James Wilson, Captain of the Duff (1904)

Captain James Wilson (1760–1814), commanded the British ship ''Duff'', which the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

contracted in 1797 to convey a team of missionaries (consisting of thirty men, six women, and three children) to their postings in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, and the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in ...

Life

Wilson was born in 1760. He had been a British soldier during the American war of Independence and then he had worked for the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. He had been an adventurer who was noted for not being religious. Eventually he had enough money to retire and it was during his retirement that he was convert to Christianity. He heard of the formation of a missionary society via the Evangelical Magazine. His track record made him the focus of their efforts.

Thomas Haweis Thomas Haweis (c.1734–1820), (surname pronounced to rhyme with "pause") was born in Redruth, Cornwall, on 1 January 1734, where he was baptised on 20 February 1734. As a Church of England cleric he was one of the leading figures of the 18th ce ...

who had inspired the creation of missionaries was particularly supportive. The objective was to send missionaries to the South Seas. Wilson had volunteered to lead such a journey and this offer was accepted in September 1795. It was Wilson who suggested that they should buy a boat and he found the "Duff" which was 264 tons and enabled the

to plan for a large number of missionaries. The proposed missionary group could include artisans so that the group could model their civilisation and be resistant to a small number of deaths. It was agreed to send then to

and if possible

and the

. The Duff set sail in 1797. During the voyage, Wilson also surveyed (or confirmed the locations of) numerous islands in the Pacific, including

Vanua Balavu Vanua Balavu (pronounced ) is the third largest island in Fiji's Lau archipelago, and the main island of the Northern Lau Group. Geography and infrastructure This coral and volcanic island has a land area of . Its maximum elevation is . The isl ...

Fulaga Fulaga (pronounced ) (proper name: Vulaga) is a crescent-shaped reef-limestone island in Fiji's Southern Lau Group. The spectacular lagoon and the fact that the island is a ''Pritchardia thurstonii ''Pritchardia thurstonii'' is a species of fl ...

and

Ogea Levu Ogea Levu (pronounced ) is a coral island on a barrier reef in Fiji's Southern Lau archipelago. With an area of , it is situated at 19.18° South and 178.47° West, east of Fulaga. It has a maximum altitude of . A area covering both Ogea Levu a ...

in Fiji,

Mangareva Mangareva is the central and largest island of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. It is surrounded by smaller islands: Taravai in the southwest, Aukena and Akamaru in the southeast, and islands in the north. Mangareva has a permanent p ...

in the

Gambier Islands The Gambier Islands ( or ) are an archipelago in French Polynesia, located at the southeast terminus of the Tuamotu archipelago. They cover an area of , and are made up of the Mangareva Islands, a group of high islands remnants of a caldera a ...

, Pukarua in the

Tuamotus The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

, and

Satawal Satawal is a solitary coral atoll of one island with about 500 people on just over 1 km2 located in the Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Satawal is th ...

Elato Elato is a coral atoll of three islands in the central Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. It is located approximately west of Lamotrek. Its population was ...

, and

Lamotrek Lamotrek is a coral atoll of three islands in the central Caroline Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia. The atoll is located approximately east of Elato. The popu ...

, in the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

. Three years after the establishment of the British mission in Tahiti, the directors of the Society appointed a committee to consider a suitable memorial for presentation to Wilson for his services in helping to establish the first mission in the South Seas. He published an account of his voyage: ''A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean'' in 1799. This added to the idea that Wilson was the hero and his reputation overshadowed that of the missionaries and the Polynesians.

References

External links

Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific IslandsLondon Missionary Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, James 1760 births 1814 deaths English explorers of the Pacific 18th-century explorers Date of birth missing Place of birth missing