Ben Pease or Benjamin Pease, was a notorious

blackbirder Blackbirding involves the coercion of people through deception or kidnapping to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers in countries distant from their native land. The term has been most commonly applied to the large-scale taking of people in ...

, engaged in recruiting and kidnapping

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oce ...

s to provide labor for the plantations of Fiji. Pease was born in 1834 in

Edgartown Edgartown is a tourist destination on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, for which it is the county seat. It was once a major whaling port, with historic houses that have been carefully preserved. To ...

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

Life

Pease was described as “a satanic looking rascal with a black spade beard – howas a more openly piratical operator than ullyHayes”. Pease may have greater claim than Bully Hayes as being a South Sea pirate and "the last of the

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 168 ...

s," as Pease appears to have been engaged in

filibustering A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...

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; and that he was engaged in action against pirates along the coast of China; as well there are stories of Pease raiding trading

junks A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

along the coast of China. On 5 July 1865 Pease received the first license to providing 40 laborers from the New Hebrides to Fiji.

Alfred Restieaux Alfred Restieaux (1832–1911) was born in Somers Town, London, England and came from a family of French descent. His grandfather was a French nobleman who escaped the guillotine during the French Revolution. At the age of 16 he migrated to Aus ...

, an island trader who had dealings with both Hayes and Pease writes that in late in 1866 or early 1867, Pease was introduced to Mr. C. A. Williams, a ship owner of

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...

who bought a schooner that he renamed the ''Blossom''. As captain of the ''Blossom'', Pease traded in the Marshall Islands. Pease purchased the ''Water Lily'', a 250-ton

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part ...

that was built for the opium trade into China, and later fitted it out 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 ships, on which they were held prisoner until delivered to their destination. In 1868, while the ''Water Lily'' was in Manila in the Philippines being repaired, he renamed it the ''Pioneer''.

Ben Pease & Bully Hayes

In 1870, Pease assisted in

Bully Hayes 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.James A. Michener & A. Grove Day, ''Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer'', in ''Rascals in Parad ...

' escape after he was arrested in

Apia Apia () is the capital and largest city of Samoa, as well as the nation's only city. It is located on the central north coast of Upolu, Samoa's second-largest island. Apia falls within the political district (''itūmālō'') of Tuamasaga. T ...

, Samoa on charges of piracy, arising from his blackbirding activities. The accounts of the adventures of Hayes and Pease differ in detail, but what is consistent between the accounts is that Hayes escaped from Samoa on 1 April 1870 aboard the ''Pioneer''. Hayes and Pease proceeded on a trading cruise in the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the centra ...

and the Marshall Islands. According to

, 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. The cargo was sold in Shanghai; what happened to Pease is uncertain, except that he never returned to Apia. Restieaux recounts the two stories that he had been told: the first was that Pease drowned after jumping overboard from a Spanish man-of-war, the second, that he was killed in a fight in the

Bonin Islands The Bonin Islands, also known as the , are an archipelago of over 30 subtropical and tropical islands, some directly south of Tokyo, Japan and northwest of Guam. The name "Bonin Islands" comes from the Japanese word ''bunin'' (an archaic readi ...

. In any event, when the ''Pioneer'' arrived back to port, Hayes was in sole command. His explanation for this change was that Pease had sold him the ship and had retired to China – an explanation that many doubted, but would not or could not challenge. Hayes renamed the ship the ''Leonora'', and it later was wrecked in a storm while in Lelu Harbor, in what is now the Utwe-Walong Marine Park on Kosrae.

Bibliography

* ''Daily Mirror'' (Sydney, Australia) 23 June 1858 * B. Lubbock, ''Bully Hayes, South Sea Pirate'' (London 1931) * A. T. Saunders, ''Bully Hayes'' (Perth 1932) * James A. Michener & A. Grove Day, ''Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer'' in ''Rascals in Paradise'', (London: Secker & Warburg 1957) * F. Clune, ''Captain Bully Hayes'' (Sydney 1970)

Popular culture

* The 1983 film ''

Savage Islands The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands ( pt, Ilhas Selvagens ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira, and north of the Canary Islands.30,000), white-faced storm- ...

'', (also known as ''Nate and Hayes''), is an

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, ani ...

, which starred Australian actor

Max Phipps Maxwell John Phipps (18 November 1939 – 6 August 2000) was an Australian actor, known for a number of roles in theatre, films and television during the 1960s until the end of the 1990s. Life and career Phipps was born in Dubbo and grew up in ...

as the main antagonist in a fictional portrayal of Pease.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pease, Ben 1834 births American pirates History of Oceania American slave traders American people murdered abroad 1870 deaths People from Edgartown, Massachusetts 19th-century pirates American expatriates in China