User:David Kernow/Charles Enderby

Charles Enderby and the Auckland Islands
This is the story of Britain's shortest-lived and strangest attempt at colonisation. The colony was the Auckland Islands and the disastrous attempt to settle there lasted for three years from 1849. The whole venture was the brainchild of Charles Enderby (1798?-1876), who in 1829 had succeeded to the job of running the family whaling firm of Samuel Enderby and Sons. The company has been such a big name in the whaling world that in Moby Dick Herman Melville says that the name of Enderby was of as much historical interest as the combined houses of the Tudors and the Bourbons.

Charles Enderby's house
As well as the whaling, which operated from St Paul's Wharf in the centre of London, Charles set up and invested heavily in a rope works and sail-making factory on Greenwich Marsh, at what is now Enderby Wharf and the Alcatel industrial site. Charles had a riverside house built beside the factory with an octagonal corner window from which he could watch all the shipping going up and down the Thames - the house is still there.

In 1837 Charles entered into a project to make waterproof rope telegraph cabling, but the venture failed because water seeped through the hemp. The outside world did not know it but the financial state of the company was beginning to be a worry. As well as the heavy investment at Greenwich and the failed telegraph wire venture, British whaling was in decline. Since the American colonies had been lost, the British had been unable to use Boston and they were now looking towards the South Pacific for new whaling grounds. The distances were much greater and there needed to be heavy investment in the whaling fleet so that the ships were strong enough to withstand the crushing power of the icy seas encountered in sub-Antarctica.

A further disaster struck in March 1845 when Enderby's Greenwich factory burnt down. The company's fortunes urgently needed reviving. Charles Enderby often entertained his geographical and scientific friends at Enderby House. He was a modern man interested in new ideas - a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Royal Society, where he met distinguished travellers and developed a passion for exploration. The name Enderby had already been used in the South Pacific. An Enderby captain, Abraham Bristow, had found and named the Auckland Islands in 1806 - he called one of them Enderby. The noted Antarctic explorer Sir Charles Ross suggested to Charles Enderby that he should set up a whaling station on one of the islands. Enderby sought government backing for this, which the government was glad to give to help the declining industry.

In 1849 the South Seas Whale Fishery Company was given a royal charter and Charles Enderby, now in his fifties, was made Lieutenant Governor of the Auckland Islands, which gave equal status with Australia, Canada and New Zealand to this group of six volcanic islands about 390 miles south of New Zealand's South Island. Enderby himself chose to lead the expedition to the southern waters, even though he had never before been on a voyage.

The Samuel Enderby
Three ships, the Samuel Enderby, the Brisk and the Fancy, set sail. On board were 200 settlers, attracted by an advertising campaign which gave the impression that there were new opportunities in something of a Promised Land. The settlers included men and women, families and livestock. There were whalemen, carpenters and bricklayers, and they even took prefabricated houses. They went in search of whale oil that could be shipped back and used to light the streets of London.

The expedition turned out to be a disaster, though the details of exactly why did not emerge until comparatively recently. It was not so much that the Auckland Islands were not as Sir Charles Ross had portrayed them, though that was true: they were wet, windy and inhospitable with poor soil. But there was also organisational chaos and mismanagement and the whalemen could not get to work, so there was no money, considerable drunkenness and a complete social breakdown.

The two men who were meant to assist Enderby, William Mackworth and William Munce, could see how incompetent he was. Within a short time the company was facing ruin and special commissioners were sent out to see what was going on. They sacked Enderby, though he took them through the courts in an attempt to get redress. The commissioners wound up the company, closed it down and sold what they could. The settlers were given the opportunity of being taken back home on a company ship. The Maoris who were there chose to stay for a while. To this day there are archaeological relics on the islands including the settlers' cemetery. Charles Enderby returned to England in 1853 and his old company was formally wound up in 1854. Charles died in poverty in London's old Fulham Road.

The detailed account of what actually happened owes much to the work of Conan Fraser and the comparatively recent discovery of the detailed diaries of William Mackworth and William Munce.

Making History consulted Barbara Ludlow and Julian Watson of Greenwich Local History Library.