The Boyd was a 395 ton brigantine convict ship which sailed from Sydney Cove to Whangaroa on the east coast of Northland Peninsula in New Zealand in October 1809, under the command of a Captain John Thompson and carrying about 70 passengers.

Aboard the ship was George, a Maori from Whangaroa , who refused to obey certain orders because he was the son of a chief. He was flogged twice.

On reaching Whangaroa, where the Boyd was to pick up kauri spars, George reported the indignities he had been subjected to and showed the marks on his back where he had been whipped. The Maori extracted utu (revenge) by killing all but four of the 70 Europeans on board, and ate many of them.

The ship The City of Edinburgh, was sent to Whangaroa with Alexander Berry, to deal with the aftermath of the massacre. Berry rescued four survivors, an apprentice named Davies, and a woman with two children. He captured two Maori chiefs responsible for the massacre but, after threatening them with death and securing the Boyd's ship papers, released them as slaves rather than chiefs. His clemency was due to his desire to avoid more bloodshed, which would have been inevitable if he had executed the chiefs.

External links

• A comprehensive report of this incident written by Tony Flude