Ben Pease facts for kids

Ben Pease or Benjamin Pease, was a well-known blackbirder. This means he was involved in taking people from Pacific Islander islands. These people were then made to work on farms, called plantations, in Fiji.

Pease was born in 1834 in Edgartown, Massachusetts. He was the youngest of seven children. His parents were Henry A. and Mary A. (Fisher) Pease. Ben Pease became a ship's captain. He sailed in the Pacific Ocean during the 1850s and 1860s. His older brother, Henry A. Pease Jr., was also a famous ship captain.

Life of a Sea Captain

Ben Pease was known for his pirate-like actions. Some people even called him "the last of the buccaneers." He was involved in shipping and trade along the coast of China. There are stories that he was a captain of a gunboat for the Imperial Chinese Navy. Other stories say he fought against pirates. But some tales also suggest he acted like a pirate himself, raiding trading ships.

In 1865, Pease got the first license to bring workers from the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) to Fiji. Later, in 1866 or 1867, he became captain of a schooner called the Blossom. He used this ship to trade in the Marshall Islands.

Pease bought another ship, a 250-ton brig named the Water Lily. He changed this ship to be used for blackbirding in the Pacific. Blackbirding was a practice where people were taken, sometimes by force or trickery, from Pacific Islands. They were held prisoner on ships until they reached their destination. There, they were forced to work on plantations. In 1868, while his ship was being fixed in Manila, Philippines, he renamed it the Pioneer.

Ben Pease and Bully Hayes

In 1870, Ben Pease helped another famous sea captain, Bully Hayes, escape. Hayes had been arrested in Apia, Samoa, for piracy because of his blackbirding activities. Hayes escaped on April 1, 1870, aboard Pease's ship, the Pioneer.

Hayes and Pease then went on a trading trip. They sailed through the Caroline Islands and the Marshall Islands. However, they had a big argument about who owned the cargo on the ship. Hayes said the cargo was his, and Pease was just carrying it. Pease claimed he owned half of it.

The cargo was sold in Shanghai. After this, what happened to Ben Pease is not clear. He never returned to Apia. Some stories say he drowned after jumping from a Spanish warship. Others say he was killed in a fight in the Bonin Islands. When the Pioneer returned to port, Hayes was the only captain. He said Pease had sold him the ship and retired to China. Many people doubted this story, but no one could prove otherwise.

Hayes later renamed the ship the Leonora. This ship was later destroyed in a storm in Lelu Harbor, in what is now the Utwe-Walong Marine Park on Kosrae.

Ben Pease in Movies

Ben Pease has been shown in popular culture.

• The 1983 adventure film Savage Islands (also known as Nate and Hayes) features a fictional version of Ben Pease. Australian actor Max Phipps played him as the main bad guy in the movie.