David Whippey

David Whippey (or Whippy) was an American sailor from Nantucket who became a "beachcomber", a white resident of the Fijian islands who served as liaison between the local and foreign communities, and eventually was the United States vice-consul.
Whippey left Nantucket on the whaling ship "Hero" in 1816, but jumped ship in Peru. In 1824 he arrived in the Fijian Islands on the brig , Peter Dillon, master, who then left Whippey behind to collect tortoise shell, but never returned. Whippey settled in Fiji, married a local woman, and had families/children with three other women in three different regions of the Fijian Islands. He also mediated between the Fijians and white sailors.
Whippey served as the vice-consul of the United States to Fiji from 1846 to 1856.
'In 1819 David Whippey shipped in a Nantucket whaler. After many months at sea he tired of life aboard the Massachusetts ‘spouter’, and when his ship reached the Fiji Islands - the ‘Cannibal Islands’ of those days - he skipped and went native. He learnt the lingo, became a favourite of, and adviser to, the ‘Cannibal King’ Seru Epenisa Cakobau. He learned the native Fijian language and learnt about the herbal medicines. He was made a chief and presided at cannibal banquets and ‘long-pig’ ceremonies, but whether he partook of the meat has not been recorded. There are hundreds of his descendants [who] live in the Fijian group and all around the world to this day. He helped many shipwrecked whalemen - at this time the Fijians were partial to white seamen - and prevented them from being turned into ‘long-pig’. When the islands were ceded to Britain in 1874, Whippey acted as official interpreter at the ceremony.'