Violence
Wentworth Bayly. Log of H.H.S. Curacao (1865)
Logbooks sometimes recorded episodes of violent encounters, including vicious attacks on indigenous peoples. This mid-nineteenth century logbook depicts an incident where the British Royal Navy frigate Curacao fired upon the village of Port Resolution in the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. The officer created markings of death on board by penning black boxes around the daily logbook entry.
Charles Hulot. Letters from the Du Petit-Thouars Expedition to Tahiti and South American on the Corvette Somme (1842-1845)
Charles Hulot served on the corvette (a small warship) Somme, which was stationed at Tahiti protecting French Catholic missionaries. Hulot wrote these letters to his family while on board the ship; they described in detail accounts of violent French colonial interventions in the South Pacific between 1842-1845. Here we see a watercolor of French officers practicing sword combat while at sea and another of an indigenous hut from one of the islands. Some of the letters included drawings of naval vessels in island ports as well as sketches of people the sailor encountered in Chile. The final letter ends with a sketch of a French sailor (perhaps a self-portrait) thumbing his nose at the British flag.
George A. Calhoun. Logbook of the Pacific Cruise of the U.S.S. Narragansett (1871-1872)
Midshipman George A. Calhoun kept this log aboard the U.S. naval vessel Narragansett during a diplomatic and research voyage in the South Pacific, 1870-1873. At the time, the United States, Germany, and Great Britain were competing for political and commercial influence in the region. The commander of the Narragansett, Captain Richard Warsam Meade, signed a treaty of “friendship and protection” with Chief Maunga of Pago Pago, island of Tutuila, Samoan Islands in 1872. Calhoun included a photograph of Chief Maunga in a section of the logbook that described a court martial onboard the Narragansett. The log also described how Captain Meade arrested the infamous pirate and slave trader, “Bully” Hayes in 1872.