The Lambton’s crew and armed Pohnpeians massacre Ngatik’s men over two days, seeking turtle shell; toll disputed.

What happened

Captain C. H. Hart’s Lambton, whose shore party had been driven off Ngatik in 1836, returned with several Europeans and about twenty armed Pohnpeians in search of the atoll’s turtle shell. In two days of fighting most of Ngatik’s men were killed (Lin Poyer says all but one; another writer says all but about twenty), while women and infants were spared. Outsiders who stayed, including the Irishman Paddy Gorman, installed as chief, married widows and settled the atoll.

Why it matters

Poyer treats the massacre as the founding event of modern Sapwuahfik (Ngatik) identity, and the atoll’s Ngatikese Men’s Language grew out of the community that followed.