White Falcon: The House of Godeffroy and Its Commercial and Scientific Role in the Pacific

In the mid-19th century the far shores of the Pacific Ocean, from California to Australia, from Siberia to Chile, knew the flag--a white falcon on a blue ground--of the house of Godeffroy, merchants and shipbuilders of the city of Hamburg.From the establishing of the firm's first South Seas trading station in Samoa in 1857 Godeffroy combined his business interests with the assembling of collections of the flora and fauna of the Pacific Islands and the arts and crafts of the Island peoples.