This trunk belonged to Captain Francis Liardet, who gave his left eye for New Plymouth when his brief stint as New Zealand Company Resident Agent came to an explosive end on 29 November 1841. Liardet had only been in town a matter of weeks when a four pound cannon from the ship Regina blew up in his face. He was badly wounded, lost an eye and was invalided home – but before he left he played a significant part in the establishment of the fledgling town. Liardet came to New Plymouth after distinguished service around the world in the Royal Navy, but the rough state of New Plymouth, and its lack of safe anchorage was enough to fray his nerves.In a letter to Colonel William Wakefield on 13 October 1841 he remarked
“I never led such an anxious life as I do here. One is continually in fear of boats being upset, or vessels being blown off; I am obliged to become beach master myself, to prevent accidents, for I am quite determined to send boats off, very frequently when the men refuse from downright fear. In fact one should have iron nerves on purpose for this place.” In another letter he relates how a party he led narrowly saved the Oriental from running aground on November 14. “I feel quite certain if the Oriental had gone on shore, that the people here would have protested against the place and refused to take their lands; so you may suppose that I must have felt happy in seeing her safe off.”
Liardet also appears to have felt isolated, complaining in a letter written the day before the explosion that “you might as well live on a solitary rock in the middle of the ocean as be here, for we have not the slightest communication with any part of the world except by chance.”Given all this it his hardly surprising that Liardet left New Plymouth bound for England in March 1842, after being showered with praise by his friends and associates.
It was later reported that he married a “rich lady” had a glass eye fitted and was awarded a £200 annual pension from the New Zealand Company for his services. He went onto pen several books on naval subjects and was appointed the Governor of Greenwich Hospital in 1856. He died in 1863.