Cadmus (1816 ship)

On 3 August 1842, Cadmus, Captain Mayhew, struck an uncharted reef whose location Captain estimated at 23°26′S 138°00′W / 23.433°S 138.000°W / -23.433; -138.000. The vessel quickly went to pieces, but captain and crew made it to the island in one of her boats. The captain, mate, and four men subsequently sailed to Tahiti, making the over 1000 mile journey in an open boat.^[8]

Captain Mayhew and his boat crew arrived at Tahiti on 21 August. There he chartered Emerald, Christopher Hall, master, to retrieve the men still on Cadmus Island. Hall returned to Tahiti on 21 September with 18 survivors.^[9]

Cadmus had been out nine months but had only gathered 40 barrels of oil.^[8] Five of the rescued men then joined Lucy Ann, on which Herman Melville had been a sailor until he and several other crew members had quit her in Tahiti, and had been charged with revolt and refusal to do their duty.^[10]

A report in an Australia newspaper stated that the American whaler Cadmus had been totally wrecked on St. John the Baptist's Island, near Pitcairn Island. It reported that she had 1200 barrels of oil aboard. The schooner Emerald had been despatched to bring the crew to Tahiti.^[11]

Captain Mayhew and the first mate, Mr. Norton, arrived at New Bedford prior to March 1843.

• Gleason, Hall (1929). "Old ships and ship-building days of Medford". Medford Historical Register. 32 (1): 10–16.
• Heflin, Wilson Lumpkin (2004). Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Vanderbilt University. ISBN 978-0826513823.
• Quanchi, Max; Robson, John (2005). Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands: Historical Dictionaries of Discovery and Exploration, No. 2. Scarecrow Press.