{{Short description|American sailor}} '''David Whippey''' (or '''Whippy''', 1802–1871)<ref name="edm"/><ref name="so">{{cite journal |last1=Frank |first1=Stuart M. |title=The Fijian Tabua, William Sizer, and the Methodists |journal=Scrimshaw Observer |date=Fall 2018 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=6–8 |url=http://www.antiquescrimshawcollectors.org/uploads/4/5/7/2/45723059/02.03_fall_2018_scrimshaw_observer.pdf |access-date=30 July 2023}}</ref> was an American sailor from Nantucket who became a "beachcomber", a white resident of the Fijian islands who served as liaison between the local and foreign communities, and eventually was the United States vice-consul to Fiji.
Whippey left Nantucket on the whaling ship ''Hero'' in 1816, but jumped ship in Peru.<ref>{{cite book|author=Amy Jenness|title=On This Day in Nantucket History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xm9hBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA307|date=2014-10-07|publisher=The History Press|isbn=978-1-62619-626-1|pages=307–}}</ref> In 1824 he arrived in the Fijian Islands on the brig {{ship||Calder|1821 ship|2}}, the captain Peter Dillon then left Whippey behind to collect tortoise shell, but Dillon failed to return for 13 years.<ref name="edm"/> By 1826 Whippey had become ''Mata ki Bau'' (the envoy to the powerful Fijian tribe of Bau).<ref name="edm">{{cite journal |last1=Melillo |first1=Edward D. |title=Making Sea Cucumbers Out of Whales' Teeth: Nantucket Castaways and Encounters of Value in Nineteenth-Century Fiji |journal=Environmental History |date=1 July 2015 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=449–474 |doi=10.1093/envhis/emv049 |url=https://www.academia.edu/19506800 |via=Academia.edu |access-date=25 July 2023 |issn=1084-5453}}</ref> Whippey settled in Levuka on the island of Ovalau in Fiji, married a local woman, and had at least eleven children with multiple women.<ref name="edm"/> He also mediated between the Fijians and white sailors.<ref name="Ridgell1995">{{cite book|author=Reilly Ridgell|title=Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ldLahhkAvSUC&pg=PA41|year=1995|publisher=Bess Press|isbn=978-1-57306-006-6|pages=41–}}</ref>
Whippey served as the vice-consul of the United States to Fiji from 1846 to 1856.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historic Nantucket|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eIxLAAAAYAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Nantucket Historical Association.|page=18}}</ref>
The first attempt at commercial sugar production in Fiji was by Whippey on Wakaya Island (near Ovalau) in 1862, where he built a sugarcane mill, but this was a financial failure, as the island is small and not suited for growing sugarcane.<ref>{{cite book |title=Brown or white? a history of the Fiji sugar industry, 1973 - 1973 |last=Moynagh |first=Michael |year=1981 |publisher=Australian National University |location=Canberra |page= 13 |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/132695/1/PRM_05.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ali |first1=Rasheed A. |last2=Narayan |first2=Jai P. |title=The Fiji Sugar Industry: a brief history and overview of its structure and operations |journal=Pacific Economic Bulletin |date=1989 |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/158013/1/042_fiji.pdf |access-date=23 July 2023 |publisher=Asia Pacific Press, Australian National University |page=14}}</ref><ref name="edm"/> Whippey spent the later years of his life on Wakaya until his death in 1871.<ref name="edm"/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whippey}} Category:1802 births Category:1871 deaths
Category:Sailors from Massachusetts Category:People from Nantucket, Massachusetts Category:American people in whaling Category:American emigrants to Fiji Category:Beachcombers Category:Colony of Fiji people Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Fiji Category:Fiji–United States relations Category:1820s in Fiji Category:1830s in Fiji Category:1840s in Fiji Category:1850s in Fiji