American ship captain William Henry “Bully” Hayes (1827-77) commenced his career as a trader among the islands of the Pacific in the 1850s, and after raiding and robbing trading stations for a time, he was arrested by British authorities at Upolu, Samoa.
But, he was soon released from British custody by astutely playing the part of a smooth-talking charmer, and thereby falsely persuaded his captors that he was actually a most worthy and unjustly accused fellow.
During the 1860s and 1870s, Hayes was notoriously engaged in abducting indigenous people from numerous Pacific islands through deception or kidnapping and shipping them off to work as cheap labor in places such as Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa — a practice known as blackbirding.
Hayes also visited Hawaii, where he acquired a reputation as a swindler, bully, conman and thief.
He first made port in Hawaii in 1858 at Honolulu as captain of the “Orestes” and was promptly discharged by the owner’s supercargo for swindling passengers.
Undaunted, he then proceeded to secure the captaincy of the “Ellenita” with a cargo obtained through duplicity, fraud and villainy.
This he accomplished by passing worthless checks, borrowing from prominent citizens with no intentions of repaying them, and enlisting the funds of investors with false promises of fortunes.
Hayes then sailed for San Francisco scot-free, leaving his Honolulu creditors with losses in the thousands of dollars.
In 1859, Hayes debarked at Kahului, Maui, to replenish water supplies.
There, he also acquired a good deal of gold for goods he’d smuggled ashore at night, and was consequently arrested by Sheriff Peter Treadway.
However, he avoided trial and escaped from Maui by persuading Treadway to board his ship one evening to see for himself that there was no contraband onboard.
Aboard ship, he got Treadway drunk, weighed anchor, cleared port, then ordered Treadway to board a boat and row for shore, while he made for open seas.
As captain of the “Lotus” in 1876, he paid his final visit to Hawaii at Kawaihae.
On March 31, 1877, at Kosrae, Hayes was shot and killed by a crewman he’d threatened.
Sounds just like Trump!
There used to be a bar/restaurant named “Pirate Bully Hayes” in Kailua, Oahu. I never knew there was a real person by that name..