Circumnavigation Of Stewart Island Recalls History

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31269, 16 January 1967, Page 11

Circumnavigation Of Stewart Island Recalls History

(Contributed) A circumnavigation of Stewart Island, and a call at Port Pegasus, by two Royal New Zealand Volunteer Naval Reserve motor launches, the Pegasus and Toroa, on December 29-31 recalls William Stewart’s historic voyage in 1809, and the bestowal of the island’s place names.

Stewart Eland's history begins with Captain James Cook’s survey of the coastline of New Zealand in 176970 in the Endeavour. The fascinatingly - accurate chart which Cook prepared contained two areas of doubt: Stewart Island was presumed to be a peninsula, while Banks Peninsula was shown

as an island. However, in each case Cook made clear, by showing his ship’s track, and a vague coastline in the critical, areas, that he was unable to be certain. In the wake of Cook, and with the aid of his chart, sealing vessels came to Stewart Island—an industry which continued until the 1830 s, when the fur seals were almost extinct. It seems probable that the first of those vessels discovered the existence of a strait between South Cape and the “Middle Island”; and it is on record that an American sealing captain, O. F. Smith, visited Sydney in the Favourite in 1806, and produced a chart of the area showing the as-yet-unnamed Foveaux Strait. Island Named

The naming of both Stewart Island and Foveaux Strait had to wait until 1809, when a sealer of a rather different kind appeared on the scene—a ship similar in size and design to other sealers, but, as often occurs, with a character based on that of her commanding officer, Captain Chace (or Chase), ably assisted by an even betterknown figure in history, his first officer, William Stewart. The island was named after the latter, not because he discovered it, but because tie surveyed it; while the Strait was named after the then Governor-General of Australia.

Chace’s vessel, the Pegasus, was a French-built ship, and fell into English hands as a prize of the frigate Cornwallis during the Napoleonic Wars. She was commissioned on a sealing voyage in Sydney in 1808, and sailed for Stewart Island, where the talent of Stewart as a surveyor, and the patience of. Chace—who was prepared to incur the cost of the delays involved—combined to ensure that the names Pegasus' and Stewart became part of New Zealand’s heritage. Coast Charted The Pegasus spent some months at Stewart Island. She circumnavigated the island, charting the coast as she went, and taking particular interest in a natural harbour then known as “Southern Port”—and named as such in the first printed map using the name “Stewart’s Island,” which appeared in 1816. Both these names were still in use in 1834, as shown in a map

of New Zealand published in London at that time. Thereafter, the apostrophe “s” was dropped from the island’s name, and Port Pegasus became the name of the harbour.

From Stewart Island, the Pegasus sailed up the east coast of the “Middle Island’’ and almost certainly made a positive effort to prove or disprove Cook’s second assumption, that Banks Peninsula was an island. Captain Chace easily discovered the truth of the matter, and hence “island” became “peninsula” in the 1834 map; the bay to the north is labelled “Cook’s Mistake or Pegasus Bay.” Hardly a fair comment on Cook’s magnificent effort! Posterity has put this right by dropping the reference to “Cook’s Mistake,” and Pegasus Bay remains. Link With Cook

Thus it came about that when the then commanding officer of the Canterbury Division of the Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve was invited by the Naval Board in 1957, to select a name for the division, which should be related to the Canterbury coastline, he suggested the name “Pegasus.” A happy choice, as it not only connects the present ship with the early sealer, and through her with Captain Cook, perhaps the Royal Navy’s greatest navigator, but it is also the eighth Pegasus to serve in the British Fleet. One earlier holder of the name iftd close connexions with Horatio Nelson (then a captain), certainly the Royal Navy’s greatest admiral. The Pegasus of our story retreats from the New Zealand scene after her appearance off Banks Peninsula, and can last be found in the pages of history arriving at Gravesend in August, 1810, after calling at Rio de Janeiro on her . homeward voyage. Acheron’s Chart In 1849-50, H.M.S. Acheron charted Stewart Island with some accuracy, and her chart of Port Pegasus was used by the motor launches Pegasus and Toroa on their recent visit. A landing was made at Observation Cove, but since adverse weather made the launchs’ anchorage somewhat unsafe, no time was available to search for the datum plate

or pole used by Acheron, which was placed on a hill overlooking the cove. However, a partly-fabricated wooden ship’s rib was discovered, about Ift square, perhaps Bft in length, planed flat on one side, and clearly in the shape of a rib. This may, of course, date from more recent times, and the activities of whaling ships. Port Pegasus has seen various activities since Stewart’s charting of it in 1809. Stewart himself returned in 1826 and endeavoured unsuccessfully to found a permanent settlement. It was a whaling base until about 1840. Tin and gold were found in small quantities, and the influx of miners created sufficient activity to warrant the construction of a post office, store, and hotel. A fish-refrigerating plant was established. But the absence of tin in payable quantities, and the difficulty of marketing fish, led to the closing, in 1893, of the southernmost post office in New Zealand. Wild and Unspoiled

With the lapse of these projects, the Pegasus and Toroa steamed through the South Passage, and down South Arm to Sylvan Cove, to see Port Pegasus through the same eyes as did Captain Chace and William Stewart: wild granite monoliths soaring to 1700 ft in fantastic shapes against the sunset, bush-covered hills with red rata patterning the lower slopes, beds of the coarsest kelp imaginable which the Maoris use for smoking mutton birds, fish in abundance, duck still to be found up Cook’s Arm of Islet Cove, as mentioned in the Acheron’s 1849 chart—but seals, reported in the same spot by Stewart and shown on the 1838 map, alas now departed.

What will be the future of Port Pegasus? It could be developed into a good cheap water harbour, well protected from the weather, the Scapa Flow of the south? It could become a tourist attraction for those willing to endure discomfort to enjoy its unchanged grandeur. More likely, it will sleep on, wild and unspoiled. The photograph shows the Pegasus at anchor in Observation Cove, Port Pegasus. LieutenantCommander (E) G. Whittle is beaching the dinghy.