Boyd massacre

The Boyd massacre occurred in December 1809 when Māori of Ngāti Pou from Whangaroa Harbour in northern New Zealand killed and ate between 66 and 70 European crew members from the British brigantine ship Boyd.^[1] This was the highest number of Europeans killed by Māori in a single event in New Zealand.

The Māori attack was in retaliation for the whipping of their rangatira or chief of Ngāti Pou, Te Ara, on his voyage back from Sydney Cove, New South Wales aboard the Boyd. Te Ara had been wrongly accused of onboard theft and was punished with a cat o' nine tails. According to another version, he was the son of a chief and had been punished because he had refused to pay for his passage on the ship by working as a seaman.^[2] Local people were already tense and inflamed after a previous ship had brought disease to the area.^[3][2] Three days after the Boyd moored at Whangaroa, the Māori launched a night attack, killing the crew. After capturing the ship, the passengers were taken on deck where they were killed and dismembered. A few Europeans managed to hide and others were taken ashore, in a rescue attempt, by another Māori chief who had come to trade with the Boyd.

In March 1810, European whalers, in the mistaken belief that these Māori had ordered the killings, attacked the island pā of Chief Te Pahi of Ngāpuhi about 60 km south-east of Whangaroa in retribution for the Boyd killings. Between 16 and 60 Maori and one European died in the clash.^[4][5] News of the events delayed the first missionary visits to the country, and caused the number of shipping visits to fall to "almost nothing" over the next few years.^[2][4]

After the massacre, the Māori took the Boyd back to their village where they tried to extract the gunpowder from the barrels in the hold. The gunpowder ignited when a flint was struck burning the ship down to the waterline of its copper sheathing. The Māori declared the burnt-out hull tapu, sacred or prohibited.