Captain John Dibbs (8 November 1790–1872) was a master mariner prominent during 1822–1835 in the seas around the colony of New South Wales, New Zealand and the Society Islands (now part of Tahiti).

[5][6] Dibbs is listed as the master of the Rothiemurchus, a ship rated at 322 tons owned by John Watson & Co, Leith, in March 1818.

Previously launched and known as The Bell of London, she was evidently owned by the Admiralty as a supply vessel or transport but she was advertised as up for sale prior to the Congress of Vienna and Wellington's subsequent campaign in Europe.

By 26 February 1816 "the New Ship Rothiemurchus" had indeed found a new master, George Watson, and was advertised as ready to receive goods, and bound for Quebec in early April.

[Note 1] The Westmoreland (Captain Potton) transported immigrants and cargo from Leith to South Africa, then to Sydney via Hobart, the Bay of Islands in New Zealand and Tahiti.

Thomas Kendall, the Maori chieftains Waitkato and Hongi Hika, to whom King George IV had given a suit of armour.

While in England Hongi Hika had also negotiated a large quantity of muskets and ammunition for land from the French adventurer Baron Charles de Thierry who shipped them to Sydney.

Waitkato and Hongi Hika and their armaments were landed in New Zealand in July 1821, and the Westmoreland continued north east to Tahiti for extra cargo and passengers (notably Rev.

Williams around the islands, Dibbs became acquainted with René Primevère Lesson and Jules de Blosseville of the French royal corvette Coquille, on a hydrographic expedition.

In March 1824, the Russian Hydrographic Service mission under Otto von Kotzebue stayed in Otaheite for 10 days, and met with Dibbs.

[13] Dibbs was also present in Otahiete for the coronation of King Pomare III on 21 April 1824, before heading to Sydney with cargo and a group of missionaries, notably George Bennet and Daniel Tyerman.

On 16 July 1824 on the voyage to Sydney from Tahiti, the crew and passengers stopped in Whangaroa Harbour, near where a Wesleyan mission was located at Kaeo.

Tyerman as a mostly a problem of cultural differences, but in later years the story became a perilous cannibal adventure that defined the Maori (to European readers) as barbarian savages.

In March 1825, he was given command of the Campbell & Co brig Haweis (from Captain Jamison) and ferried missionaries around New Zealand and Tahiti, and also traded, until mid-1827.

In June 1827, in Launceston on the return voyage from Hobart to Sydney, Dibbs assaulted a river pilot, one John Williams, who filed a formal complaint.

He arrived in Calcutta from Singapore on the Donna Carmelita, listed as on Country Service (i.e. as an East India company employee), and returned to Sydney in mid April 1828.

His first trading voyage in the Lady Blackwood was to Valparaiso, Chile, May–November 1828,[15] returning with a cargo of wheat, barley, other grains and some breeding mares.

The London Missionary Society records[18] that at Raiatea (now Tahiti), "25 Aug 1825, Mary, wife of John Dibbys, Master schooner Haweis, died in childbirth."

During his last voyage, something happened which caused major personality changes and he was diagnosed with "mania furiosa", with symptoms of uncontrollable rages.

The 1841 census in England lists John Dibbs, born in Scotland around 1790, in an East India Company Asylum, Pembroke House, in London.

His former place of abode was 'unknown' but he himself stated that he was born in St Andrews, Scotland, that his father was a grocer and alive in 1829 and that his wife and children were in Sydney, where he had property.

It was first used for trading between Port Jackson New Zealand and Tahiti, and was gifted by the London Missionary Society to Tamatoa, King of Raiatea.

In the Sydney Gazette 6 February 1823, Robert Brimer (1st), William Wood, Francisco Preto and seven Tahitians are listed as crew.

The vessel was launched in December 1817 by King Pomare II of Tahiti and named after Dr. Thomas Haweis, whose interests led to the founding of the London Missionary Society.

Sealers were crushed to death by seals, attacked, killed and eaten by Maori, and abandoned to starve by captains that could not, or did not, return.

The ship was retaken a couple of days later by Captain Clarke of the New Zealander, and Haweis arrived back at the Bay of Islands after her harrowing ordeal on 15 March.

When we reflect upon the number of vessels that are continually being missed from the port of Sydney we cannot but infer that many of them have no doubt followed the fate of the Haweis and the unfortunate passengers and crew."

The Lady Blackwood was acquired by Campbell and Co. in 1827, and Capt Dibbs departed Sydney for Calcutta, 29 September 1827 to take command from a Captain Lamb.