She was built in 1832as a wooden Canton Packet by the yard of William W.Webb at Baltimore for N.L.Griswold of New York.
Launched under the name SPLENDID.
Tonnage 473 gross, dim. 126.6 x 28.10 x 14ft.
Ship rigged.
She was built on Baltimore clipper lines, for the China trade. Carried a woman figure-head.
In the spring of 1843 she made a record passage between Canton and New York in 102 days, under command of Capt. John Land.
In the meantime she was sold to Hudson Foster at Philadelphia, who sold her in 1844 for $ 15.000 to John H.Jones, Goldspring, Conn.
She was refitted in a whaler for the North West Coast whale fishery. Tonnage given as 423 tons, ship rigged.
She sailed for her first whaling voyage from that port on 23 October 1844 under command of Capt. Fordham, for the whaling grounds of the Pacific NW coast. She returned at Gold Spring on 29 June 1846 with on board 200 brls. sperm-oil, 2.900 brls. whale oil and 31.000 pound bone.
During that voyage 15 men out of the original crew of 31 deserted. Mostly the empty places were filled with men from the Azores of Kanakas from Hawaii.
Her second voyage she sailed on 28 October 1848, again under command of Capt. Fordham (a other source gives Capt. Samuel B. Person) for the Pacific. While cruising off the islands of North Japan an abandoned junk was discovered, loaded with tea.
The junk was taken in tow and put into the nearest Japanese port. When the port officials arrived on board, the complete crew was removed from the SPLENDID, marched to a picturesque park, bathed in a pool and dressed in the local costumes. Then marched to a banquet hall, where a great feast awaited them, with each course served by separate groups of women in different kimonos. After the meal, the sailors were taken back to the pool, bathed again, dressed in their own clothing, and marched back to the ship. They were then told to sail out, and when returned in a Japanese port they would be beheaded.
It is believed the SPLENDID is the second American whaler legally to enter Japan.
She returned on 15 March 1851 with on board 3.400 brls. whale-oil, and 38.000 pound bone.
Her third voyage was under command of Capt.Richard Smith for the North Pacific, she sailed on 15 October 1851 and returned 12 April 1853, with 2.359 brls. whale-oil and 34.200 pound bone.
Feb. 1852 she visited Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). At that time the captain’s wife was also on board.
First the voyage was without luck, out already 7 months and 10 days without any whale, when looking for whales in the Bering Strait, she sighted many whales, and the ship was so stacked with blubber that the ship had to put into shore to try it all out. She got a full load in two months and returned in Goldspring after 18 months.
Her fourth voyage again under Capt. Smith, she sailed in October 1858 for the North Pacific. She returned on 04 April 1856 with on board 2.096 brls whale-oil and 12.000 pound bone. She had already during that voyage sent home 1.050 brls. whale-oil.
The owners had to pay the Captain and crew that voyage the total sum of $33.700.
Sailed again from Goldspring on 15 September 1856 under command of Capt. Pierson, (same as voyage 2) her owners now given as SA & WE Jones. Again for the whaling grounds of the North Pacific.
She returned on 27 April 1860 with on board 1.049 brls. whale-oil and 21.000 pound bone.
Pierson had difficulties with his officers, and the voyage was not successful.
A boatheader of the vessel wrote an anonymous letter to the owners from Honolulu in November 1857, he claimed that he was cheated out of $50 by the captain, and complaining that the captain only was playing and drinking. In port it is rum and squaws and at sea rum and cards.
It took more as two years before the captain got home and could defend himself.
After arrival she was sold to Lang & Delano of Boston, most probably shipbrokers. She disappears then out of sight for about 10 years. She was most probably still whaling, the famous writer Frank Bullen made around 1870 a voyage on board the SPLENDID from New Bedford, and wrote about 20 years later a book “Cruise of the Cachalot.”
1874 Sold to Messrs. Cormack Elder and Co., at Otago, New Zealand.
She sailed for her first whaling voyage from Port Chalmers on 27 October 1874 under command of Capt. Mellon.
1881 She had a very profitable voyage after 12 months whaling she returned home with on board 160 tuns whale-oil.
1882 She made one of the best ambergris finds in a whale, weighed 983 lbs, and sold 10 years later for $US 125.000, a sizeable sum for those days.
When whaling declined in New Zealand waters she was used also as cargo vessel. Her last voyage she made was under command of Capt. Harold Dillner on a voyage from Port Chalmers to Kaipara on the night of 7 February 1890 she went aground on a reef off Port Albert, Kaipara Harbour.
Refloated the next morning, and it did look that she did not have much damage. She had to load timber at Port Albert for Dunedin. But when she commenced loading it was found that she badly leaked. She was beached to inspect the damage and unload her, but she was so rotten that she could not bear her own weight, and whole of her starboard side gave way and caved in.
She was condemned and dismantled of all her gear.
Under New Zealand registry her tonnage is given as 358 gross tons. Rigged as a barque, with a dim. 109.5 x 27.2 x 18.2ft.
Norfolk Island 1985 50c sg358, scott?
Samoa 1979 50s sg543, scott506.
Source. History of the American Whale Fishery by Alexander Starbuck. Sealers & Whalers in New Zealand Waters by Don Grady. Whalers out of Van Diemen’s Land by Harry O’May.
Mark Well the Whale by Frederick P.Schmitt. New Zealand Shipwrecks by C.W.N. Ingram.