Customs document recording and legalising the import of whale oil and seal skins carried on board the brig Active, the Church Missionary Society vessel owned by Rev. Samuel Marsden, December 1821.

MLMSS 11568

fonds

1821

9662541

0.03 metres of textual material (1 folder) - manuscript

Rev. Samuel Marsden (1765-1838) was the Colony’s senior Church of England minister and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) who is believed to have introduced Christianity to New Zealand. Captain John Piper (1773-1851) was a military officer and landowner who was appointed Naval Officer for Sydney in 1813. His duties included the collection of customs duties, excise on spirits and harbour dues.
Whaling and sealing made major contributions to the economy of early New South Wales and were pivotal factors in the emergence of Sydney as a thriving port town. The export of whale by-products such as whale oil and seal fur became one of the Colony’s first primary industries and men like Robert Campbell and Simeon Lord accumulated considerable wealth from the trade. Rev Marsden purchased the Active in 1814 with the aim of using it not only to transport missionaries and settlers to New Zealand but also to engage in whaling and trade and make a profit for the CMS.
References:
https://dictionaryofsydney.org/artefact/active_brig
https://www.awe.gov.au/environment/marine/marine-species/cetaceans/whaling

Private collection, Australia; ex Maggs Bros., London, 1982, Catalogue 1027, no. 4115; ex Webster Collection. Kenneth Athol Webster (1906-1967) was a New Zealand-born dealer and collector in manuscripts, books, paintings and ethnographic artefacts relating to the Pacific. In the two decades after World War II he built one of the largest and most important collections of this type of material ever assembled.

Manuscript in ink on wove paper dated Sydney 24 December 1821 and signed by Captain John Piper in his capacity as ‘Naval Officer & Collector of Government Duties &c.’. Has Webster Collection stamp (without number).
The document certifies that oath has been made before him (John Piper) by Joseph Thompson, Master of the brig Active, and by John Oliverie and John Watson, Mates and harpooners of the same vessel, that various quantities of whale products, including 4 tons and 46 gallons of sperm whale oil and 87 tons of black whale oil, were from whales caught by the brig Active in New South Wales waters, that 242 seal skins and over one ton of whale bone had been transferred to the Active from the brig Quayle at Hobart Town in August 1820, and finally that the Active, a brig of 108 tons, had been duly registered in Sydney by Rev. Samuel Marsden on behalf of the Church Missionary Society.

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales