The Mutiny on the Ploughboy:
April 18, 1837.

      The Nantucket whale ship Ploughboy arrived at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on January 13, 1837. Needing to complete their crew, three New Zealand natives, were brought on board. During a night in April 1837, the New Zealanders rose against the ship killing some members of the crew and seriously injuring others. After setting three of the ship's boats adrift, they escaped in another. As they fled they received fire from the Ploughboy and were injured.

      On May 1, 1837, after more than two weeks at sea, the New Zealanders were picked up in open ocean about 800 miles north of New Zealand by the London whale barque, Achilles, Capt. Lee. When rescued, the New Zealanders had neither food nor water and all were suffering from gunshot wounds. The boat and the whaling gear in it were marked with "S.P.B." for the Nantucket whale ship, Ploughboy, Captain Brown. Captain Lee kept two of the New Zealanders on the Achilles while the third was sent aboard the Australian whale ship Earl Stanhope which needed another man for its crew. Both the Achilles and Earl Stanhope continued on their whaling cruises for three more months before arriving at Sydney in August 1837.

      The New Zealanders told a story of mistreatment by the captain of the Ploughboy and some of its officers as being the reason for their escaping in the boat. Authorities were suspicious of the story, but initially thought it to be somewhat credible. This changed with the arrival of the Black Warrior, a trading ship from Salem, Ms..

      In late July 1837, Captain Mugford of the Black Warrior learned of the Ploughboy mutiny and murders from some vessel or individual at the Bay of Islands. This information with contradictory information about the number of mutineers involved and the number killed, resulted in the New Zealanders being jailed for murder. On the arrival of the Earl Stanhope the third of the trio that had escaped in the boat from the Ploughboy joined his fellow countrymen in custody.

      At the same time the Sydney Herald's "Correspondent at the Bay of Islands" reported: "the New Zealanders on board the American ship Ploughboy rising at night, and assassinating five of the crew – then making their escape in one of the boats." The date of the report from the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, was July 18, 1837.

      The New Zealanders were then handed over to the Police on suspicion of murder.

      On Saturday, August 19th, they were brought before the Police and evidence was heard. On Thursday the 24th it was reported that while the three were still in custody, it was not expected that much more would transpire because of a lack of evidence. When brought before the Police Magistrates they were charged with murder. Their account of why they were in the Ploughboy's boat was given to the court. They were then remanded until Monday the following week.

      On Friday, September 1, 1837, the three New Zealanders, Toutora, Tipati, and Taiapo, who had been charged with murder on board the Ploughboy were discharged, there being no further evidence against them.

      While the Australian side of the story ended here, in March 1838 two Australian newspapers carried the Nantucket Inquirer article of September 27, 1837, which had a much different story to tell that that told by the New Zealanders.

You may move forward or backward through the following pages by positioning the cursor near the extreme edge of the screen about halfway down from the top of the screen and clicking.

      Only one account of the 1837 mutiny on the Ploughboy is represented in the following 38 articles from American newspapers printed between September 27th and October 18th of 1837 — the Nantucket Inquirer article of Wednesday, September 27th was cited as the source by all.

      This article is attributed to the first officer of the Fairhaven bark Isabella, Mr. Davis. The Isabella arrived at New Bedford on the 25th of September, 1837. According to Davis, three New Zealand natives of the Ploughboy's crew, agrieved at their treatment by some of the officers, killed two people and seriously wounded a third before escaping in a boat after setting the other boats adrift. While fleeing, one was shot – the body being recovered the next day. Davis' report concludes by naming one of the murdered seamen – John Coles of Nantucket and giving the nationality of the other as being from Denmark.

      While the Nantucket Inquirer gave no date for the mutiny, The Boston Courier and the New Bedford Mercury preface their republication of the Nantucket Inquirer article with a paragraph that reports the date of the mutiny as "18th June last". Most of the articles that followed used June 18 as the date of the rampage by the New Zealanders. The authority of this date is not known. In part II the matter of the date of the "Mutiny on the Ploughboy" is resolved.

British newspapers generally used the text from the September 27, 1837 Nantucket Inquirer article. Apparently the coverage of the three New Zealanders found in one of the Ploughboy's boats who were held, arrained, and subsequently released by authorities in Australia was ignored. Nothing in the six articles below add to the story of the mutiny on the Ploughboy.

      The Ploughboy arrived from its voyage on April 24, 1838. No mention was made in the press of the "horrid murders and mutiny" of April 1837 at sea in the South Pacific. Almost fifty-one years later "The Mutiny of the Ploughboy" appeared as an article in the Nantucket The Inquirer and Mirror on March 16, 1889. The newspaper prefaced the article with the following statement: "There has been some discussion of late regarding the mutiny on the old whaler Ploughboy, and the following account, taken from an old log-book, has been handed us, which may prove of interest". No further attribution is given for the log-book.

      This article appears to be a log-book entry for April 18, 1837 which is assumed to be the date of the mutiny. This log-book entry not only offers corroboration for some of what was published in September 1837 but adds additional detail to the story.

      The keeper of the log-book says he was awakened by the dog about three-thirty in the morning and heard a "terrible running" on deck. He went on deck and asked the person on watch, Mr. Hait, what the noise was. Hait went as far as the main-hatch where he met on of the New Zealanders who struck him with a hatchet which cut him on the left shoulder. Hait took up a boarding knife as the crew was alerted to the rampage being carried out by the New Zealanders.

      Mr. Davis, the first officer of the Fairhaven bark Isabella who first reported the story in 1837, noted that a boat-steerer was seriously wounded by a hatchet attack; this was most likely Stephen Ladew according to the keeper of the log-book. He wrote:

Then Stephen Ladew came aft, and said that he waked and heard a noise on deck, and started up to see. He got to the top of the ladder and one of the New Zealanders struck at him with a hatchet and cut his arm just below the shoulder joint. He jumped down and waked all the rest, and told them that the New Zealanders were killing people on deck. They all turned out to look out for themselves, supposing that everybody was dead aft.

      While the officers and some of the crew, including the cook and steward, took up defensive positions, John Caryall came from the helm to the cabin gangway asking to be let below saying "one of the New Zealand natives has stuck a lance through me, I am a dead man, and I believe Wall is dead." Caryall died about twenty minutes — not falling "dead through the skylight" as reported earlier. Thomas Wall's body was found near the windlass in the log-book account. In Davis Wall was one of the seamen on the watch and was beheaded. Caryall was identified as "John Coles, of Nantucket" and Wall only as "a native of Denmark".

      The log-book notes "one of the Rotumark^* natives jumped off the stern, which we knew was wounded" and was later picked up, seriously wounded, after an hour in the water. This may be "the dead body of the native" that was retrieved in Mr. Davis report.

      A number of volleys from multiple muskets on board are mentioned in the log-book. That some of these met their mark is attested by the description of gun-shot injuries the three New Zealanders exhibited when they were picked up at sea by Captain Lee of the London whale ship Achilles on May 1, 1837.

      The log-book entry closes thus:

At sunrise we saw the runaway boat bearing W. S. W., distant 7 or 8 miles, with sail set. We then steered for them with all sail set, and got up studding-sail and main royal. At 8 a. m., we buried John Caryall and Thomas Wall. We chased the boat all dry, and at night they were about 10 miles off in the same direction. We took in sail and veered ship to the eastward.

The three New Zealanders came from _____ river. They killed Thomas Wall, a native of Wales, John Caryall, belonging in the town of Senaca, state of New York. They wounded Calvin Hait, belonging in the state of Maine, Stephen Ladew, of New York, and Bob, the Rotumark native.

      The question remains: who was the keeper of the log-book? The captain was Moses Brown. The second officer was Mr. Dunning. Who was the first mate (and possibly the author of the entry in the log-book)? There is a possiblity that Lewis [Louis] Monto who had been second offcer on the Ploughboy's previous voyage was first officer. Monto died in 1881. In his obituary it was written:

Louis Monto, who died at his residence on Everett street, on Tuesday last, at the ripe old age of 74 years, 7 months and 9 days, was born in Boston. When about ten years old, his father having died, he went to Nantucket, and was taken into the family of Philip H. Folger, who at that time was cashier of the bank at that place. He remained with Mr. Folger until he was eighteen years of age, when he shipped as cooper on the whaleship Indus. He followed the sea for several years, visiting nearly every quarter of the globe, rising from one position to another, until he became first mate. Among the heirlooms which he has left behind him, it is interesting to notice the journals which he kept of his different voyages on the Indus and Ploughboy, which two vessels were the only ones on which he ever sailed. Mr. Monto abandoned the whaling business in 1842 and engaged in the manufacture of oil. He came to Brighton in 1853 and was a partner in the firm of Z. Southard & Co., afterward Southard, Herbert & Co. [emphasis added]

      It is thought that the 1834-1838 voyage of the Ploughboy, Moses Brown master, was Lewis' final voyage. He married in 1839 and was living in Boston in 1840 where he was a cooper.

      The log-book used by the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror is not currently among the documented collections of such material that we know of today. Nevertheless, the entry for April 18, 1837 remains and provides information about the "Mutiny on the Ploughboy!"