Lloyds 1822 give 23 vessels under the name REBECCA but the master of one is named Depeyste and he must be the same person as Peyster. Built in 1812 in New York, tonnage 299 ton. Single decked and built of oak and pine, draught 13 ft., schooner rigged, owned by G. Brown.
1818 Is she is given in Lloyds Register, supplement of new ships etc.
That year she was surveyed in June in London, her captain is then given as Peyster or Payster, and that she was bound for South America. Given as built in America, and British owned.
19 August 1818 sailed from London bound for Gibraltar and Valparaiso, under command of Captain de Peyster, His full name is Arendt Schuyler de Peyster, a merchant trader born in the American colonies but with strong links to the U.K. He was given command in 1918 to the brigantine REBECCA.
20 August 1818 passed Deal, arrived 01 September 1918 at Gibraltar, after a passage of 11 days.
03 September 1918 sailed from Gibraltar, and arrived on 02 December 1818 at Valparaiso after a passage of 90 days.
When she sailed from Valparaiso is not know but it must be in 1819 bound for Bengal, India where she arrived 11 August 1819.
06 Feb. 1820, arrived again at the road of Valparaiso, during this voyage she must have seen Funafuti Island.
I have one source that gives May 1819 an other source gives late 1819 he discovered a cluster of some fourteen low-lying islands, and the first he sighted, when the REBECCA was only 4 ships length off shore. The atoll is know today as Funati, but the Peyster named the island group Ellice after his friend and benefactor (some give the owner of the cargo) Ellice, who was a Member of Parliament for Coventry, England, he was also a London merchant and a leading figure in the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. Soon thereafter he sighted an other group of islands, which he named De Peyster’s Islands.
The English hydrographer A.G.Findlay eventually did give the name Ellice to the whole group.
1916 This group of islands was included in the Gilbert and Ellice colonies.
1976 The group got her independence and got the name TUVALU.
1 October 1987 the group became a member of the Commonwealth.
1820 The REBECCA was confiscated in Pisco by the Chilean Squadron.
06 November 1820 arrived at Valparaiso from Pisco, and a few days later handed back to her owners. The captain is then given as Capt. Scott.
October 1821 she was at Ancon near Lima, not a name of the captain given.
09 Feb. 1822 sailed from Lima with an unknown destination under command of Capt. Thomson.
20 June 1822 on the road of San Blas, Mexico ready for sea, for a voyage to Manila, Philippines, under Capt. Thomson.
Then she disappears out of the Lloyds Register. Fate unknown.
She is depict on the stamp as a barkentine, but in the register of 1821 is she given as a brig, and in the Lloyds Registers of 1819 and 1822 as a schooner. In that time the name barkentine was not used by Lloyds, and the vessel rigged as so were named schooners.
Tuvalu 1981 25c sg 163.
Source: Log Book. http://www.tuvalu.f2s.com/history.htm Who is Who in Pacific exploration.