The former whaler pictured here with his Māori (or possibly Moriori) wife in the Chatham Islands is Bill Lennent, who was probably an American. Certainly the hut behind them was built from the wreckage of the Alabama, an American whaling vessel.In the 1830s many of the offshore whalers who visited New Zealand waters came from the United States, often beginning their voyages at east-coast ports such as Nantucket.
Using this item
Nantucket Historical Association
Reference: P1978
by W.H. Rau
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