed the Kanakas and arrested both Captain Daggett and the ship's owner Thomas Pritchard for slavery. Daggett and Pritchard were taken to Sydney to be tried but all charges were quickly dismissed and
18669-603: Was an extremely low wage that was only paid at the end of their three years of work. Additionally, a system whereby the Islanders were heavily influenced to buy overpriced goods of poor quality at designated shops before they returned home, robbed them further. The Act, instead of protecting the South Sea Islanders, actually gave legitimacy to a kind of slavery in Queensland. Recruiting of South Sea Islanders soon became an established industry with labour vessels from across eastern Australia obtaining Kanakas for both
18816-521: Was arrested and ended up in prison in Manila , Philippines – at the time a colony of Spain. Hayes was eventually freed and landed in San Francisco without funds in early 1876. He persuaded a Mr. and Mrs. Moody to fund the purchase of a schooner the Lotus . Hayes tricked Mr. Moody into going ashore and sailed off with Mrs. Moody still on board. After arriving in Apia , Samoa , on 2 January 1877,
18963-603: Was arrested by Captain Richard Meade of the Narragansett (1859) on 19 February 1872 but was released as Meade could not find witnesses or sufficient proof. Hayes's reputation meant that no crew members would give evidence against him. In 1872 Hayes was engaged in the copra trade, including installing George Winchcombe on Nukufetau in the Ellice islands. Hayes had a long history of charges made against him for
19110-796: Was born in Cleveland , Ohio, one of three sons of Henry Hayes, a grog-shanty keeper. Hayes became a sailor on the Great Lakes after running away from home. He is believed to have left New York as a passenger of the Canton on 4 March 1853, although when the ship reached Singapore on 11 July 1853 it was captained by Hayes, and sold by him there shortly after arrival. Hayes operated in East Asia, carrying out various frauds on ship's chandlers over mortgaging ships, providing forged papers in payment for cargo and selling cargo for his own account rather than for
19257-474: Was brought to trial and, despite being found guilty, he was soon pardoned and allowed to re-enter the recruiting trade. Up to 45 of the Kanakas brought in by Coath died on plantations around the Mary River . Meanwhile, the famous recruiter Henry Ross Lewin was charged with the rape of a pubescent Islander girl. Despite strong evidence, Lewin was acquitted and the girl was later sold in Brisbane for £20. By
19404-606: Was discharged due to a legal technicality. The passing of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act in 1872 by the British government was meant to improve the conditions for the Islanders but instead it legitimised the labour trade and the treatment of the blackbirded Islanders upon the Fiji plantations remained appalling. In his 1873 report, the British Consul to Fiji, Edward March, outlined how
19551-413: Was half of that offered in Queensland and like that colony was only given at the end of the three-year term usually in the form of poor quality goods rather than cash. Most Melanesians were recruited by combination of deceit and violence, and then locked up in the ship's hold to prevent escape. They were sold in Fiji to the colonists at a rate of £3 to £6 per head for males and £10 to £20 for females. After
19698-650: Was killed in a fight in the Bonin Islands . In any event when the Pioneer arrived back in Apia Hayes was in sole command with his explanation for this change in command being that Ben Pease had sold the ship to Hayes and had retired to China – an explanation that many doubted but would not or could not challenge. Hayes renamed the ship Leonora (the name of his favourite daughter), painting her white in an effort to change her reputation. Hayes continued to trade in coconut oil, copra and blackbirding. Hayes
19845-529: Was later commuted to life imprisonment but both were discharged from prison only after a couple of years. In 1868, the Acting British Consul in Fiji, John Bates Thurston , brought only minor regulations upon the trade through the introduction of a licensing system for the labour vessels. Melanesian labourers were generally recruited for a term of three years at a rate of three pounds per year and issued with basic clothing and rations. The payment
19992-458: Was let go on parole to fetch his papers the next day, but the same evening, late, a boat came from the station to say he had escaped from the island in a small boat, taking one man with him – this proved true. The most positive proof of his villainy was in the person of a young female native, a mere child, she was brought on board and subjected to medical examination. This child was still suffering from his treatment although some time had elapsed since
20139-461: Was made and the overseer in charge was only fined £10. Whipping of the Islander labourers was found to be occurring across a number of districts including at the Ravensbourne sheep station, and at the coastal sugar plantations of Nerada and Magnolia owned by Hugh Monckton and Colonel William Feilding respectively. Fatal conflict with the landholders was at times evident, for instance
20286-426: Was meted out to those who did not work and sickness was prevalent. The mortality rate for one group of blackbirded labourers at Atimaono was around 80%. William Stewart died in 1873 and the Tahiti Cotton and Coffee Plantation Company went bankrupt a year later. Another notorious blackbirder was a fellow countryman of Bully Hayes , who was also given the nickname "Bully". Captain "Bully" Proctor procured workers for
20433-620: Was mocked in a popular play, and with his reputation gone he and his wife left for Port Chalmers. Later he acquired a ship in Australia, the Black Diamond which he hid in Croixelles Harbour, near Nelson . On 19 August 1864, while travelling in a borrowed yacht, the family was caught by a sudden squall and Rosie, her baby, her brother, and a nurse all drowned. Only Hayes survived. He moved to Christchurch , where he married Emily Mary Butler in 1865. In May 1866 Hayes acquired
20580-578: Was seen on the Quarter deck and no other than the veritable Capt. Hayes, here was the outlaw on a man-of-war's deck with a bold front on him offering to pilot the ship in. On being questioned by the Capt. He informed him that his vessel was wrecked near here and he had established a station making oil. The Rev Snow had also arrived from Ebon. . . . A court of enquiry was held next day and Hayes' crew were each separately examined and their evidence noted down. Hayes
20727-415: Was sent to investigate pearling conditions at Shark Bay , following reports that people, described as Malays , employed by Cadell and Charles Broadhurst were unpaid, unable to return home and some had starved to death. Fairbairn held that Cadell had not paid 10 Malays from the time they were engaged at Batavia in 1874 and he was required to pay the 10 Malays plus an additional 4 months wages as amends for
20874-835: Was spotted by Captain John Moresby aboard HMS Basilisk near to Hinchinbrook Island off the coast of Queensland . Only thirteen of the original eighty kidnapped Islanders were alive and able to be rescued. Labour vessels involved in this period of blackbirding for the Fijian market also included Donald McLean under the command of captain McLeod, and Flirt under captain McKenzie who often took people from Erromango . Captain Martin of Wild Duck stole people from Espiritu Santo , while other ships such as Lapwing , Kate Grant , Harriet Armytage and Frolic also participated in
21021-442: Was still not able to walk properly after three months when she was returned to Pingelap. An inquiry by Captain A.E. Dupuis of HMS Rosario on 26 September 1874 medically examined another victim for evidence against Hayes but he escaped whilst being further questioned, as described in the next section. Hayes was known to treat other girls in a similar manner while at Kosrae . In 1874, 19-year old Australian Louis Becke sailed
21168-534: Was subdued and removed from the island. The sugar industry in the Hawaiian Islands was expanding rapidly during the early 1870s and despite over 50% of all male able-bodied Native Hawaiians being utilised as workers on these plantations, there were an insufficient number to keep up with production. From 1868 to 1872, around 200 people from places such as Tahiti , the Caroline Islands , and
21315-478: Was taken against McEachern or Crossley. Many members of the Queensland government were already either invested in the labour trade or had Kanakas actively working on their land holdings. Therefore, the 1868 legislation on the trade in the form of the Polynesian Labourers Act of the Queensland parliament, that was brought in due to Syren debacle, requiring every ship to be licensed and carry
21462-413: Was that Charles Elson plotted with the other crew members to murder Hayes. The motive was remove Hayes and allow Elson and the crew to search for and take the money that Hayes was believed to have buried on Kosrae following the wreck of the Leonora in 1874. The existence of this buried money is part of the myth that surrounds Hayes. Bully Hayes may not have ever taken a ship by force in the tradition of
21609-545: Was the main usage of blackbirded labour, but they were also exploited in other industries. Blackbirding ships began operations in the Pacific from the 1840s which continued into the 1930s. Blackbirders from the Americas sought workers for their haciendas and to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands , while the blackbirding trade organised by colonists in places like Queensland, Fiji, and New Caledonia used
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