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Built circa 1826 as a merchantman. 371 tons. Length 108ft. Beam 27ft. Depth 18ft. Framed and Planked in oak.
She was purchased by a New Bedford whaling concern in 1841 and fitted out in New Bedford for whaling. She carried 5 whaleboats which hung from davits, two on the
starboard side and Three on the port side. Crew consisted of 30 officers and men.
Her full rig was changed to that of a bark with fore and aft sails on the mizzen mast, a rig favoured by Whalers as it required no men to go aloft to handle the mizzen which left more men free to man the boats. Gun ports were painted on each side of the hull as a deterrent to pirates and hostile savages.
Her first voyage yielded 2.700 barrels of oil and 17.000lbs. of Baleen. At the end of almost 50 years in the whaling trade under numerous captains she had totalled 31.409 barrels of oil and 267.816lbs of Baleen.
It may be of interest to note that the afterhouse at the stern covered the steering mechanism. The wheel was mounted at the end of a heavy tiller that moved in an arc, as the wheel was turned it moved the tiller to a new position by means of a series of ropes and pulleys.
The Captains quarters contained a bed swung on gimbals a desk, chair and sofa. The mates quarters were in tiny staterooms off the main cabin. The crew bunked in the
foc'sle entering through a scuttle just aft of the windlass used for hoisting blubber aboard. All in all very cramped quarters for all.
The blubber room, where the blubber was cut for the try-works was situated between the foc'sle and the steerage. The oil was kept in the hold, though a few barrels were stored in the blubber room.
In 1890 she was so badly damaged in a North Pacific gale that she ony just managed to reach Yokohama, ending her days there a a coal hulk serving ships in Japanese waters.
Log Book Jan 1990.
Samoa SG541.

Her ninth voyage under Captain Swift was again to the Pacific; she left from New Bedford on 05 July 1868 and returned home on 05 June 1873.
She was one of the eight vessels who escaped the whaling disaster of 1871 when a fleet of 33 American whalers got trapped in the Arctic off the Alaskan coast.
When four ships were crushed by the ice south of Point Franklin the crews of the 29 other ships abandoned mid September their ships in all 1,219 people under which women and children left in whale boats their ships to cross 70 miles of ice before they were picked up by the eight vessels which escaped from the ice, and brought to Honolulu without the loss of one person.
The LAGODA took 170 survivors.
The owner of the LAGODA put in a claim by the U.S.A. Government for $51,033.25. for lost profit.
21 January 1891 at least part of the claim was honoured by the American Congress that the owner would receive $138.89 for each saved person; the owner of the LAGODA received $23,611.30.
Al together till 1887 she made 11 whaling voyages, the last voyage she made a loss of $10,253.55 and was sold.

1887 Sold to William Lewis at San Francisco, who used her also as a whaler.
During her last whaling voyage in 1889 was she running in a severe gale, she got so much damage that she had to make a call at Yokohama for repairs. It looks that repairing her was too expensive she was condemned.
Sold to John Lindsay who used her as a coal hulk for the steamships which entered Yokohama and needed coal for their bunkers.

1899 Was she scrapped.

During her time as a whaler she was the most lucrative investment in whaling history.

Samoa I Sisifo 1979 14s sg541, scott504.