Bully Hayes was the son of an innkeeper and sailed throughout the Pacific in the mid-nineteenth century, engaged in various nefarious activities. His method of acquiring ships bordered on piracy and frequently involved fraud and deception. He married and discarded several wives and was almost certainly a bigamist. In 1860, he appeared in Sydney when his stolen ship sank and was charged with indecent assault against a young girl who had been on the ship. He escaped that charge, but on another occasion was imprisoned in Darlinghurst gaol for debt.
In 1866, Hayes acquired the Rona and commenced blackbirding. When the Rona was wrecked in the Cook Islands, he joined forces with the American blackbirder, Ben Pease, on his ship, the Pioneer. Hayes later turned up in Samoa in command of this ship, which had been renamed the Leonora. In January 1874, Louis Becke joined Hayes's crew and sailed with him until March, when the Leonora was sunk during a cyclone off Kusaie in the Caroline Islands.
Hayes set up a trading station on Kusaie, acquired five native wives, and alienated the island's inhabitants with his violent behaviour. In September, the H. M. S. Rosario, which had been pursuing Hayes, arrived at Kusaie but he escaped by fleeing in a small boat. He was picked up at sea by an American whaler and arrived in Guam in February, 1875. Becke, however, was arrested and taken to Sydney where he was tried for piracy, but was acquitted.
Hayes's last voyage began on the Lotus in October 1876. In April 1877 he was killed in a quarrel with a sailor in the Marshall Islands and his body thrown overboard.
In 1894, Rolf Boldrewood(T) published A Modern Buccaneer, which was based on a Louis Becke manuscript. Boldrewood thus secured Hayes's notoriety and legendary status, which was further entrenched with the publication of Becke's numerous tales of the South Seas.
