Eber Bunker

Eber Bunker (1761–1836) was a sea captain and pastoralist, and he was born on 7 March 1761 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He commanded one of the first vessels to go whaling and sealing off the coast of Australia. His parents were James Bunker and his wife Hannah, née Shurtleff. 1776-1786: Background When England lost its American colonies in 1776 in the American Revolutionary War, it lost an important source of raw materials as well as its established dumping grounds for convicted criminals. Consequently, England saw an urgent need to replace these critical resources. Despite the enormous expenses associated with starting a new colony on a virtually uncharted continent in another hemisphere, England elected to establish a penal colony at Botany Bay under the leadership of Captain Arthur Phillip. This project was undertaken in part to relieve overcrowding in the English prisons, as well as to establish a new source for timber and other raw materials, and also to establish a deep water port in the South Pacific for Britain to expand its territories. After 1776, the American whale oil market suffered because of the high tariffs placed by Britain on American oil. The resulting glut of oil on the American market stopped production there. Whale oil was in demand in Europe for lighting cities and lubricating the machines of the industrial revolution. The sturdy, wide beamed whaling ships were well suited to serve as convict transports. For this reason, many American whalers migrated to London and served on British whaling ships transporting convicts to New South Wales. Among these was Captain Eber Bunker.