David Whippey (or Whippy, 1802–1871) was an American sailor from

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

who became a " beachcomber", a white resident of the Fijian islands who served as liaison between the local and foreign communities, and eventually was the United States vice-consul to Fiji. Whippey left Nantucket on the whaling ship ''Hero'' in 1816, but jumped ship in Peru. In 1824 he arrived in the Fijian Islands on the brig , the captain Peter Dillon then left Whippey behind to collect tortoise shell, but Dillon failed to return for 13 years. By 1826 Whippey had become ''Mata ki Bau'' (the envoy to the powerful Fijian tribe of Bau). Whippey settled in

Levuka Levuka () is a Local government in Fiji, town on the eastern coast of the Fijian island of Ovalau (Fiji), Ovalau, in Lomaiviti Province, in the Eastern Division, Fiji, Eastern Division of Fiji. Prior to 1877, it was the capital of Fiji. At the ...

on the island of Ovalau in Fiji, married a local woman, and had at least eleven children with multiple women. He also mediated between the Fijians and white sailors. Whippey served as the vice-consul of the United States to Fiji from 1846 to 1856. The first attempt at commercial sugar production in Fiji was by Whippey on Wakaya Island (near Ovalau) in 1862, where he built a sugarcane mill, but this was a financial failure, as the island is small and not suited for growing

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

. Whippey spent the later years of his life on Wakaya until his death in 1871.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whippey Beachcombers American emigrants Immigrants to Fiji Ambassadors of the United States to Fiji Colony of Fiji people People from Nantucket, Massachusetts 1820s in Fiji 1830s in Fiji 1840s in Fiji 1850s in Fiji Fiji–United States relations 1802 births 1871 deaths