David Whippey (or Whippy, 1802–1871)[1][2] was an American sailor from Nantucket 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.[3] In 1824 he arrived in the Fijian Islands on the brig Calder, the captain Peter Dillon then left Whippey behind to collect tortoise shell, but Dillon failed to return for 13 years.[1] By 1826 Whippey had become Mata ki Bau (the envoy to the powerful Fijian tribe of Bau).[1] Whippey settled in Levuka on the island of Ovalau in Fiji, married a local woman, and had at least eleven children with multiple women.[1] He also mediated between the Fijians and white sailors.[4]

Whippey served as the vice-consul of the United States to Fiji from 1846 to 1856.[5]

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.[6][7][1] Whippey spent the later years of his life on Wakaya until his death in 1871.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Melillo, Edward D. (1 July 2015). "Making Sea Cucumbers Out of Whales' Teeth: Nantucket Castaways and Encounters of Value in Nineteenth-Century Fiji". Environmental History. 20 (3): 449–474. doi:10.1093/envhis/emv049. ISSN 1084-5453. Retrieved 25 July 2023 – via Academia.edu.
  2. ^ Frank, Stuart M. (Fall 2018). "The Fijian Tabua, William Sizer, and the Methodists" (PDF). Scrimshaw Observer. 2 (3): 6–8. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
  3. ^ Amy Jenness (2014-10-07). On This Day in Nantucket History. The History Press. pp. 307–. ISBN 978-1-62619-626-1.
  4. ^ Reilly Ridgell (1995). Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Bess Press. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-1-57306-006-6.
  5. ^ Historic Nantucket. Nantucket Historical Association. 1986. p. 18.
  6. ^ Moynagh, Michael (1981). Brown or white? a history of the Fiji sugar industry, 1973 - 1973 (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University. p. 13.
  7. ^ Ali, Rasheed A.; Narayan, Jai P. (1989). "The Fiji Sugar Industry: a brief history and overview of its structure and operations" (PDF). Pacific Economic Bulletin. 4 (2). Asia Pacific Press, Australian National University: 14. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
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