Jimmy was the fourth son of Hacken and Parapara.  He was born in Nuhaka about 1847 and he along with his brothers were taught by their father at a very early age the changing moods of the restless sea.

Their father also taught them the positions and jobs on their whaling boat as they rotated, while Hacken manned the long steering oar.

Parapara towered above her Prussian husband, who by the way was no midget and so it was only natural that the sons were big also even in their early teens.  Though they qualified physically, yet their hands had to be rubbed continually with oil to keep them soft, to counter the great distances they had to row.  Jimmy Smith married Roihi Manuhiri very young because he accidentally died about 1864 at the tender age of only 17 while helping his dad and brothers on their whaling boat.

On this particular whaling trip it was Jimmy’s job to supervise the paying out of the very long, coiled rope, attached to the harpoon right up the front of the boat.  When the whale was sighted, the crew rowed harder towards it all alert and ready as they waited for their father’s signal.  The order came and the harpoon found its mark and Jimmy kept checking the screaming rope being unraveled knowing full well that the whale’s dive of death was going to be straight down, swift and deep.

Although the long rope had been carefully coiled as to unravel easily for some unknown reason it began to behave in a most unorthodox manner.  Without any warning and very swiftly Jimmy became entangled in it, and the whale descended straight down in her dive of death dragging him down with it.

In a matter of seconds the rope was quickly cut hoping that Jimmy would float to the top straight away.

Time passed away slowly and because of their circumstances there was little they could do but wait and hope that he would come to the surface.

Unfortunately, he was never seen again because the sea that he loved would not give him up.

His wife Roihi died at age 21 in 1868.

Extract from email Hori Harvey 06.01.2006;

"The biographical sketches on each of those above were actually provided for our family by my mother but her brother Riki Smith actually compiled most of the information for our use. ....I would appreciate it if Uncle Riki could be identified together with my mother as being the compilers of these biographies".