Duff (1794 ship)

The missionary ship Duff arriving at Otaheite
History
Name:	Duff
Owner:	1795:J. Carbine 1796:Cox & Co.
Builder:	Peter Everitt Mestaer, King and Queen Dock, Rotherhithe
Launched:	3 March 1794
Fate:	Captured 1799
General characteristics
Type:	Ship
Tons burthen:	267 (bm)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	18 crew
Armament:	1797: 10 × 6-pounder guns

Duff was a ship launched on the Thames in 1794. In 1796 the London Missionary Society engaged her to take a party of missionaries to the South Pacific. Once she had landed the missionaries she sailed to China and took a cargo back to England for the British East India Company. On this voyage her captain named a variety of South Pacific islands. On her second voyage to deliver missionaries a French privateer captured her off the coast of Brazil on the outward-bound leg of her voyage.

Duff was originally under the command of P. Gordon, with owner J. Carbine and traded beteween London and Gibraltar.

In 1795 the just formed London Missionary Society decided to send missionaries to the South Pacific. Captain James Wilson volunteered his services and the society was able to afford to purchase Duff. Lloyd's Register for 1796 shows that Wilson replaced Gordon as master of Duff, and Cox & Co. replaced J. Carbine as owner. Also, her trade changed to London-Port Jackson. By 1797, her trade was London-South Seas.

The London Missionary Society instructed Wilson to deliver a group of missionaries and their families (consisting of thirty men, six women, and three children) to their postings in Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas Islands. Captain Wilson and Duff left The Downs on 13 August 1796 and by 12 November she was at Rio de Janeiro. On 6 March 1797 she reached Matavai (Mahina), where 14 missionaries and their families disembarked.Duff next delivered nine volunteers to Tongatapu on 26 March. One left immediately, and over time the locals killed three.

While sailing from Tongatapu to the Marquesas, Wilson became the first European to visit Pukarua, which he found uninhabited and named Searle Island. On 24 May Wilson he sighted Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, which he named for James Gambier, then a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. The largest land feature on Mangareva is named Mount Duff. At Mangareva Duff stopped at Rikitea. Wilson was the first European to visit Temoe in the Gambiers, which he named "Crescent Island".