Benoit is recorded as jumping ship from the Whaler 'Cailincourt' in 1859. At that time, if you hid long enough for the ship to leave harbour, then you could stay on in this country.

Caulaincourt - Salaries were paid for the period: 16 September 1856 - 14 August 1859 (when the ship was at sea). The ship¹s return formalities were completed at Le Havre on 19 August 1859. Captain Laurent LABASTE. Owner: the Guillot brothers. The ship had 3 masts, was built in 1856 at Honfleur, weighed 657.85 tons, had 1 canon, 10 guns, and 50 kilos of powder.

Whaling ships generally had about 35 men on board.

Benoist [an old-fashioned way of spelling Benoît] MORA, deserted in Akaroa (New Zealand) on 8 May 1859. Son of Pierre and Marguerite, residing in Pauillac (Gironde department), born on 12 November 1839 in Pauillac (Gironde), brown hair, blue eyes, ordinary forehead, average mouth, round chin, oval face. Registered in Pauillac fº44 nº25. [This means that his registration is in folio/register 44, and that he is number 25 in the records of that register.] Ordinary seaman on a lay of 1/350.

Benoit married Mary Flynn in 1870 and they went on to have nine children. 5 males and 4 females as listed below:

1. PETER BERNARD MORA - Born 25th July 1869 and died 22 April 1957. Peter married Eugenie Verginie Le Leivre on 3rd September 1895. They had six children - 3 sons and 3 daughters. Eugenie died on 29th Septembe 1949.

2. FRANCOIS MICHAEL MORA - Born 12th September 1872 in Akaroa. He married Margaret Philomena (Calista) Kavanagh who was born in 1870, in 1898. They had five children, 4 sons and one daughter. Francois died in Christchurch on 13th October 1918 and Margaret died on 10th April 1944 at Le Bons Bay, Banks Penninsula.

3. JANE MARGARET MORA - Born 28 Oct 1873  German Bay, Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, married 6 May 1895 in Akaroa to Matthew Shepherd born 27 Jul 1872 Braidwood, New South Wales, Australia. They had five children, 3 sons and 2 daughters.

4. BENJAMIN GANDER MORA - Born 11th June 1875 in Akaroa. He married Catherine Toohey (born 1878 at Leithfield, Canterbury) and they had 2 children, 1 daughter and 1 son. Benjamin died on 30th September 1958 and Catherine died 5th August 1938.

5. THOMAS PASCAL MORA - Born 1st April 1877 in Akaroa. He married Ann Catherine Fredericksen (born abt 1863) and they had six children, 3 daughters and 3 sons. Thomas died 13 August 1949 and Catherine died 25th June 1947. Both died in Akaroa, New Zealand.

6. MARY MATILDA MORA - Born 19th December 1878. She married John Joseph Kavanagh (born abt 1872 in Christchurch, New Zealand) in 1903. They had one son. Mary died on 26th December 1938 in Christchurch and John died on 16th September 1934 in Woodbury, Christchurch.

7. ANN WINIFRED MORA - Born 28th June 1880. She married Peter Cunningham. They had three children, 2 daughters and 1 son.

8. JOHN ANTONIO EUSTACH MORA - Born 29th April 1882 in Akaroa. He married Bridget Agnes Ryan (born 25th June 1878 in Temuka, Southland) on 24th April 1906 in Morven, South Canterbury. They had six children, five sons and one daughter.

9. HENRIETTA CATHERINE MORA - Born 29th July 1884. She married Edward McCullough and they had three children, one son and two daughters. Henrietta died in 1947.