In The Wake Of
pp. 87-88 · Read in the full issue
[?]agedy of [?]51
The Wanderer
IHE sketches herewith were made . by Capt. John Webster, skipper of the armed yacht Wanderer, med by Benjamin Boyd, whose te in Guadalcanal in 1851 was Id in May PIM.
John Webster (1811-1912) was a rsatile man who led a roving e in early New South Wales and ctoria in the 1830’s and settled New Zealand in 1841 to engage the timber export trade. [n 1850 he was sent off from ickland, NZ, as supercargo on a ip owned by pioneer Auckland jrchants, Brown and Campbell, th a cargo of timber for
lifornia. Having disposed of the go he won the friendship of ijamin Boyd, owner of the ury yacht Wanderer, of 240 is. soyd, a controversial figure in cv South Wales in the 1840’s, i taken a party of gold-seekers m Sydney to California, is sailing master of the \nderer, John Webster was ijamin Boyd’s chief assistant in
a remarkable voyage of 1851 that began at San Francisco with high hopes, and ended distastrously with Boyd’s murder by natives of Guadalcanal in October and the wreck of the yacht in November at Port Macquarie, on the coast of New South Wales.
Unwisely, in fact, recklessly, Mr.
Boyd had gone ashore on Guadalcanal the morning of October 15 to shoot some game for dinner.
Rumours that Benjamin Boyd was still alive and was held prisoner by the natives of Guadalcanal were from time to time brought to Sydney by ships calling at the Solomon Islands in the 1850’s.
However, the mystery of the disappearance of Benjamin Boyd was never solved.
Wanderer Bay, marked on large scale maps of Guadalcanal, is the
Above: House of Images at Makira Bay, San [?]oval, Solomon Islands. "Wanderer" reached Cristoval on September 6, 1851, and [?]amin Boyd spent a month in a leisurely [?]ination of the coastline. A few years [?]iously three French missionaries had been [?]dered on San Cristoval.
[?]ght: The yacht "Wanderer" with owner [?]amin Boyd on board approaching Nukumau, [?] of the Gilbert Islands, on August 5, 1851. [?] yacht was greeted by 100 small sailing [?] es.
Destruction of a native village in Guadal canal after the death of Benjamin Boyd on October 15, 1851. The yacht "Wanderer" was at Gaudalcanal from October 12 to 18, when Captain Webster reluctantly set sail for Sydney, having failed in several expeditions ashore to find any trace of Mr. Boyd.
c- ■ reminder of the last cruise ; ■ yacht Wanderer and its ar , turous owner. st as well as master mariner, ,r and timber miller, John W-Hster carried his sketch book him on the Wanderer. ose reproduced here are three lit water colour sketches that n the walls of the Hall of h Pacific Ethnology at Auckland seum. They are a memorial the last cruise of the Wanderer , uid to its artist-skipper. They e a vivid glimpse of life in the : - mnibal Islands a century ago. -hotos of the originals by J. E. Farreily J of Auckland.)