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Built in 1794 by Peter Everitt Mestaer, King and Queen Dock, Rotherhithe, for J. Carbine.
03 March 1794 launched under the name DUFF.
Tonnage 267 ton (bm). Draught 14ft. Armament 10 - 6pdrs. guns.

Lloyds Register of 1795 gives, that she was bound for Gibraltar under command of Captain P.Gordon, underneath the destination port Gibraltar is marked, as being bound for Port Jackson, Australia. I could not find her in the arrivals of Sydney, that most probably she did not make this voyage.

When the Pacific discoveries of Captain Cook made the people of England more aware of the pagan population of Polynesia. As a result of this awareness a number of meeting were held by those concerned with the propagation of Christianity and the London Missionary Society (MSL) was founded.

1796 The Duff got a charter for a cargo of tea from the East India Company, so the ship could be self supporting for the voyage with missionaries to the Pacific, and after the missionaries were disembarked on the Pacific Islands, the DUFF would sail to China for a cargo of tea. Of she was chartered by the London Missionary Society or bought is not clear, her owner is given during this voyage as J. Cox & Co.
The DUFF was under command of Captain James Wilson a retired East India Company Captain, he offered his service to the London Missionary Society (LSM), and he was appointed captain of the DUFF. First the Duff sailed from the Thames on 10 August 1796 with on board 14 ministers, 22 men skilled in various crafts, a surgeon, and a gentleman’s man servant.
23 September 1796 sailed from Portsmouth for the South Sea, and via the Cape Verde Islands arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 13 November for fresh provision, water and firewood for the galley stove.
Already on 04 March 1797 she sighted the high land of Tahiti and they arrived at Matavai Bay the next day. When she arrived the DUFF had on board 37 missionaries and artisans and their families, who had to be resettled in the South Pacific on the islands of Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas.
07 March the missionaries went on shore, and were met by King Pomare and his Queen on the beach. After the missionaries were settled, the DUFF sailed away on 26 March for the Friendly Islands (Tonga) were he landed 10 missionaries at Tongatabu.
After leaving the DUFF sailed to the Marquesan Islands, Captain Wilson visited and surveyed several islands. One missionary Mr. Crook was left behind there and the DUFF sailed back to Tahiti and arrived in Matavai Bay on 6 July.
When the DUFF was away the missionaries had settled down, and more stores and tools were landed from the DUFF.
04 August 1797 she sailed from Matavai Bay, Dr Gilham was taken back on board he did not want to stay on Tahiti.
After making an other call at Tongatabu where they stayed for an other 20 days, she sailed for Canton.
25 October stood off Satawai, Yap, for a day. The natives came out to trade, but were dispersed with musket shot when they tried to steal iron fastenings on the ship.
Two seamen deserted here, the island was named after one of the deserters “Tucker’s Island”
26 October lay off Lamotrek, which she named “Swede’s Island” after a Swedish seaman who was put off there. The natives took hem happily off in there canoes.
27 October sighted Elato in the morning and the ship lay off trading with the islanders who came out. The same day late in the afternoon sighted Ifaluk but did not approach it.
28 October put in Woleai which they named “Thirteen Island”. More that 50 canoes came out, some containing women, and trading took place.
05 Nov. she arrived at Palau, where she were met by several canoes, presented the islanders with some knives, looking glasses and other goods they received some coconuts. It was not possible to converse with the natives. After two day there the DUFF set sail.
She sailed through the straits of the northern Philippines, near the Bashees, passed Macao and arrived at Canton to load her cargo of tea.
The DUFF was the first missionary vessel to the South Seas, and her voyage has been regarded as a significant aspect of Pacific exploration.
At Typa Harbour she joined a convoy of East India ships and with this convoy she sailed back to England, where she arrived on 11 July 1798 on the River Thames. Her tea cargo netted about £4.000.


After her arrival the DUFF was fitted out again for a voyage to Tahiti, and later that year 30 missionaries embarked. She sailed again on 20 Dec. 1798 under command Robson who had been a officer on the previous voyage in a convoy escorted by HMS AMPHION until in the vicinity of Madeira, where she left the convoy on 08 Jan. Most probably she sailed again via the Cape Verde Islands for Rio de Janeiro.
Shortly thereafter on 19 February 1799 she was captured by the French privateer BUONAPARTE off the South American coast. It is stated that the privateer sent his prize to Montevideo, where no doubt it was sold. Her fate not know.
1802 Her name not more mentioned in Lloyd Register.
The BUONAPARTE was herself captured by a Portuguese squadron and it was sent to Lisbon along with its crew and the people of the DUFF. From Lisbon the crew and passengers of the DUFF made her way back to England.

French Polynesia 1988 80f sg548, scott 498 and 1997 43f sg 771, scott 701
Palau 1984 40c sg 57, scott 52.
Tonga 1997 10s/80s sg1382, scott 957 sg1384/91, scott 959/60 and sg1405/7., scott 972
Tuvalu 1986 50c sg379, scott 355


Source: Foreign Ships in Micronesia, by X Francis and S.J. Hezel. Ships of the East India Company by Rowan Hackman. Log Book Volume 14 page 41. http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/EIIPol/EIIPol2-cl.html http://www.tahiti-postoffice.com/englis ... /9703.html http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/thebc41.htm

The London Mission ship Duff in 1797 landed eighteen missionaries (mainly artisans) at Tahiti, ten more in the Tonga or Friendly Islands, and one on the Marquesas. Those in Tahiti had a varying experience, and their numbers were much reduced, but in July 1812 King Pomare II. gave up his idols and sought baptism. By 1815 idolatry was abolished in the larger islands of the group and there ensued the task of building up a Christian community. Foremost in this work were William Ellis (q.v.) and John Williams (q.v.), who formed a native agency to carry the gospel to their fellow islanders, and so inaugurated what has since been a characteristic feature of South Sea Missions. In 1818 two Tahiti teachers settled in the Tonga islands, which the Duff pioneers had abandoned after half of them had been killed for a cannibal feast. (http://31.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MI/MISSIONS.htm)

Henry Nott (1774–1844) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to Tahiti, Society Islands, Polynesia.
He was one of the first missionaries sent out by the London Missionary Society, arriving in Tahiti aboard the mission ship “Duff” in 1797. He had been a bricklayer by trade and the mission did not prepare these missionaries well for their situation in Tahiti. The "Duff" took a year to return to England. Then, when it was loaded with supplies and returning to Tahiti, it was taken by a French ship, Britain and France being at war during the reign of Napoleon.
During the five-year wait for resupply, several of his fellow missionaries deserted, died, or seemed to go mad. Nott continued on, building a relationship with the new king, Pomare II. Nott did not see his first convert until he had been in Tahiti 22 years, Pomare II. Nott learned the language and worked with Pomare II on translating the Bible into the Tahitian language.
He married a newly arrived missionary from Britain, but she was not content in Tahiti and died within two years.
Nott returned to England only two times during 47 years overseas and was the primary translator of the Bible into the Tahitian language.
Missionary historian Ruth A. Tucker wrote:
But for the perseverance of Henry Nott, the work in Tahiti would no doubt have been abandoned.

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