Without a doubt, the whaling industry featured in the lives of so many of the members of the Jillett family. From Captain Young, William Smith, Charles Dowdell, and Robert Jillett.
But nothing in the research which has been done on all the members of the family, as more confronting than to learn that Charles Dowdell had been cannibalised. While it was shocking to find, we realised that without proof, not one person would ever believe it possible. Sue Collins and I trawled hundreds and hundreds of pages of old newspaper archives, trying to find anything at all about the loss of the Dragon. As it was, when I first found it, I didn't take note of the entry, but someone from Denmark had discovered what had happened to their ancestor.
Then that fact is now safely tucked away in cyberspace, cause it never was found again. With Sue's help we did locate the entry in the Sydney papers. Dr Paul Moon, a researcher on the subject in New Zealand assured me that it would not have happened. So when we were able to provide him with the facts, he was a little shocked himself. Now through digitisation, there is a wealth of information, not only about the crew of the Dragon, but other boats as well.
While the details here in these extracts, is at times, gruesome, it does provide another layer of historical information, to attach to those ancestors who risked all to chase the "big fish", just so the inhabitants of the large towns, could "light their lamps".
It is what it is, history, we cannot change the past, but we can perhaps, appreciate our ancestors lives.
Whaling and Shore Stations 9
The first recorded Shore Station to be set up on the New Zealand Coast was located at Dusky Sound, Fiordland, in the year 1792, when, sealing parties were landed to establish a base to hunt the seals for their pelts. These were in vogue in the fashion industry in America, Britain and Europe, where they were made into men and ladies hats. Whaling ships from several countries, plied up and down the coast of New Zealand for several years during the whale hunting season, but it was not until 1828 that the first so-called 'Shore-Whaling' Station was introduced in the South Island at Cloudy Bay. A second Whaling Station began operations soon after in 1829, on Arapawa Island, Malborough Sounds. This was followed in November 1831, by the setting up of an Australian station, Weller's Bay Whaling Station, in Otago Harbour.
In April of the following year, while back in Sydney, Weller was to learn that his station and its whalers houses, had been burned to the ground by a Maori raiding party. Undaunted, Weller sailed with Captain Worth in the Lucy Ann in 1833 to rebuild the station again for bay-whaling and was successful in the hunt, collecting 130 tuns of whale oil and seven tuns of whalebone, together with a bale of sealskins during that season.
(Note:* Whale oil was measured in tuns or barrells.)
The whales were usually found close inshore in the bays, between 2 and 7 miles off the coast. The whalers moved in with their fleet of small whaleboats and made their kill, dragging their large carcasses back to the station, which, depending on the size and weight, could sometimes take up to a total of 14 hrs. hard rowing over several days. If the weather blew up stormy, they sometimes had to anchor their catch in the swell and row for the safety of the distant shoreline and return the next day. After the whale had been dragged back to the shore station, it would be hauled up the beach so that the 'flensers' could climb over the carcass with their sharp 'spades' to cut the strips of blubber down the entire length of the body. These strips were then dragged off with the help of a capstan and chopped into blocks to be thrown in the trypots which were heated with 'scrag', the name given to the residue flesh of previous rendering, which burned well. As the oil rose to the surface, it was skimmed off and stored in large wooden casks for cooling, ready to be loaded aboard the visiting whalers.
9 http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tonyf/whale/whaling.html
The whale jawbone was carefully cut out also and buried in the sand for ten days, by which time the hair on the plates had rotted away. Washed, scraped and carefully packed, whalebone was a valuable commodity, the pliable bone from the mouth being used by the makers of ladies corsets and stays. A further use of this bone, was in the manufacturer of flexible 'buggy' horse whips.
One such station, already mentioned, was Cloudy Bay, (Te Awa-ite, north of Kaikoura), which was set up in Marlborough Sound during early 1829, under the control of Captain John Guard. He had the station built and up and running for that whaling season. The number of whalers and settlers working and living at the station gradually rose over the following years to a population of nearly two hundred people, where it became the largest white settlement and Whaling Station on the South Island of New Zealand.
A one-time whaler and settler named Dick Barrett had been living and working at the whaling stations in New Zealand for ten or twelve years. He decided to settle at the Te Awa whaling station, Marlborough Sounds. By 1839 he had built a house of sawn timber, floored and lined inside, with a sheltered verandah, perched on the flat of a knoll overlooking the settlement and anchorage. The Rev. Edward J. Wakefield came out to New Zealand in 1839 and on a visit to the station met Dick Barrett. It was Sunday and some of the whalers were dressed in their Sunday best. Others worked. Wakefield in his narrative wrote:
"A large gang were busy at the try-works boiling out the oil from a whale lately caught.....The whole ground and beach about here were saturated with oil and the stench of the carcasses and scraps of whale flesh lying about in the Bay was intolerable..."
As the men stoked the furnace and stirred the reeking pots, one of them was asked if they always worked on Sunday?
Contemptuously the worker had replied, "Oh! Sunday. It never comes into this Bay!" Whalers wait Wakefield's journal continued:- "The workers at these bay-whaling stations were not paid wages, they were paid in slops (loose fitting trousers; readymade clothing), spirits or tobacco.
They were a bearded, unkempt mixture of runaway seamen, deserters, or escaped convicts of several nationalities. They could earn the equivalent of £35 wages during the season between May and October, while carpenters, blacksmiths and coopers (barrel-makers) were paid at the higher rate of 10/- a day.
The women at Cloudy Bay were from the maori tribe of Kawhia, those in the Sounds were Ngati-awa. There were twenty five children at the whaling station, all part-maori."
Reading through the journals of the early travellers to New Zealand, it was apparent that the Whaling Stations left a strong impression with them, for the same descriptive terms were used for each one visited by them:-
Te Koroiwa, "looked filthy and had a disgusting stench from the putrid carcasses of the whales" Waikouaite Whaling Station, "the whole beach was strewn with gigantic fragments of bones.........the pigs and seagulls picked over the refuse left lying there." Whaling was not for the faint hearted! The year 1830 had been a bumper year for the whalers at Cloudy Bay.
Lying at anchor in the Bay was the whaler Waterloo, a 66 ton schooner which had aboard, in the cargo hold, some 66 tuns of whale oil and 1,185 seal skins. The previous year, the brigantine Hind, owned by R. Campbell & Co. Sydney, picked up a cargo of flax from Kapiti Island and from the 'bay-whaling' station at Cloudy Bay, some 25 tons of sperm oil.
In 1832 six vessels arrived in Cloudy Bay at the start of the whaling season and set off into the Bay after the whales which could be seen basking and spouting from the shoreline. The Dragon out of Hobart, later reported a haul of 1600 barrels of oil in her hold, the Courier 300 barrels of black oil and 400 of sperm oil. The William Stoveld had 300 barrels of black oil and 400 of sperm oil and the New Zealander the same amount. All of this oil was landed in Sydney.
Porirua whale station The Juno, an American vessel, had her hold full to capacity with nearly 1000 barrels of oil procured from her whale hunt along the New Zealand coast.
Excitement mounted in Sydney as merchants began preparations for the whaling season off New Zealand in the year 1836. Two whaling vessels were dispatched, however, when they arrived at Cloudy Bay, they found they were not the first.
Two British whalers lay at anchor alongside a French schooner, which had arrived a few days before. On the other side of the Bay some thirteen American whalers lay clustered together. For several days the fleet lay quietly waiting for the whales arrival. At dusk came the news from the returning lookout whaleboats that a school of 21 or more whales had been sighted and counted in the outer Bay; the next day, anchors were weighed and the hunt began in earnest. Whaleboat parties would be launched from every vessel once they were among the whales; some 20-25 boats set out, each with a crew of six, comprising four strong rowers, a steersman in the stern and a harpoonist standing in the bow ready to strike as they persued their quarry. The Chase Adrenaline would have run high as the chase continued. The most dangerous time was when the whale had been harpooned and the ten fathoms of line had snaked out. The crew then prepared for the ride of their lives as the whale set off at a fast pace, dragging the whaleboat and its crew behind; others would sound (dive to the bottom) and then surface again among its attackers. The whales gigantic tails, thrashing in the swell, caused many a persuer's whaleboat to be smashed or capsized and crew members killed, maimed or drowned. Others would become swamped and founder, the crew cast into the sea clinging to the upturned boats awaiting rescue from the others in the vicinity.
When a kill was made, the catch would be pulled alongside the whaler where it would be secured and the task of stripping the blubber and whalebone begin. Boiling trypots aboard the whalers would then extract the valuable whale oil which would be stored in wooden barrels
In 1839 in the Kapiti and Mana region, 23 boats at six stations produced 500 tuns of black oil and 30 tons of whalebone (Dieffenbach 1843 v.I: 109). By 1847 there was only one station on Kapiti Island and another at Korohiwa on the mainland near Mana Island, between them employing three boats and taking -29 tuns of black oil (Wakefield 1848: 193). Oil production figures for Wellington based
stations- including much of the South Island, Cook Strait, and the lower North Island-show a marked downward trend in the period 1843 to 1847
Edward Jerningham Wakefield, whose contemporary account of New Zealand shore whaling is the best available, was a 20-year old agent of the New Zealand Company when he visited Kapiti in June and July 1840 during the whaling season. He was a sympathetic observer of whaling men, and greatly admired their active life.
'I was much interested in observing the life of these rough men, and in finding that many generous and noble qualities redeemed their general inclination to vice and lawlessness.' (Wakefield 1845 v .I: 310)
Wakefield identified New Zealand shore whalers as ex-seamen, runaway convicts from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, or their descendants who he knew as 'currency lads ':
'The frankness and manly courage of the sailor mingle with the cunning and reckless daring of the convict, or "lag," in no common manner. Though prone to drunkenness and its attendant evils, the whaler is hospitable in the extreme, and his rough-built house is a model of cleanliness and order. ' (Wakefield 1845 v.I: 311-312)
He adds , 'I of course speak of the general character of this class of men; to which there are some terrible exceptions. '
The same source describes the roles of headsmen, boatsteerers, tonguers, tub oarsmen and pulling hands. Wakefield relishes whalers ' slang, and the names by which men are known, 'like the heroes of the Iliad ': Long Bob, Geordie Bolts, Flash Bill, Butcher Knott, Gipsey Smith, Fat Jackson, French Jim, Black Peter.
Maori chiefs with whom the whalers had to deal were known as: Satan, The Old Sarpent, Bloody Jack, The Bully, The Sneak, The Badger, The Greybeard, and The Wild Fellow (Wakefield 1845 v.I: 318-319). There is a' description of the role of Maori 'wives' of the whalers, and of the reciprocal responsibilities of the men. It was a very practical arrangement, from which many New Zealand families-and at least one Prime Minister-are descended.
Bringing together men from the waterfront taverns of Sydney and the bays and Maori settlements of the New Zealand coast was not easy. Wakefield (1845 v.I: 333) tells of a whaleboat making the passage from Wellington to Kaikoura in a gale 'because Black Murray, the chief headsman, thought his men had enjoyed drinking enough on their advances, 'and because he thought it easier to get them
away to the station while they were intoxicated.'
. 'The preliminary orgies are nearly over; the clerk stops the advances until something has been earned; the headsmen administer a severe personal castigation to some few notorious characters who grumble at this curtailment of their ease; the boats are practised every day in pulling and sailing; when at length, one morning early in May, a whale is signalled from a hill near the bay, where a look-out is constantly kept.' (Wakefield 1845 v.I: 325)
Wakefield also gives a good account of the whaleboat and its organisation for the task ahead, shore works and accommodation, the chase, laws relating to the ownership of whales, relations with Maori" and the role of whalers as early settlers in New Zealand. In many districts the first European settlers were whalers, and shore stations were the first European settlements
Nigel Prickett 2007.
Perils of Whaling
Meanwhile in November, 1832, Captain W. Kinnard, together with four seal hunters, were left at Rocky Point to establish a sealing station. They arrived aboard the Admiral Gifford out of Sydney. When the ship returned to pick them up with their bales of sealskins some six months later, they could find no trace of them. To their horror, they learned that their party had been seized by a band of local Maori, their camp burned and that they had all been slaughtered and eaten.
Tasmanian (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Friday 11 January 1833, page 5
Some of our readers may remember, that about seven months since an old Captain of this port, named William Kinnard, accompanied by two -whites and two New Zealanders,. proceeded in the Admiral Gifford to Rocky Point, New Zealand, for the purpose of forming a sealing establishment, the Victoria went round to pick them up, when to their no small astonishment, they discovered that the natives bad killed and devoured the whites, and seized • their boats and stores
10
In the 18th and 19th centuries Māori settled on the island. Te Rauparaha formed a base here, and his Ngāti Toa tribe regularly sailed in canoes on raiding journeys up to the Whanganui River and down to Marlborough. In the Battle of Wairo (1824) the Ngāti Toa destroyed a force of 2,000 mainland warriors who had landed at the northern end of Kāpiti in an attempt to capture the island.
The sea nearby was a nursery for whales, and during whaling times 2,000 people were based on the island. Oil was melted from the blubber and shipped to America for use in machinery, before petroleum was used. Although whales can be seen once every year during birthing season, there still are less than there used to be.
The conservation potential of the island was seen as early as 1870. It was reserved as a bird sanctuary in 1897
10 https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/6252/new-zealand-whaling-stations
The following excerpts are from a book written in 1913 The book can be downloaded and read online.
COOK STRAIT, 1830 TO 1832
When Captain Briggs returned to Hobart Town in the Dragon, on 10th December, after experiences at Kapiti which will be recorded in connection with the movements of the Elizabeth, the Customs authorities treated his cargo as foreign produce, and called upon him to pay five per cent, duty in addition to wharfage charges. At that time, in Sydney, New Zealand produce was treated as Colonial, and neither duty nor wharfage charges were imposed upon it. Under this system Sydney had built up a big New Zealand trade.
The point had never been raised in Hobart Town, where the New Zealand trade was very insignificant. Briggs, who was one of the owners of the Dragon, applied to the authorities to have his cargo treated as foreign produce. The Customs officers at once saw the importance of the point in relation to the development of their trade with New Zealand, and reported favourably on the application. The Sydney Customs, on being consulted, advised that they dealt with New Zealand produce as their own "free of duty, or any charge whatever," but that the Regulation was purely a local one, and they suggested that the subject was worthy of the attention of the Lt.-Governor at Hobart Town. On examination, and in view of the importance of cultivating an oversea trade for the young town of Hobart Town, the Lt.-Governor decided that New Zealand produce should be admitted as Colonial, and Captain Briggs was advised that his cargo of spars and flax would be admitted free. Whether due to this step or not, the author will not say, but after this date the Hobart Town trade with New Zealand developed to a wonderful extent.
It is possible to give a very fair description of the local bay whaling and to indicate the quantity of oil obtained during the season of 1830, in Cook Strait. For this we are again indebted to the information supplied by Mr. Bell, who thus places upon record the result of his observations while at Cloudy Bay.
"If the fishing is to be carried on by a shore party, the try pots and huts are erected on the beach and the vessel which brought the party down is either employed in collecting flax along the coast, or returns to Sydney, and is sent down again at the end of the season to bring them up with what oil
they may have caught. The boats are sent out at daylight every morning, and when they are so fortunate as to kill a fish it is towed ashore and flinched and boiled up on the beach.
When the fishing is carried on in a vessel, the blubber is boiled out in try pots erected on deck as in a sperm whaler. From its being tried out immediately after the fish is caught the oil is much purer and is free from the rancid smell of the Greenland oil. A vessel had a great advantage over a shore party as in fine weather they can go out of the harbour and anchor in the Bay, and when they have got a sufficient quantity of blubber, or when bad weather comes on, they can tow the dead whales in ; whereas if a shore party kills a whale, and bad weather comes on, they are obliged to anchor it and come in, and it is a great chance if they do not lose it.
"The whales are seldom killed nearer than two miles from the harbour, and sometimes seven or eight, and if the tide or wind is against them it is a most laborious business to tow such a huge animal.
10 THE OLD WHALING DAYS
I have known the boats to be out for 14 hours pulling, except at short intervals, all the time. Indeed, killing the fish is a trifle in comparison with the getting it in, our party alone lost seven large fish
after they were killed last season. The depth of water in the bays where the whales are killed is from
14 to 20 fathoms. They yield from 2 to 13 tuns of oil, those killed by my party last season averaged
6 tuns of oil each and three and a half hundred- weight of bone. The cows are generally larger and
produce more oil than the bulls, but they get thin towards the end of the season from supporting the
calves. It is a pity that it should often be necessary to fasten to the calf in order to secure the cow, but
I do not apprehend it will cause such a diminution of numbers as to injure the fishing, at least not until it is carried on to a much greater extent than it is at present."
Mr. Bell speaks of one whaling vessel and two whaling stations being fitted out from Sydney during the first season. It is somewhat difficult to follow his figures in this. The Hind was fitted out by R. Campbell & Co., and the William. Stoveld by Bell (probably our informant) and Farmer. The Tranniere reported both of them to be whaling at Kapiti. According to the Sydney press, two different firms had a whaling station and a vessel engaged in the industry. The solitary vessel from Hobart Town was the Deveron, owned by Captain Wilson. Bell puts the total catch at 600 tuns of oil and 30 tons of bone. At the London prices of 28 for oil and 125 for bone the whaling products for the season would amount to 20,550. The whalers also took away 25 tons of flax. Probably the distinction between Kapiti and Cloudy Bay in regard to trade generally was not very clearly observed.
The season proved a very profitable one, as the following letter, written at Cloudy Bay after the best of the season was over, will show :
Ship Elizabeth, Cloudy Bay,
July 27, 1831.
By the Dragon I beg to inform you that we have on board 1600 barrels of oil, and are in a fair way
of getting more.
The following fishers are in Cloudy Bay :
The Dragon, full;
Courier, 300 barrels;
William Stoveld, 300 barrels of black oil, and 400 of sperm ;
and New Zealander, empty;
Mossman's shore whaling gangs have secured 170 barrels.
The Dragon referred to here was the Hobart whaler; she sailed from New Zealand on 28th July and reached the Derwent on 3rd September, 1831.
By the end of August the Juno had returned from Banks Peninsula, and was lying at Kapiti when the brutal murder of one of the seamen by the Captain took place.
An eye witness thus describes it :
"The brig Juno, whaler, was lying at anchor at Cobarty (Kapiti), New Zealand, on the 31st of August last. Captain Peterson and a boat's crew were on shore buying potatoes, etc., and when he returned on board, he was in a hurry to get under weigh. The mate called all hands to the windlass to weigh, and Johnstone was the first man on deck, when the mate told Johnstone that if the anchor was weighed, the wind blowing on the shore and the tide running up, the vessel would go on shore. Johnstone then came forward, and shortly after the Captain himself came and asked why the ship was not under
weigh? Johnstone said, if the anchor was hove, the ship would go ashore. The Captain called him a
mutinous rascal, asked him if he was master of the ship, to which Johnstone said no, he was willing to heave the anchor up.
The Captain then went aft and remained about a quarter of- an hour, when he
came on deck on the larboard side. Johnstone being on the opposite side of the deck forward, and all
hands being ready to man the windlass. The Captain repeated his question of 'where are you Johnstone?' As it was dark, and he could not see him, Johnstone went close up to show himself, when the Captain pushed him with his left hand; Johnstone said to him 'don't shove me Captain Peterson.'
Capt. Peterson replied, 'Yes, you mutinous rascal I will shove you, ' and again shoved him with his left hand and presenting a pistol which he had in his right hand, shot him dead. The ball entered at the left jaw, came out through the top of the head, and lodged in the right head of the brig. The chief mate
immediately took the pistol *out of the Captain's hand and threw it overboard, saying, 'You shall do
no more mischief with that ; you have done a pretty thing for yourself.' When the Captain drew the
trigger of the pistol he said 'He struck me first," when the crew answered 'He did not.'
The crew then requested the officers to secure the Captain from doing further damage, and the officers passed their word that he should be taken care of. Captains Ashmore and Adams then came on board and asked the crew if they were willing that Captain Peterson should go on board the Guide, where he should be taken care of. The crew objected to Captain Peterson's being taken out of the vessel, thinking that his escape from justice was intended, and told Captain Ashmore that he would not be harmed or insulted by them. On the following day, the 1st September, Johnstone was taken on shore and interred; and when the crew returned from the burial, a whale sprung up close to the ship, and the officer in charge held up his hand and asked who would volunteer to go and kill the whale?
The boats were then manned, and the crew started and killed the whale. During the time the crew were away towing the whale alongside, the Guide's boat (in which were the first mate and three seamen) went on board the Juno, for some plank, and Captain Peterson jumped into the boat and was landed by them.
A seaman on board hailed the boats, which immediately cast off from the whale, and gave chase
to the boat in which the Captain had escaped, but could not overtake it before he was safely landed.
The day following, a note was received from Captain Peterson, telling the seamen that if they pursued
him on shore, they would meet with a very cool reception from the natives. Some of the men, with
the officer in charge, then went on shore to arrest the Captain, and when they got on shore, saw him
with a musket *in his hand, surrounded by a large body of the natives armed with muskets and bayonets. The officer went up and spoke to the Captain, when the Captain, the officer, and two of
the crew went up together to a Mr. Harvey's hut.
The officer then asked Captain Peterson if he would go on board? He said, no, but they should never
take him on board alive, for he would sooner put an end to his life. Mr. Harvey then said, that he
would protect him whilst he had a roof to his house. One of the men then laid hold of the Captain, and told him that he must go in the vessel to Sydney.
The Captain hallooed to the natives, who rushed in great numbers to his assistance, armed with bayonets,, and drove the men down to their boats with great violence, and so rescued Captain Peterson. The officer and men then returned to the vessel, which weighed anchor and sailed for Sydney the next morning."
The Guide mentioned here was a vessel of 147 tons, commanded by Captain Ashmore, and had left Sydney on 13th August for Cook Strait. After the murder, the mate Smith took the Juno to Sydney. It was reported that a private investigation was held in the Police Office, late in October, but nothing further was heard of it. ......
Speaking of the 1831 season, Bell says: "This year it (the whaling) has been entered into with great spirit. There have been no less than six vessels and three shore parties fitted out from Sydney, and two vessels, I believe, from Hobart Town." The five vessels above recorded and the Waterloo were probably the six referred to. R. Campbell & Co. owned -one of the shore stations, and Mossman probably owned the other two. The Deveron. the Dragon, and the Venus were Hobart Town vessels, of which the two last-named are recorded as visiting Cloudy Bay. It is more than probable that the other also called there, as she sailed for the whaling and would be more than likely to visit the scene of her former successes.
Stewart first took his vessel into Whangaroa, the last resting place of the ill-fated Boyd, and then made for Kapiti, at that time the great flax emporium of New Zealand. Here he found Te Rauparaha and Te Hiko busily engaged in preparing for a raid against the tribe which, under Tamaiharanui, occupied the shores of Akaroa, and whose chief had committed the offence of having killed Te Pehi Kupe, the father of Te Hiko.
The foresight of Te Rauparaha, and the special facilities which Kapiti offered for coming in contact with shipping, had enabled a large stock of muskets and powder to be accumulated there for any venture the two chiefs had in view.
The weapons having been secured, Te Rauparaha set himself to obtain for his warriors means of transport to the scene of action. Just then the Dragon of Hobart Town dropped anchor off the Island, and Te Rauparaha at once approached Captain Briggs for the use of his vessel.
More than merely the means of transport was to be gained by the employment of a British vessel. The mission of the trader was a peaceful one and Te Rauparaha saw that he could, with such aid, transport a large body of men without the publicity attending a flotilla of Maori canoes..
The vessel was a transport, and at the same time a blind. The scheme was well thought out. The difficulties in the way were many, but were faced with consummate skill. A tribal war was not a thing in which captains of British vessels cared to interfere, and. knowing this, Te Rauparaha determined to get over the difficulty which Captain Briggs was bound to raise by making the objective of the mission appear to be satisfaction for wrongs committed against white men. He represented that Te Pehi Kupe, the chief whose death he sought to obtain satisfaction for, had been the friend and avenger of the wrongs of the Pakeha.
If that was not enough he and Te Hiko reminded the captain that there were no less than three other charges standing against Tamaiharanui and all of them involving responsibility for the death of Europeans. The first was that of a trader named Smith, in the employ of Captain Wiseman, who had been killed at the same time as Te Pehi Kupe. The second was the case of Captain J. Dawson and five of the crew of the Samuel, in 1824. The third was the murder of a midshipman and boat's crew belonging to H.M.S. War spite.
In addition to the skill which the two cannibal chiefs manifested in voicing the cries for vengeance for the spilt blood of Maori and Pakeha, they showed considerable diplomacy. They informed Captain Briggs that they were quite prepared to pay, and to pay well, for the use of his vessel. Though often regarded as an illustration of the brutality of Te Rauparaha it may rather be an indication of his knowledge of the European trading captain of that day, that he proposed to make good the want of a suitable cause of war by a plentiful supply of its sinews.
Briggs would not agree to the proposal. He was not averse to taking part in an expedition against one whom he believed to be a murderous villain, but he objected to the scheme as outlined by the Kapiti chiefs.
He would only go so far as to convey Te Rauparaha and two of his best men to Akaroa, where they could get an opportunity of securing the object of their vengeance: he would not be a party to their scheme of wholesale butchery. Te Rauparaha, who always believed in the personal safety of the leader of any expedition which he himself commanded, insisted on taking with him not less than twenty of his people, but, as that would give him the physical command of the Dragon, Briggs would not agree and the negotiations eased.
At this stage the Elizabeth arrived.
It is only fair to Stewart to state that he could have known, personally, nothing of the habits of the Maoris, nothing of the crafty nature of Te Rauparaha, and nothing of the truth or otherwise of the charges made against Tamaiharanui. If, in his ignorance, he appealed to Briggs for corroborative evidence of the iniquities of the Akaroa chief, he would get it, because Briggs believed that he was,
as described to a Hobart Town editor, a "monster, the recapitulation of whose atrocities would fill a dozen of your numbers." Outside of Briggs, Stewart's adviser would be his trading master, Cowell, who, from what transpired afterwards, would have no scruples how flax or any other cargo was obtained, so long as it was got.
Jillett and Whitehouse Branch New Zealand Descendants of Robert and Elizabeth
123
Whatever was the cause, Stewart favourably considered Te Rauparaha's proposals, and ultimately closed a bargain with him to convey his expedition to Akaroa, and to return with it to Kapiti after the objects of the expedition had been attained. Briggs says that he tried to dissuade Stewart from taking more Maoris on board than he could control, and urged him to send ashore, on arrival at Akaroa, men with presents, and who would state that they wanted to make the chief alone responsible for the death of the white men. This advice was ignored, and, on 29th October, 1830, an expedition of something like 120 men, armed with muskets and native weapons, embarked on board the Elizabeth and set sail for Banks Peninsula.
Here we may be permitted to digress for a moment to analyse the causes assigned by Te Rauparaha for asking the co-operation of a European vessel in such an under- taking. The death of Te Pehi Kupe might, according to native custom, warrant Maoris in taking steps to secure vengeance from Maoris, but would never justify the intervention of the Pakeha, not even if a Pakeha's death was brought about under the circumstance mentioned in the case of Smith. So much for the first case quoted.
The death of Captain Dawson and his five men the second charge took place, so it was recorded at the time, at Cook Strait, which would seem to be inconsistent with Tamaiharanui's personal complicity, as that chief had his headquarters at Akaroa. No further information regarding this matter is at the author's disposal. The loss of a midshipman and a boat's crew belong to H.M.S. Warspite which was the third charge, is a matter capable of proof or disproof, by a simple perusal of the vessel's log. This,
on examination, shows that from August, 1825, to March, 1833, she only visited Cook Strait once in January, 1827.
On that occasion she was within sight of land from the fourteenth to the twentieth, but never once landed a boat's crew. That charge, then, goes by the board. As bearing on the same question the author desires to place on record a statement made to him by the Rev. Canon Stack, who long laboured with much acceptance among the Maoris at Kaiapohia, that the natives there always maintained to him that whatever wrongs they had committed in the past, their hands were clean of white man's blood. The three charges against Tamaiharanui, made to justify European intervention, may, therefore, be ascribed as: the first, not applicable; the second, not probable; and the third, not true.
After an uneventful passage in the Elizabeth, Stewart arrived at Akaroa, and, to prevent the possibility of arousing the suspicions of the natives residing in the Bay, gave not the slightest indication that any Maoris were concealed on board. For several days, while the vessel lay at anchor, he kept Te Rauparaha's men down below and only permitted them to patrol the decks at night. The vessel's appearance thus conveyed the impression that she had come into the Bay merely to trade, as vessels from Australia often did at that time. It is reported from Maori sources, that, when the Elizabeth arrived, Tamaiharanui was not at home, but was on the flax ground with the women dressing flax, and Stewart, to lull all suspicions and at the same time to arouse the cupidity of the natives, brought 10 muskets and 2 casks of powder up to the chief's house.
Be that as it may, the chief was invited to come on board, and information was sent him of the captain's desire to trade, and of the fact that he had plenty of muskets to buy flax.
Some three or four days after casting anchor in the Bay, Captain Stewart, and Cowell, went ashore with a boat's crew, professedly for sport.
One of the sailors who gave evidence before the Sydney Magistrate said :
' ; Three or four days after our arrival and before the landing of the Natives, the Captain and the
Trading Master (Mr. Cowell) went on shore in the boat to shoot. There were four or five men of the ship in the boat unarmed, and on our return we met a canoe with a chief in it ; he hailed us, and we pulled slowly till he came up with us; he was very glad to see us; Mr. Cowell spoke to him in the native language, and afterwards the chief came on board the ship very gladly as it appeared to me. A little girl of about 11 years of age, and three or four natives, were with him. The little girl and the chief came on board our boat, and the other boat rowed away."
Tamaiharanui was now in Stewart's power, and, all unconscious of the friends which awaited him on board the Elizabeth, was the first to climb on board when they reached the vessel's side. He was met on deck and accompanied to the cabin by Clementson, the chief mate. There the mate, with the assistance of three sailors, put him in irons. The old chief, says John Swan, the carpenter on board the Elizabeth, "made no resistance, but spoke and seemed much agitated," The scene which followed with Te Rauparaha and Te Hiko before .the old chief, is recorded by no eye witness, but probably no story in circulation exaggerates its horrors. After 'the chief had thus been secured, and on the same day, two canoes with some six or seven natives, including the chief's wife, came on board this floating man-trap to carry on trade.
At once they were seized by Te Rauparaha and put into the hold. No native found out the trap in time to get away and warn his tribesmen; not a shadow of suspicion of the awful truth was communicated ashore. Nothing now remained for Te Rauparaha to do but to land, and in form and manner as by Maori usage appointed or tolerated, to carry out the object of the expedition, until the last Akaroa
native was dead or captured.
We have the authority of the second mate for the statement that when the chief had been secured in the hold and Te Rauparaha was making preparations for going ashore to complete the work of destruction, the crew of the Elizabeth wanted the captain to sail away and thus prevent further bloodshed. Stewart, however, was fearful that if Te Rauparaha found himself thwarted he would turn on the ship's crew and wreak his vengeance on them. As there were some 120 Maoris on board and only a mere handful of Europeans, the former had physical command of the brig. The fear expressed by Captain Briggs had come true, Stewart was no longer master of his own vessel.
Te Rauparaha waited until all was quiet that night, and, between the hours of one and two o'clock in the morning, the Akaroa canoes captured that day, manned by Kapiti Maoris, and the ship's skiff and whaleboat, manned "by a crew from the vessel and accompanied by the infamous Stewart, pushed off from the ship 's side and made for the shore. To make their work all the more effective the flotilla divided into two parts, one to the one side of the Bay, the other to the other. No European eye witnesses have described the scene for us but Akaroa 's hills were that night lit with the fires of her burning whares, and her creeks were dyed with the blood of her slaughtered people. From the ship the sailors saw the fires of the burning whares. All night the work of butchery continued, and only those escaped the wild fury of Te Rauparaha who fled to the bush-clad mountains.
Before breakfast the ship's boats returned. Stewart came with them, as also did Te Rauparaha, and probably Te Hiko. It is alleged, by the only Maori whose evidence was taken in Sydney, that the European sailors took many of the Banks Peninsula natives prisoners, and handed them over to their Kapiti enemies. There is every reason to fear that this charge was correct.
After breakfast, Stewart and Te Rauparaha, with Cowell and a boat's crew, returned to the shore. All, by Stewart's orders, were well armed with small arms and swords. The village was still in flames and six or seven bodies of men, women, and children, who were killed during the night, were seen by the party. At the place where the boat landed were about a dozen of Te Rauparaha 's men, and Cowell spoke to them when he came up.
The boat stopped ashore for only half an hour, but during that time a woman, covered with blood, was seen to come out of one of the burning whares. She was at once set upon, pushed down the hill, and killed with spears. When the boat returned, Te Rauparaha and Te Hiko remained on shore to take part in the cannibal feast which was being prepared and to direct the ghastly work which was to follow that.
In the afternoon a boat from the ship visited the other side of the Bay. She was under the command either of Cowell or Richardson and remained for two hours when she brought back the two chiefs to the ship. By that time fires had been made, the bodies had been cooked, and what was not consumed had been packed into baskets for transport to Kapiti.
That night the Kapiti natives returned on board the Elizabeth with their horrible burdens. Some twenty of those captured ashore were kept as prisoners to accompany the returning warriors, and were placed in the hold along with those who had been taken out of the canoes when they visited the Elizabeth the day before.
None taken prisoners on the ship were killed, nor were any of those killed on shore cooked on board, nor in the cooking vessels belonging to the ship. All the bodies were cooked on shore in the primitive Maori fashion of the day, thus described by Captain Briggs who saw the Kapiti Islanders adopt it for the cooking of their food :
"They dig a hole in the earth two feet deep, in which they make a quantity of round stones red hot
with dry wood, after which they take out all the stones, except a few at the bottom, over which they lay several alternate tiers of leaves and flesh, until there is as much above ground as below they then throw about two or three quarts of water over all and confine the steam with old mats and earth so completely, that in 20 minutes the flesh is cooked; it is in this way that they cook and cure all their provisions."
It was thus they occupied themselves after the massacre ; it was thus they prepared the flesh of the dead which they brought on board the Elizabeth. As soon as the expedition had returned from their bloody work, Stewart ordered 10 guns to be fired.
As near as the author can determine from a careful analysis of the depositions and from other contemporary statements on the subject, the date of this awful event was 6th November, 1830.
The massacre over, the live prisoners secured on board the Elizabeth, the unconsumed flesh packed away in baskets in the ship's hold, and the death salute fired, Captain Stewart lifted the anchor and sailed for Kapiti to land this awful cargo and receive payment for his horrible services. On the voyage, with the object of preventing her falling into the hands of her captors, the old chief and his wife, who were confined in the fore cabin, strangled their little daughter. Burial was provided by the chief mate and some of the sailors throwing the body overboard.
Tamaiharanui gave as a reason to Montefiore for the killing of his daughter, "One die, all die." When this took place, the chief's wife was also put in irons. Kapiti was reached on the morning of 11th November.
About eleven o'clock on the day of landing preparations were made for embarking the miscellaneous cargo of live captives and dead human flesh. The prisoners, with the exception of Tamaiharanui. were marched on shore, and seated in rows on the beach, and the preserved flesh was carried off in baskets to the place appointed for the cannibal feast. It was estimated that about one hundred baskets of flesh were landed and that each basket contained the equivalent of one human body.
That was probably an exaggeration. Then commenced the dance. The record by a Hobart Town reporter from an eyewitness of the scene reads as follows :
"The Warriors, entirely naked their long black hair, although matted with human gore, yet flowing
partially in the wind in the left hand a human head in the right a bayonetted musket held by the middle of the barrel. Thus, with a song, the terrible expression of which can only be imagined by being heard, did they dance round their wretched victims every now and again, approaching them with gestures threatening death, under its most horrible forms of lingering torture. But they did not inflict it. None of them were killed."
The captives, with the exception of one old man and a boy who were sentenced to death, were apportioned amongst the conquering warriors as slaves. The tables were laid. About a hundred baskets of potatoes, a large supply of green vegetables, and equal quantities of whale blubber and human flesh constituted the awful menu.
The old man, from whose neck hung suspended the head of his son, while the body formed part of the cannibal feast, was brought forth and subjected to torture from the women
before the last scene of all. Captain Briggs, an eyewitness of all this, made a desperate resolve to save the lives of the man and the boy, and, just as the axe was about to fall on the lad's head, he rushed forward at the risk of his own life, and, by threats and entreaties, saved the life of the boy altogether, and secured a respite of the old man's execution for the space of one day. The banquet went on
to a finish, and, though it proved none the less attractive to the participants, was rendered all the more hideous to the onlookers by the fact that the midsummer season when it took place, added to the hasty and incomplete manner in which the human flesh had been prepared in the ovens, caused the human yet unhuman food to become putrid in a most revolting form, before it was spread out for the
banquet.
The officers of the Dragon witnessed this frightful orgie, and some of them brought to Hobart Town
mementoes of the scene, dissected from the bodies, as they lay out for the repast. The Maori lad who was saved accompanied Captain Briggs as his attendant, when he sailed, and held the position until he died, some three years later.
As the flax which was to repay Stewart for the charter of the brig was not at hand, Tamaiharanui was retained on board. There he remained until Montefiore, who had now arrived at Kapiti in the Argo, went on board and saw him on the 23rd or the 25th of December. Apparently he was not then in irons. Captain Briggs appears to have tried his best to induce Stewart to retain the chief on board, and, after getting what flax he could, to sail for Sydney. The same advice was given to him by others. Stewart thought he had gone too far to do that, and, although only a portion of the flax had been handed over to him, decided to surrender Tamaiharanui to Te Rauparaha.
Montefiore and Stewart were both on board the brig when this final act of perfidy was committed. Eichardson brought the old man out from his place of captivity, and handed him over to his inhuman captor. Te Rauparaha first of all went with his prisoner over to Kapiti. Then he returned to the ship and Montefiore joined the boat. Cowell was the only other European on board. They sailed over
to Otaki, which was about ten miles from where the Elizabeth was lying at anchor. There the Akaroa chief was landed and they all marched to the home of Te Rauparaha. On the following morning Montefiore visited Te Hike's settlement, and five or six hours afterwards Tamaiharanui arrived in a canoe. He was apparently being taken from place to place as the central figure of a Maori triumph, and at every place was being made the object of derision by his captors.
Harvey, the European already mentioned as residing on the mainland, stated that the old chief was killed by sticking a knife into his throat. He pointed out the scene of the tragedy to Montefiore. It was
placed called by the Maoris, Waikawa. The chief's wife had already been killed at Otaki. Both were eaten. A report current at the time was that Tamaiharanui was fixed to a cross and his throat cut by the widow of Te Pehi Kupe, the chief whom he had slain.
It was also said that while she drank a portion of the blood as it flowed from the wound, her son, Te Hiko, tore out the eyes of his victim, and swallowed them, to prevent them being fixed in the firmament of stars, as Maoris believed would happen on such an event.
After waiting for over six weeks, and getting only 16 or 18 of the 50 tons of flax promised, Stewart, with Montefiore and Kemmis on board as passengers, took the Elizabeth on to Sydney, which was reached on 14th January, 1831.
Although the two passengers mentioned might have been expected to see that something was done to bring Stewart to justice, they appear to have taken no steps whatever, and it was not until Gordon Davies Browne, a merchant of Sydney who was interested in the New Zealand trade, took the matter up, that the crime was brought under the notice of the authorities.
On the 5th 6th and 7th February, the Superintendent of Police at Sydney held an inquiry and took the depositions of G. D. Browne, J. B. Montefiore, and A. Kemmis, of Sydney, Pery, a native of Akaroa. and W. Brown and J. Swan, two of the crew of the Elizabeth. On the 7th, these depositions were forwarded to Governor Darling, with a recommendation by the police authorities that the opinion of the Crown Law Officers should be taken as to whether an offence had been committed which could be punished under the Act 9, Geo. IV. c. 83.
On the same day Mr. Moore, the Crown Law Officer, gave his opinion that the depositions did not disclose enough to warrant a commitment by the Magistrates, and that he doubted whether any offence had been committed which would come under the criminal law of England. On the twelfth, the Colonial Secretary, by direction of Governor Darling, instructed Mr. Moore to file criminal informations against the master (Stewart), the mate (Clementson), Cowell, Richardson, and G. Brown, "considering it a case in which the character of the nation was implicated and that every possible exertion should be used to bring the offenders to justice." The warrants were at once prepared by Moore but some difficulty was experienced in getting the necessary information from the agents of the vessel and from the police.
In due course, however, the warrants were obtained from the Court, but the fact of proceedings having been commenced must have leaked out, as the Chief Constable could find no one but Stewart : the others had vanished. Although the charge was one of murder, Moore agreed, considering the uncertainty of the legal position, that Stewart should be admitted to bail, himself in the sum of 500, and two sureties in the sum of 500 each. Mr. Browne's solicitor stated that efforts were being made by residents of Sydney to get the accused and the material witnesses removed beyond the jurisdiction of the Court. The delay from 14th January to 5th February evidently enabled that to be done.
A short while later, the crew of the Dragon, were those who found themselves in exactly the same situation as above.
Details of the 1833 season are not very full. The Lord Liverpool, which had spoken the Emma Kemp in Cook St. at the end of the year, came up to Sydney with a flax and oil cargo, on 20th January. There appears to have been a considerable quantity of oil over from the last season, of 8 tuns of which, and a small parcel of seal skins, was brought up to Sydney in the Waterloo by Hall on 25th February. While in Cook Strait the Waterloo spoke the brig Helen loading timber for Sydney, where she afterwards delivered a very fair cargo of pine.
In May news reached Hobart Town of the total loss by fire of the Dragon, and of the murder of her captain and crew by the Maoris. The crew had made fast to two whales and had followed them into a small inlet where were a number of natives, who promptly overpowered, killed and ate them, and burnt the vessel to the water 's- edge. The news of this disaster was obtained by the Lindsay, which had picked up, in an open boat at sea, a New Zealand lad who had witnessed the incident. Unfortunately no information is available of the locality of the disaster.
Encounters between the whalers and the natives, which so disturbed the peaceful carrying on of the whaling trade during the year 1834, were not confined to Cloudy Bay, nor yet to Port Otago, to be described hereafter. Admiralty Bay was the scene of rather a remarkable attack on a whaling craft. The Mary and Elizabeth, under the command of W. Lovitt, sailed from Hobart Town on 12th April, 1834. During the voyage she called in at Otago, and when there her boat, gear, and dead whales were seized and Captain Levitt only escaped by a precipitate retreat.
She then made for Cloudy Bay, where she was deserted by her crew and had to return to the Derwent, which she reached on 9th July. James Young was then put in command and she put to sea again on the thirteenth of the same month.
She returned on 12th September and reported as follows :
"On the 10th August, in Admiralty Bay, lat. 41. 19. South. Ion. 175 East, the Mary and Elizabeth,
having been drove in by stress of weather, several of the natives, amongst whom Captain Young
recognised our old acquaintance, Tomawk, came alongside; Tomawk claimed acquaintance with
Captain Young, and was received into the ship with his followers, one of whom he introduced as
his brother, Waktoob, and others as his cousins (we suppose Highland cousins). Tomawk and his
brother were invited into the cabin, and breakfasted with Captain Young they appeared very
friendly. Tomawk, on coming on board, said 'This brig belongs to Mr. Kelly.' Captain Young said,
'No, it belongs to Mr. Hewitt,' and endeavoured to explain the nature of the charter.
About an hour after breakfast, the weather clearing, Captain Young ordered his men to weigh the anchor, and requested Tomawk and his brother to sit on the companion, and to order their men into the canoes; they appeared to consent, and rose, as Captain Young thought, to comply with his request.
Captain Young turned round to the head of the ship to give his orders to his own people, when the
two chiefs, Tomawk and Waktoob, seized hold of him, and attempted to push his overboard; he
resisted, and prevented their effecting their purpose, by entwining his arms in the main rigging; another NCAV Zealander then struck him with a scrubbing brush on the hip, and brought him down on the deck; they then dragged him along the deck to the larboard pump, where they made him fast. Three of Captain Young's crew took to the rigging, the natives had knocked down the other three, and
lashed them to the ring bolts they then commenced plundering the ship, and took everything
they could move, including charts, chronometers, ship's register, and other papers. At last they quarrelled about a keg of tobacco, and fought with the ship's muskets, which happened to be loaded
two of them were killed, and Captain Young thinking that several more must have been wounded.
When the natives began to fight amongst themselves, they left the ship, and took to their canoes, on which the men, who had fled to the fore-top, came down, and released their commander and comrades. When the natives saw this, they gave up quarrelling, and made for the shore. One of the canoes was alongside, and Captain Young observed the chronometer in the bows of the canoe, and, stretching from his own deck, succeeded in rescuing it, though one of the natives made blows at him to prevent it. He then got up the anchor, and stood to sea, making for Cloudy Bay, where the Marian was whaling he got within six miles of the station, and could distinctly see the smoke of the try works, but the weather was such that he could not get into the Bay.
After striving to accomplish this, from the 11th to the 27th of August, without any bedding, and hardly any clothing left them, Captain Young was compelled to run for Hobart Town, his crew being unable to stand the rigours of the season in their destitute condition."
To that the editor adds the following, in the best Van Diemen's Land editorial style of that period:
"We publish the above as a caution to mariners who may have occasion to visit New Zealand. But
we confess that we are much surprised and disappointed at hearing of our friend Tomawk being engaged in an outrage of this nature. It is true that the neglect and contempt with which Tomawk and
his friend Tooet were treated by our beaurocrat oligarchy was calculated to inspire him with any feelings, rather than feelings of respect or kindness for British subjects. We predicted what would be the consequence to our shipping interests trading to New Zealand, of the contemptuous conduct of the Governor to Tomawk, who is not only a powerful Chief in his own country, but a near relation, we believe an uncle, to "Hecho," the paramount Chief or King in Cook's Straits.
"We have often, too often, had occasion to predict the consequences of the negligence and positively bad acts of our Government acts of which we could not help foreseeing the evil consequences ; and we could quote a long record of cases wherein, either personally, or through the press, we have given the head of the Government, in the most respectful manner, timeous warning of consequences against which he might have guarded, and which he might, in fact, have altogether obviated, but which fell out exactly as we had predicted. It will cost much bloodshed, and take many years, to remove the effects of the Governor's neglect of Tomawk, and to accomplish that which an opposite line of
conduct, on the part of His Excellency, might with ease have affected. ............
The Book is:
THE OLD WHALING DAYS
A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN NEW ZEALAND FROM 1830 TO 1840.
BY EGBERT McNAB, M.A., LL.B.
CHRISTCHUECH, WELLINGTON AND DUNEDIN, N.Z. ;
MELBOURNE AND LONDON : WHITCOMBE AND TOMBS LIMITED. 1913
The Captain Young was George Young from Yorkshire England
He then whaled a season at Waikanae, and went over to Kapiti and formed a partnership, well known in the early days— Daymond and Young — and whaled there the season of 1839, when he crossed the Straits to Queen Charlotte's Sound to bring the Samuel Winter, Captain Robertson, to Kapiti.
In crossing the Straits on lst January, 1840, Young sighted the barque Cuba, Captain Newcombe (the second vessel sent out by the New Zealand Company), about five miles from Kapiti. The Cuba anchored at Kapiti one night, and Young acted as pilot to take her to Port Nicholson, where she arrived on 4th January, 1840. He acted as interpreter at Port Nicholson for Captain Smith, R.A., and the party on board the Cuba, and on 21st January, 1840, he went outside Barrett's reef to the Aurora, Captain Heale, and on the following day, 22nd January 1840, beat the Aurora into Port Nicholson, and anchored her under Somes Island.
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