The Oeno was a nineteenth-century Pacific

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

. It traveled around

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four isl ...

Design

The boat was a whaler and weighed 328 tons. The boat was designed in

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

. The designer Aaron Mitchell of Nantucket, had Elijah and John B. Barstow of Barstow's Lower Shipyard in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, build the Oeno on the North River, in the year 1821.

History

In November 1824, the crew on the boat began whaling in the South

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

(According to William Cary, who was on the boat at the time). By March 17,1825, the crew had captured eight whales and used 150 barrels.

Pitcairn Islands

On January 26, 1824, George Worth, while sailing in the boat, discovered an island in the

. He named it

Oeno Island Oeno Island ( ) or Holiday Island a coral atoll in the South Pacific Ocean, part of the Pitcairn Islands overseas territory. Geography Located northwest of Pitcairn Island, at . Oeno Atoll measures about in diameter, including the central ...

, named after the boat.

Wreck

At approximately 2:AM on April 14, 1825, the boat crashed into a reef at

Vatoa Vatoa (pronounced ) (known as Turtle Island after Cook's visit) is an outlier of Fiji's Lau Group. History Vatoa was the only island of present-day Fiji visited by James Cook. The island was sighted on 2 July 1774. The next day, a Sunday, th ...

. Only one person survived the crash, William Cary. The rest of the crew and the boat was massacred and killed by the

Fijians Fijians ( fj, iTaukei, lit=Owners (of the land)) are a nation and ethnic group native to Fiji, who speak Fijian and share a common history and culture. Fijians, or ''iTaukei'', are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in ...

in 1827. Shortly after returning to the United States, Cary claimed the ship was destroyed by the Natives at Vatoa.{{Cite book, last=Philbrick, first=Nathaniel, url=https://www.penguin.com/static/packages/us/maritime/seaofglory-excerpts.php, title=Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, publisher=

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Whaling ships Pitcairn Islands