Scoundrels of the Pacific, Dunmore’s last book?
Scoundrels and Eccentrics of the Pacific, by John Dunmore, Upstart Press, $40. Reviewed by Ian Earle.
Historian John Dunmore has tapped his great knowledge of the Pacific to bring us a sample of some of its weird and wonderful characters. The former Massey University professor is renowned for his books on Pacific explorers, particularly Frenchmen like Jeanfrancois La Perouse, Louisantoine de Bougainville and Jeanfrancois-marie de Surville. He has been honoured in France, where he re-discovered and translated the journals of the ill-fated La Perouse, which had been lost in the archives. There’s hardly a mention of these notable explorers in this book, or of James Cook. Bligh and the Bounty mutineers have a chapter, but most others will be unknown to readers and they are a colourful bunch. The academic in Dunmore resists the temptation to sensationalise, as shown in the chapter on William Henry Hayes. He chastises other writers who have built ‘‘Bully’’ Hayes into a folk hero, a swashbuckling pirate. Hayes, whose extensive Pacific travels took him to New Zealand, notably Arrowtown, was ‘‘simply a confidence trickster and a thief, although admittedly he was also a recklessly brutal individual’’. The earliest recorded Pacific visitor was Hsu Fu, a Chinese sailor who is thought to have reached and started a settlement in Japan about 220BC. Also relatively early were William Dampier and Francis Drake, heroic figures in England, but considered pirates elsewhere. They and other buccaneers preceded Cook and the French. The bulk of Dunmore’s subjects arrived in the 19th century, but a few are from the 20th, including one from each of the world wars. Both touched New Zealand. Felix Von Luckner had a heavily armed three-masted sailing ship in World War 1. After being shipwrecked in the Society Islands, Von Luckner was captured and imprisoned on Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf. His escape in the commodore’s motor launch is legend. World War II saw more disguised raiders. The Orion laid mines off the Hauraki Gulf, leading to the sinking of the liner Niagara in 1940. All 349 passengers survived, but any Kiwi complacency was shattered. If there was a prize for the nastiest Pacific visitors, it would probably be won by one of the ‘‘blackbirders’’, who were one step up from slave traders. It is estimated 70,000 young men and women were taken from Vanuatu between 1866 and 1890, either enticed with glowing reports of employment or simply kidnapped. About 48,000, mainly from the Solomons and Papua New Guinea, were taken to work the cane fields in Queensland. American James Proctor was perhaps the sneakiest. He would invite islanders aboard his ship and distract them while his crew sank their canoes and set sail. John Dunmore is in his mid90s and says this is his last book. That may be so, but don’t bet on it. He has a remarkable bibliography to his name, many published by companies he started – Dunmore Press and Heritage Press. His tally is more than 30.