Please see reel PMB MS 480 for full entry.

Diary of John T. Arundel, 1873 - 1880. During this period, Arundel managed guano digging in the central part of Flint Island, Kiribati. See also PMB MS 14, 498.

John T. Arundel (1841-1919) was a leading figure in the Pacific phosphate industry in Kiribati and Nauru from the 1860s until his death. See: Pacific Islands Monthly, April 1874, pp.59-61. For a summary of Arundel's activities from 1865-92, see film PMB MS 494. The National Library of Australia holds a number of Arundel photographic albums. The diaries have been filmed on reels PMB 480 - 492.

Diary 9 June 1870 - 31 December 1872.<BR>See also PMB 14, 498.

Captain William L. Hudson was commander of the US ship Peacock, one of the vessels of the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific, 1838-42, commanded by Commodore Charles Wilkes. He later transferred his flag to the Porpoise.

The journal begins when the expedition was en route from Fiji to Honolulu, and gives an account of the PEACOCK's visits to the Hawaiian Islands, Oregon, Southern California, the Line, Phoenix and Tokelau Islands, Samoa, the Ellice and Gilbert Islands (Tuvalu and Kiribati), and the wreck of the PEACOCK at the mouth of the Columbia River on the west coast of North America. After Hudson had transferred his flag to the USS PORPOISE, he crossed the Pacific to the Philippines, Sooloo Islands and Singapore. (The journal is a continuation of that filmed as PMB 146, which covers the Expedition's activities from 20 August 1838 to 8 August 1840)

Captain Fowler went to the Pacific in 1868 as captain of the London Missionary Society vessel JOHN WILLIAMS III. He was dismissed in 1871 because of his treatment of Pacific Islanders. The logbook begins on 12 November 1868 when Captain Fowler left London. It continues to 25 February 1869 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III passed Jervis Bay, NSW. It resumes on 30 March 1869 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III left Sydney for a cruise to the Pacific Islands, which extended to Tahiti, back to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and then to Raiatea before returning to Sydney on 31 December 1869. The cruise took in Raiatea, Tahaa, Huahine, Tahiti, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Niue, Pago Pago, Apia, Aneityum, Mare, Lifu, Uvea, Tubuai and Savai'i. The logbook resumes again on 4 April 1870 when the JOHN WILLIAMS III was at Huahine. Subsequent calls were made at Raiatea, Tahiti, Mangaia, Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Manihiki, Rakahanga, Pukapuka, Mitiaro, Mauke, Atiu, Tutuila, Niue, the Tokelau, Ellice (Tuvalu) and Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), the southern New Hebrides and the Loyalty Islands. The JOHN WILLIAMS III returned to Sydney on 20 December 1870. Captain Fowler returned to England in 1871 in the ship BUCKLEY CASTLE.

Richard Branscombe Chave, was born in 1849, probably in England. He was manager of the guano diggings on Starbuck Island (part of the central Line islands of Kiribati) in 1871, when the island was under lease from the British Government to Holder Bros. of London. Subsequently, Chave appears to have returned to his profession as a sailor.

In 1871, Chave, then 22, was in charge of a guano team of three Europeans and 50 Rarotongans working on Starbuck Island. When provisions began to run low, and there was no sign of a brig which was to bring replenishments, Chave and three Rarotongans set off in a large boat to try to reach Malden Island, 120 miles away, which was being worked for guano by a Melbourne company. After becoming lost and surviving a capsize, the party reached Penrhyn Island, several hundred miles in the opposite direction. Later, Chave and a Penrhyn Islander tried to sail back to Starbuck Island, but again Chave became lost and he and his companion finally drifted to an uninhabited island, which proved to be Suwarrow Atoll, where they lived for two years before being rescued. Chave's narrative gives a vivid account of his adventures up to a point where he and his companion had been on Suwarrow for about nine months. For further details, see the Bureau's newsletter Pambu, Nov. 1968:4, pp.5-9 and Jan. 1969:6, pp.6-9.