Boyd massacre

The Boyd Massacre took place in 1809 when Māori residents of Whangaroa Harbour in northern New Zealand killed and ate between 66 and 70 people as revenge for the whipping of a young Māori chief by the crew of the sailing ship Boyd. This was reputedly the highest number of Europeans killed by Māori in a single event, and the incident is also one of the bloodiest instances of cannibalism on record. In retribution, European whalers attacked the island pa of Chief Te Pahi about 60km south-east, in the possibly mistaken belief that he ordered the killings. About 60 Maori and one European died in the clash. News of the events delayed the first missionary visits to the country, and caused the number of shipping visits to fall to "almost nothing" over the next few years.

Background

The Boyd was a 395 ton brigantine convict ship that sailed in October 1809 from Sydney Cove to Whangaroa on the east coast of the Northland Peninsula to pick up kauri spars. She was under the command of Captain John Thompson and carried about 70 people.

Te Ara, the son of a Māori chief from Whangaroa, asked to work his passage on the ship. An incident occurred which resulted in him being flogged. One source states that he refused orders, claiming poor health and noble birth. Another states that the ship's cook accidentally threw some pewter spoons overboard and falsely accused Te Ara of stealing them to avoid being flogged himself. Alexander Berry, in a letter describing the events, said: "The captain had been rather too hasty in resenting some slight theft." Upon reaching Whangaroa, Te Ara reported his indignities to his tribe and displayed the whip marks on his back. In accordance with Maori customs, they formed a plan for utu (revenge). Under British law the master's word was law and whipping was the common law punishment for all minor crimes at that time. A British person could be legally hanged for stealing goods to the value of 5 shillings. There were 160 crimes for which the punishment was hanging. Under Maori lore the son of a chief was privileged figure who did not bow to anyone's authority. Physical punishment of a chief's son, though justified by British common law, caused the chief to suffer serious loss of face or mana and this often resulted in violent reaction.

The killings

Three days after the Boyd's arrival, the Māori invited Captain Thompson to follow their canoes to find suitable kauri trees. Thompson, his chief officer and three others followed the canoes to the entrance of the Kaeo River. The remaining crew stayed aboard with the passengers, preparing the vessel for the voyage to England.

When the boats were beyond the Boyd's sight the Māori attacked the pākehā (foreigners), killing all with clubs and axes. The Māori stripped the western clothes from the victims and a group donned them as disguise. Another group carried the bodies to their pā (village) to be eaten.

At dusk the disguised group manned the longboat, and at nightfall they slipped alongside the Boyd and were greeted by the crew. Other Māori canoes awaited the signal to attack. The first to die was a ship's officer: the attackers then crept around the deck, stealthily killing all the crew. The passengers were called to the deck and then killed. Five people hid up the mast among the rigging, where they witnessed the dismembering of their friends and colleagues' bodies below.

The next morning the survivors saw a large canoe enter the harbour. It belonged to Chief Te Pahi from the Bay of Islands, who had come to trade. They called out to Te Pahi's canoe for help. The Whangaroa Māori watched as Te Pahi gathered the survivors and headed for shore. Two Whangaroa canoes pursued. As the survivors fled along the beach, Te Pahi watched as all but one were caught and killed by the pursuers.

The survivors

Five people were spared in the massacre: Ann Morley and her baby, in a cabin; Apprentice Thomas Davis (or Davison), hidden in the hold; the second mate; and two-year-old Betsy Broughton, taken by a local chief who put a feather in her hair and kept her for three weeks before rescue. The mate was killed and eaten when his usefulness in making fish-hooks was exhausted.

Destruction of the Boyd

Louis John Steele's The Blowing Up of the Boyd (1889).

The Whangaroa Māori towed the Boyd towards their village until it grounded on mudflats near Motu Wai (Red Island). They spent several days ransacking the ship, tossing flour, salt pork, and bottled wine overboard. The Māori were interested in a large cache of muskets and gunpowder.

About 20 Māori smashed barrels of gunpowder and attempted to make the muskets functional. Chief Piopio sparked a flint, igniting the gunpowder causing a massive explosion that killed him and nine other Māori instantly. A fire then swept the ship igniting its cargo of whale oil. Soon all that was left of the Boyd was a burnt-out hull. Māori declared the hull tapu, sacred or prohibited.

Rescue

When news of the massacre reached European settlements, Captain Alexander Berry undertook a rescue mission aboard The City of Edinburgh. Berry rescued the four survivors, Ann Morley, her baby, Thomas Davis (or Davison) and Betsy Broughton.

The City of Edinburgh crew found piles of human bones on the shoreline, with many evincing cannibalism.

Captain Berry captured two Māori chiefs responsible for the massacre, at first holding them for ransom for the return of survivors. Subsequently, after the survivors were returned Berry threatened them that they would be taken to Europe in order to answer for their crimes unless they released the Boyd's papers. After the papers were given to him, he released the chiefs. He made it a condition of their release that they would be "degraded from their rank, and received among the number of his slaves", although he never expected this condition to be complied with. They expressed gratitude for the mercy. Berry's gesture avoided further bloodshed — an inevitability had the chiefs been executed.

The four people rescued were taken on board Berry's ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope. However, the ship encountered storms and was damaged, and after repairs arrived in Lima, Peru. Mrs. Morely died while in Lima. The boy, called Davis or Davidson, went from Lima to England aboard the Archduke Charles, and later worked for Berry in New South Wales. He drowned while exploring the entrance to the Shoalhaven River with Berry in 1822. The child of Mrs. Morely and Betsy Broughton were taken onwards by Berry to Rio de Janeiro, from where they returned to Sydney in May 1812 aboard the Atalanta. Betsy Broughton married Charles Throsby, nephew of the explorer Charles Throsby, and died in 1891.

Aftermath

In March 1810, a revenge attack was undertaken by sailors from five whaling vessels, but their target was Rangihoua Pā, belonging to Chief Te Pahi, the chief who tried to rescue the Boyd survivors and then saw them killed. Te Pahi had later accepted one of the Boyd's small boats and some other booty, and his name may have been confused with that of Te Puhi, who was one of the architects of the massacre. In the attack 60 Māori and one sailor died, and a wounded Te Pahi fled to Whangaroa, where he was killed by the Māori there.

News of the Boyd Massacre reached Australia and Europe, delaying a planned visit of missionaries until 1814. A notice was printed and circulated in Europe advising against visiting "that cursed shore" of New Zealand, at the risk of being eaten by cannibals.

Shipping to New Zealand "fell away to almost nothing" during the next three years.

Cultural References

Details of the massacre have featured in numerous non-fiction publications. One of the most comprehensive was Wade Doak's "The Burning of the 'Boyd' - A Saga of Culture Clash (1984), which is out of print.

The massacre was the subject of a 2010 New Zealand children's book, The Shadow of the Boyd, by Diana Menefy, and a 2005 historical fiction novel, The Boyd Massacre, by Ian Macdonald. The latter author, an Australian, claims to be a descendant of Boyd survivor Betsey Broughton.

The massacre has also featured in paintings by Louis Auguste Sainson (The Boyd Incident [1839]), Louis John Steele (The Blowing Up of the Boyd [1889]), and Walter Wright (The Burning of the Boyd [1908]).

See also

• List of massacres in New Zealand

References

• A comprehensive report by Tony Flude
• "BOYD", MASSACRE OF, from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 18 September 2007.
• The Massacre of the Boyd, 1809 and 1810 and After the Massacre, 1810 to 1814, Chapters 10 and 11 in From Tasman To Marsden: A History of Northern New Zealand from 1642 to 1818, by Robert McNab. Published by J. Wilkie & Company, Dunedin, 1914.
• Massacre of the Boyd, in Chapter 1, in Christianity Among The New Zealanders, by the Right Rev. William Williams, D.C.L., Bishop of Waiapu. Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, London, 1867.

External links

• Depiction of the capture of the Boyd in Whangaroa Harbour, Louis Auguste Sainson, 1840s?.
• The Burning of the Boyd, oil painting by Walter Wright, 1908.