Seumanutafa Moepogai and the storm of 1889

I wrote here a long time ago, about Judge Gurr and Fanua, and their deportation from Samoa in 1927, for their opposition to New Zealand governance of Samoa. That blog mentioned Fanua’s father, Seumanutafa Moepogai*; my great, great, great grandfather.

Seumanutafa lived between 1852-1918, 66 volatile years in which modern Samoa would begin to be forged. A blog is an inadequate biography - what follows is simply one story.

Seumanutafa Moepogai was born ‘Talalelei’, in 1852 and he was renamed after being adopted from his wider family. Adoption is, and was, common in his society- once adopted and renamed, there remained no question of identity or place in his aiga (one could hold one place in a family or many simultaneously). His daughter Fanua herself would also be adopted by Seumanutafa and his wife, Faatulia.

Seumanutafa is described in several historical records, and by Robert Louis Stephenson, as ‘Chief’ of Apia- and although it may be an incomplete translation of his position, it indicates his status:

“I have been once down to Apia, to a huge native feast at Seumanutafa’s, the chief of Apia.” Wrote RLS; later describing a photograph of the 3 of them: “Seumanu…is chief of Apia, a rather big gun in this place, looking like a large, fatted, military Englishman, bar the colour.  Faatulia, next me, is a bigger chief than her husband.”  (1891)

The respect between the Seumanutafa and Steveson families, was obviously reciprocated as Stevenson recalled: “Seumanu gave me one of his names; and when my name was called at the ava drinking, behold, it was Au mai taua ma manu-vao!  You would scarce recognise me, if you heard me thus referred to!”

In the 1880s, Seumanutafa’s Apia was the central battleground for more than one civil war - the flames of which were stoked by Germany, the USA and Britain wrestling for colonial influence.

War for supremacy or control was not new to Samoa. For three millennia prior, Samoan rule had paradoxically been both divided and bound by titles. Power shifted according to the rivals of the day- it was not fixed in a single title; dynasties waxed and waned as power was attained or lost in battle, or built and consolidated through trade, negotiation and relationships. By Seumanutafa’s time, Samoa had four recognised ‘paramount’ titles.

However, in the colonial Pacific, it was inconvenient for palagi to deal with multiple regional leaders (least of all those that felt an obligation to make decisions through a complex democratic system of nu’u fono ma le matai- village meetings and representatives). For colonisers, a single ruler was needed, to negotiate - or preferrably not - on behalf of the ‘nation’. The ensuing Samoan wars to claim and consolidate titles were brutal.

However, one deciding event in the wars, and the one for which Seumanutafa would be well remembered was determined not in battle- but by nature, when on March 15, 1889 a great cyclone struck Apia harbour.

At the time, Britain, America and Germany all had warships in Apia harbour, providing military support, arms and occasionally indiscriminate airborne shelling - in support of their chosen champions.

When the cyclone struck however, the proverbial tide turned. According to US Rear-AdmiralL.A. Kimberly, in his report:

“SIR: It becomes my painful duty to report to the Department the disastrous injury and loss sustained by the vessels under my command in the harbor of Apia during the hurricane which swept these waters March 15 and 16.

When the gale commenced there were in the harbor the following men of war: U.S. ships Trenton, Vandalia, and Nipsic; H[er].B[rittanic].M[ajesty's]. ship Calliope, and H[is].I[mperial].G[ermanic].M[ajesty's]. ships Addler, Olga, and Eber...”

Within those two days, 6 warships- 3 German and 3 American- were beached or wrecked and almost 150 of their crewmen dead.

What is most remarkable though, is that more palagi lives would have been lost- had not the Samoans leapt into the deadly sea to save their antagonists. Seumanutafa led the rescue.

Rear-Admiral L.A. Kimberly again: “Seumanutafa, chief of Apia, and Selu Leauanae did excellent service in saving life, and took the lead in directing the work of the natives. They organized boats' crews and carried out the suggestions of the offices. Seumanutafa took charge of and steered the boat which was the first to carry lines to the wreck in the early morning of the 17th, while it was yet dark, and the passage across the reef and approach to the Trenton was beset with difficulty and danger”

The actions and courage of the Samoans were undeniably heroic:  

“The natives in the surf, under the direction of two of their chiefs, Seumanu Tafa and Salu Anae, had succeeded in getting lines to the vessels, and double hawsers were quickly stretched to the shore. Scores of eager hands were outstretched to assist in the work. The waves broke high on the beach, and the undertow was so strong that even the natives narrowly escaped being carried out into the bay. The white men on shore scarcely dared venture into the surf. The rain poured more heavily. The clouds of flying sand grew thicker and more…

To one who saw the noble work of those men during the storm, it is a cause of wonder that they should be called savages by more enlightened races. There seemed to be no instinct of the savage in a man who could rush into that boiling torrent of water that broke upon the reef, and place his own life in peril to save the helpless drowning men of a foreign country.”-  A.H.Godbey A.M. 1890

The sheer scale of the loss gave pause to the German and American fleets- but it would be another decade before the 3 foreign powers would settle their disputes formally, in the tripartite agreement of 1899 (which would be drafted by Seumanutafa’s son-in-law Judge Gurr)- separating American Samoa from German Samoa.

Seumanutafa lived on to see the arrival of the New Zealand expeditionary force which took power from Germany in 1914, without a shot fired. The Kiwis included a young former customs clerk from Wellington who would become his grandson-in-law, Lloyd Halliday.

In 1918 Seumanutafa fell finally to the influenza epidemic brought by the Talune, along with almost a quarter of his countrymen and women- but that’s another story.

 I wish to offer my sincere thanks to the Seumanutafa aiga for keeping and sharing your stories. I have borrowed from them to tell this brief story, and I do so with respect and love.  Fa’afetai tele lava.

*Records from the time refer variously to Seumanu, Seumanu Tafa, and Seumanutafa Pogai- based on photographs and events, and references to his family, I must presume these refer to the same man.