Ngāti Kahu kidnap victim dies at sea on French ship

Ranginui was a Ngāti Kahu chief from Doubtless Bay who was kidnapped by the French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville.

De Surville’s ship, the St Jean Baptiste, had arrived off northern New Zealand in December 1769 during a voyage across the Pacific. In stormy conditions he and James Cook probably passed within 40 km of each other as they rounded North Cape in opposite directions. The St Jean Baptiste spent two weeks at anchor in Doubtless Bay. Plants found on shore helped to restore the health of men suffering from scurvy, but not before seven had died.

At first relations between the French and local Māori were friendly. De Surville did his best to respect Māori etiquette. Māori supplied the French with much-needed greens and were in turn presented with pigs, a cock and a hen, wheat, rice, peas and cloth. De Surville and his officers recorded their impressions of Māori customs and artefacts in their journals, which provide a valuable insight into Māori life. The ship’s chaplain probably celebrated Mass on Christmas Day. If so, this was the first Christian service in New Zealand.

When a small boat from the St Jean Baptiste drifted ashore at the end of December and was taken by Māori, the atmosphere soured. An angry de Surville ‘arrested’ Ranginui and ordered the burning of some huts, food stores, nets and a canoe; the fire spread across nearby scrubland.

Ranginui, who had been particularly hospitable towards the visitors, was taken aboard the St Jean Baptiste. That evening strong winds forced de Surville to set sail, and the vessel headed east into the southern Pacific.

While he had been taken against his will, Ranginui was apparently well treated by the French. But as the St Jean Baptiste encountered no land, those aboard became increasingly debilitated. Stricken with scurvy, Ranginui died on 24 March 1770, within sight of the Juan Fernandez Islands off Chile. De Surville drowned two weeks later as he tried to go ashore at a Peruvian port to seek help for his crew.

Image: Detail from a commemorative stamp (Te Ara)