Ben Pease

Ben Pease or Benjamin Pease, was a notorious Blackbirder, engaged in recruiting and kidnapping Pacific islanders to provide labour for the plantations of Fiji.

Pease was born in 1834 in Edgartown, Massachusetts. He was youngest of seven children of Henry A. and Mary A. (Fisher) Pease.[1] Pease was a ship's captain operating in the Pacific during the 1850s & 1860's. His elder brother was Captain Henry A. Pease, Jr., (1824–1892), who became a whaling ship master[2] and was involved in the Whaling Disaster of 1871 and was later the U. S. Consul to Santiago, Cape Verde (1882–1892).[3]

Ben Pease
Born 1834
Edgartown, Massachusetts
Died 1870
The suspicion is that Bully Hayes disposed of Pease during a voyage to the Caroline Islands and Marshall Islands
Occupation Ship’s Captain, Trader & Blackbirder
Parents Henry A. and Mary A. (Fisher) Pease

Contents

Life

Pease was described by James A. Michener & A. Grove Day as being “a satanic looking rascal with a black spade beard – was a more openly piratical operator than Hayes”.[4] Pease may have greater claim than Bully Hayes as being a South Sea pirate and "the last of the Buccaneers"[5][6] as Pease appears to have been engaged in Filibusting in his activities in the opium trade after China's defeat in the Second Opium War in 1858, when it was forced to legalize opium and allow the importation of opium. However details of Pease’s involvement in this trade is uncertain. There are stories told that he was a captain of a gunboat in the Imperial Chinese Navy, that he was engagement in action against pirates along the coast of China; as well there are stories of Pease raiding trading Junks along the coast of China.[4][7]

On 5 July 1865 Pease received the first licence to providing 40 labourers from the New Hebrides to Fiji.[4][8] Alfred Restieaux records that in late in 1866 or early 1867, Pease was introduced to Mr. C. A. Williams a ship owner of New London, Connecticut who bought a schooner that was rename the Blossom. As captain of the Blossom Pease traded in the Marshall Islands.[9]

Pease purchased the Water Lily, a 250-ton brig, which was built for the opium trade into China and was later fitted out by Pease to engage in the blackbirding trade in the Pacific. While there was some voluntary recruitment of Pacific islanders, the activities of Blackbirders predominantly involved kidnapping, coercion and tricks to entice islanders onto Blackbirding ships, on which they were held prisoner until delivered to their destination. In 1868 the Water Lily was in Manila in the Philippines being repaired and renamed the Pioneer.[4]

Ben Pease & Bully Hayes

In 1870 Ben Pease assisted Bully Hayes to escape when Hayes was arrested in Apia, Samoa on charges of piracy arising from his blackbirding activities.

The account of the adventures of Hayes and Pease provided by James A. Michener & A. Grove Day Hayes[4] is different in detail to that provided by Alfred Restieaux, an island trader who had dealings with both Hayes and Pease.[9] What is consistent between the accounts is that Hayes escaped from Samoa on 1 April 1870 on the ship of Pease's ship the 250-ton brig Pioneer.[4] Hayes and Pease proceeded on a trading cruise in the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands. According to Alfred Restieaux, Hayes and Pease argued over 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;[9] 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 was killed in a fight in the Bonin Islands.[9] What happened to Hayes is uncertain. 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.[4]

Hayes renamed the ship the Leonora, which was wreaked in a storm while in Lelu harbour in what is now the Utwe-Walong Marine Park on Kosrae.[10]

Bibliography

External links

References

  1. ^ http://history.vineyard.net/pease2.htm
  2. ^ http://history.vineyard.net/pease3.htm
  3. ^ Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Captain Henry Pease Papers, 1867-1893. Record Unit 331 http://www.mvmuseum.org/documents/CaptainHenryPease--RU331.pdf
  4. ^ a b c d e f g James A. Mitchener & A. Grove Day (1957). "Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer". Rascals in Paradise. Secker & Warburg. 
  5. ^ Julian Dana, Gods Who Die (1935)
  6. ^ Resture, Jane. "Alfred Restieaux: Stories of Bully Hayes and Others". http://www.janesoceania.com/restieaux_hayes/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
  7. ^ Resture, Jane. "The Story of Blackbirding in the South Seas - Part 1". http://www.janesoceania.com/oceania_blackbirding/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
  8. ^ Resture, Jane. "The Story of Blackbirding in the South Seas - Part 2". http://www.janesoceania.com/oceania_blackbirding1/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
  9. ^ a b c d Resture, Jane. "The Alfred Restieaux Manuscript Part II". http://www.janeresture.com/ar3.htm. Retrieved 2011-08-06. 
  10. ^ Kosrae Nautilus Resort