William Mariner (writer)

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For the William Mariner who won the Victoria Cross in the First World War, see William Mariner (Victoria Cross winner).

William Mariner was an Englishman who lived in the Tonga Islands from 29 November 1806 to (probably) 8 November 1810. He wrote an account of his experiences, Tonga Islands, that is now one of the major sources of information on pre-Christian Tonga.

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[edit] Mariner's sojourn in Tonga

William Mariner was a teenage ship's clerk aboard the British privateer Port Au Prince. The ship anchored off the Tongan island of Lifuka, in the Ha'apai island group, and was seized by the Ha'apai chief and future king of Tonga Fīnau ʻUlukālala on 1 December 1806. Most of the crew were killed in the takeover of the ship, but Mariner and several colleagues were spared by Fīnau. Fīnau assumed responsibility for Mariner, taking him into his tribe. Mariner lived in Tonga for four years, predominantly in the northern island group of Vavaʻu.

On his return to England he wrote a full account of his time in the Tonga Islands as well as a description of Tongan life and a Tongan dictionary and thesaurus.

He also gave a lively description of his lord and protector Fīnau Fangupō (ʻUlukālala II). One quote from Mariner, giving Fīnau's opinion of the Western innovation of money, can be found in paʻanga.

[edit] Mariner's books

There are three major versions of Mariner's writings. The original version was first published in 1817, with the help of Dr. John Martin. Later editions appeared in England in 1818 and 1827 and in Germany in 1819 and the United States in 1820. The Vava'u Press of Tonga issued a new edition in 1981 that includes biographical information written by Denis Joyroal McCulloch, one of Mariner's great-great grandsons, but leaves out the appendix about the grammar and spelling (now obsolete). Two modern editions with corrected modern Tongan spelling and other additions have been published, the first by Boyle Townshend Somerville in 1936 and the second by Paul W. Dale in 1996.

  • Tonga Islands: William Mariner's account : an account of the natives of the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, with an original grammar and vocabulary of their language. Vava'u Press; 4th ed., 1981. ASIN B0006EB4WI.
  • Will Mariner: A True Record of Adventure by Boyle Townshend Somerville. London: Faber and Faber, 1936.
  • The Tonga Book by Paul W Dale. London: Minerva Press, 1996. ISBN 1-85863-797-X.

[edit] Other books relating to Mariner

  • Toki: A Tongan trilogy : a historical novel based on the Polynesian life of Will Mariner and Finau Ulukalala of Tonga, by Louise Lose Finau. Simmons Pub. Co., 1996. ISBN 0-9667463-0-9.
  • Michener, James A.: Rascals in Paradise.

[edit] External links

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