TAPSELL, PHILIP (1799-1873) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of a civil servant. At the age of eight he lost his mother and narrowly escaped death when the cutter in which he was a passenger was burned at sea. At the age of 14 he went to sea in a Danish brig, and in six years had become a competent seaman and navigator. The brig being sold in London, he shipped in a whaler, taking the name of Tapsell and declaring himself a Manxman in order to avoid suspicion. Off Timor (East Indies) he and other members of the crew stole a boat and deserted to escape the harshness of the captain, but were persuaded by the sultan of Boru to return to duty. Returning to Europe, he sailed as boatswain of a Hamburg ship, and then became master of a Danish cutter for service against England. He captured an English prize, which he brought in safely after a chasing frigate had run herself ashore. Tapsell then became commander of a privateer, the Cortadla (or Cort Adeler) and was severely wounded in repulsing a cutting-out attack by English boats as she lay at anchor close in shore. Being impeded by ice, the Cortadla fell into the hands of the Swedes, and Tapsell was in captivity for some months. After serving as mate in a Dutch ship to Riga, he was appointed to a British Government vessel taking stores to Malta. In 1809 he shipped as mate in the whaler New Zealander (Captain Parker). While on the whaling grounds they heard of the Boyd affair at Whangaroa and the New Zealander left her whaling to assist in the punishment of Te Pahi (at Bay of Islands) in the belief that he was implicated. Parker claimed to have wounded the unfortunate chief. Tapsell in 1815 shipped in the Catherine, carrying convicts to Australia and again engaged in the New Zealand whale fishery. In 1823 he was in the country as mate in the Asp (Captain Brind) when the Ngapuhi were returning from their victorious expedition in the south. He was married by the missionary Kendall to Maria Ringa (a Ngapuhi girl), this being the first Church of England marriage in New Zealand. Tapsell left England again as mate in The Sisters (Captain Duke). As they lay in Bay of Islands (Jan 1827) the brig Wellington came in in the hands of convicts. The captain being reluctant to take action, Tapsell fought the ship in co-operation with other whalers and recaptured the Wellington. On arrival at Sydney Duke dismissed him for his part in the affair, and both Duke and Tapsell years afterwards claimed from the Government for their services. After serving as pilot in H.M.S. Rainbow he commanded the schooner Darling, taking missionaries to Tonga. Then in the Samuel he landed sealers at Codfish Island (New Zealand) and returned Maori sealers from the south to Port Nicholson. Maria Ringa having left him immediately after their marriage, Marsden found him a Maori wife, a sister of Waikato. They were duly married and when Tapsell next sailed from Sydney (in the Minerva) he took his wife with him to the fisheries. In 1830 he received a quantity of muskets and trade from Jones and Walker (Sydney) and established himself as a trader at Maketu on the invitation of the Arawa chiefs of Rotorua, to whom the place belonged. He was under the personal protection of the Ngaite-Rangi chief Hori Tupaea (q.v.), from whom he bought land for his store.

For a few years Tapsell did well, purchasing flax and other produce and selling arms and manufactures to natives along the coast and inland as far as Rotorua. He saved the lives of many captives, both pakeha and Maori, by purchasing them for himself. The feud between the Arawa and Ngapuhi and the Ngai-te-Rangi and Ngati-Haua (under Waharoa) caused him much anxiety. On one occasion he rescued his allies from certain destruction by sending out the women to Te Tumu with supplies of ammunition (1833). Having lost his wife, he married another, Hine-i-Turama, of the Ngati-Whakaue tribe of Arawa (the marriage being celebrated in 1841 by Pompallier). Many years later, having taken another husband and joined the King natives, she was bayonetted to death in the pa at Orakau (Apr 1864). In 1835 Maketu was stormed and sacked by Waharoa's taua, and Tapsell had great difficulty in protecting the wounded chief Haupapa until he died. Having lost everything he possessed, Tapsell with his wife and family fled by way of the Rangitaiki river to Rotorua and took refuge on Mokoia island, where their son Retireti (Retreat) was born. The Arawa would not allow him to accompany the avenging taua to Maketu, but he bargained with them not to injure Tupaea. Having decided to leave New Zealand, Tapsell had a canoe built and hauled across overland to Kapanga, on the Rangitaiki river, by which means he and his family made their way to Matata. Reaching Sydney, he made a composition with the merchants to whom he was indebted and, loading the schooner Harlequin with trade, he returned to Bay of Plenty and established himself at Whakatane, purchasing native produce and settling agents along the coast and inland for this purpose. He afterwards lived for a while at Whale island, one of three islands which his sons claimed.

Tapsell died on 6 Aug 1873. His sons figured in the Maori wars of the sixties.

Cowan, Tapsell (p); Marsden, L. and J., and Lieutenants; Southern Cross, 5 Apr-4 Aug 1869.

Reference: Volume 2, page 185

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