THE MOERAKI CENTENARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 5

THE MOERAKI CENTENARY

By K. C. M‘Donald

HISTORY OF THE WHALING STATION

lII.—WHALING EXPERIENCES The whaling season in these waters commenced about the middle of March and continued till October. A lookout station was established on top of the' hill above the settlement. When a whale was sighted, the signal was given, the boats launched,, and the chase begun. Whaling methods were very similar throughout New Zealand; prob-; ably the best account of this curious industry is contained in E. J. Wake-i field's book, “Adventure in New Zealand.” The boats were from twenty to • thirty feet long, clinker-built, sharp at, both ends, and decked for a few feet from both bow and stern. They were-, usually manned by a crew of six, including the headsman, who during the pursuit of the whale controlled the large steer-oar, up to twenty-seven feet in length, which served as rudder. The other five were all oarsmen, the uneven number being preferred because r when, on approaching the whale, thebow oarsman (called the boat steerer ] for a reason that will presently be ap- ! parent) stood up to hurl the harpoon, [ it was desirable to have an equal force i on either side during the most critical moments of the attack. Some 200 1 fathoms of whale-line were neatly coiled in two tubs amidships. When the boat had approached within striking distance, the boat steerer, at the right moment, launched the harpoon, an iron weapon with a wooden handle, which was made so that it . would detach itself after the point had gone home, for the long shaft increased the danger of the harpoon being jerked oui of its hold in the body of , the whale. The whale would now make off, towing the boat at a rapid pace through the water, while the crew sat with peaked oars awaiting the moment when the whale would become exhausted. This might not be for a long time, and considerable distances were sometimes covered before the whale showed signs of fatigue. When at length it lay inert on the surface the most hazardous moment had arrived. The boat-steerer abandoned his place in the bow and relieved the headsman at the steer-oar, while the latter went forward and took up the lance to give the whale its deathblow, for this required skill and experience. The lance had a long, flat blade about three inches in breadth, and the aim was, with a rapid thrust ■ and a deft turn, to cut a circular hole through which the blood would pump, so that death would come quickly. It now required the most skilful handling of the boat to avoid disaster during the frantic struggles of the dying monster. At length came the end, and then the carcass was towed home, to be cut up on the beach and the oil boiled out in the large iron try-pots, some of which remain at points on our coast as interesting relics of the past. The produce at a station like Moeraki, which was locally owned, was sold to the vessels of one or' other of the large Sydney firms, which periodically visited the bay, the oil/ and bone being weighed out on the beach. Haberfield mentions £l4 a tun for oil and Is a pound for whalebone as being the prices fetched. Shortland, however, in his notes on the Moeraki station, gives lower figures, at least for the years 1837 to 1839, when the whalers received £8 to £lO for oil, while bone was sold at £SO to £56 a ton. Eight barrels of oil went to a tun. Hughes told Shortland that a good average yield for a single whale was 5 tuns; a large one, however, might produce 11 tuns, and he had seen one from which 14 tuns were extracted. A breeding cow and calf averaged about a tun of oil and 1121 b of bone.

Fortunately, Shortland was a man ol method and curiosity, and he noted in his journal statistics of the stations which he visited as far as he was able to collect them up to the time of his visit in 1843. From records published in the New Zealand Journal, the paper produced in England by the New Zealand Company, we can carry on the returns till 1847. It is thus possible to compile the following table; —

* Not given, f Apparently no catch. It may thus be seen that the station ceased to produce any remunerative return after five seasons. Nevertheless, the total amount of oil gained over the period of the existence of the station ranks Moeraki as one of the most productive of the Otago establishments. The whalers themselves were well satisfied with the returns of the first few years. Haberfield says whales were plentiful and came right into the bay. ■

The first vessel to visit the station was the Sydney Packet, a well-known whale ship belonging to Jones, and at that time commanded by Bruce. While at anchor at Moeraki she met with disaster. A gale sprang up and drove her on shore. Haberfield describes the incident thus: “First, the stock of her anchor gave way and then she got another down, and the chain parted, and away she came, quiet and comfortable like, on the beach.” She had gone ashore at a soft spot, and did not suffer much immediate damage, but all efforts to refloat her were in vain. She had to be abandoned, and gradually broke .up or was dismantled. Most of her cargo was saved, and everything of value was taken away by the Magnet when next she called. From M'Nab we learn that this occurred on July 17. 1837. Her cargo consisted of 50 tuns of oil, and seven tons of whalebone; all but about 30 casks of oil was saved. The insurances amounted to £9OO.

The next vessel recorded as having visited Moeraki was the Lunar, commanded by Captain Kaley and owned by Grose, of Sydney. She was in the bay on August 10. Probably it was in the same month—the news reached Sydney on September 17—-that another vessel met with a mishap at Moeraki: the Proteus grounded, but got off without damage. At the same time news was brought that the Governor Bourke had gone ashore and injured her rudder; she was relaunched and sent to Otago for repairs. It is not quite clear from M‘Nab, the authority for this information, whether this accident also occurred at Moeraki, but the way in which the sentence is framed seems to suggest it. Both these vessels belonged to Wright and Long Haberfleld tells us that Hughes went to Sydney at the end of the first season, and we find from M‘Nab that he sailed in the Magnet, on October 22, along with Captain Bruce, of the lost Sydney Packet, and a person whose name is spelled Sherat. which may be still another dress for the name of Hughes’s partner. Hughes returned at the end of the year, sailing from Sydney on the Magnet on December 9 " As he brought back with him two new boats, so he must have been well satisfied with the prospects of the station. One of the boats, however, was to prove a bad bargain, as it was smashed by a whale right at the beginning of the season. Here is Haberfield’s own description of the affair, given because it affords us an interesting glimpse of the whalers at work, and also illustrates the perils of their occupation:— We were out one day and hard at it, the boat in which I was being last to a big fellow. He was properly handled and nigh about done, when another boat came up to put an iron into him. We could see that the whale was dying—he was all a tremble and shooting about here and there —and we sang out to the other fellows to stand off; but 1 suppose they didn’t hear us at anyrate they came up in ji roundabout way and were pretty close, when he suddenly made a rush right in their direction and went clean over her, turning her over by sheer weight, and in a minute or two our brand new boat was floating about the bay In shingles. We cut our line sharp, and the whale sank dead after his last effort, but we

picked him up two days afterwards and got him all right. Luckily no one was hurt, and the old whaler characteristically adds: “We didn’t make such a precious fuss about

a thing of that sort as people would nowadays.” This was not the only misfortune experienced by the station. On his return to Sydney in August the captain of the Dublin Packet reported that the buildings at Moeraki had been burned down and all the provisions destroyed. The oil, however, had been saved. Haberfield does not mention this incident.

In spite of these losses the season was even better than the first had been, and indeed was to be the best in the history of the station. Hughes apparently again visited Sydney; at anyrate a passenger of that name arrived in the Magnet on October 4. According to Haberfleld, they started the third season with five boats, one of which was seven-oared. The larger boat was not a success, however, as it was too long to turn quickly. It was, of course, necessary to increase the number of men, and when. In 1839, Jones supplied particulars of his stations to the Collector of Customs, and, as has been said, included Moeraki in the list, six of those mentioned were said to have 32 men each, while the seventh had 42.

A busy place the little settlement must have been in these times. During the season there was always plenty to do. Boats and buildings had to be kept in repair, and the sheerlegs, windlasses, and runways had to be maintained in working order. Barrels had to be fnade for storing the oil—at Moeraki over 1000 might be used in a season—and a cooper was one of the most essential craftsmen at the station. Peter Sivatt was the Moeraki cooper. The work of trying-out, after the capture of a whale, was most arduous; the blubber had to be cut into blocks about two feet square, and the oil boiled, out of it, the scrag or residue of the blubber serving as fuel. Then the oil was run off, first into coolers, and then into the casks. This work, while it lasted, was carried on night and day, the men working in two shifts. It was not a pleasant task, for the whole beach and everything on it were black with oil and smelled to heaven. Then there were the periodical visits of ships, the only link with the outside world, bringing eagerly-awaited mails and stores. While the ship was in port there was the business of loading, which would keep everybody hard at it. Then perhaps \yould come a signal from the hill-top; all hands would drop their work and rush to the boats, which were ready at a moment’s notice to put off fully equipped, and away they would go on the hazardous work on which their livelihood depended. Speed was necessary, not only to prevent the escape of the whale, but to forestall a rival gang, for while Hughes had the only permanent establishment, he had not a monopoly of whaling in the bay. American vessels would sometimes make it a base for a time, and then there was the thrill of emulation to add to the usual excitements of the chase. The aim was to plant the first harpoon in the whale, which established a claim to the quarry; there was a tacit agreement that if then the line broke and the whale was finally taken by the rival party, the presence of its “ iron ” in the carcass would entitle the first party to a share in the produce. The Americans, Haberfield considered, were usually better equipped and used more effective methods than the British and colonial parties; they, of course, were further from a base, and had to make more thorough preparations for the expedition. Mr Cormack received from Haberfield this story of the longest chase during the existence of the Moeraki station. One April morning two boats were out when they sighted a large whale about four miles from land, opposite the kaika. They gave chase and in about half an hour had sent a harpoon home. The whale made off to the north, towing the boat at a racing speed. Such was the endurance of the monster that when at length he was killed, early in the afternoon, he had towed the boat to a spot some distance past the mouth of the Waitaki River. Towards evening the second boat arrived, but just when they were preparing to undertake the heavy task of towing the whale back to Moeraki. a strong breeze sprang up from the south-west, against which it was impossible to make headway. There was no alternative but to drop anchor and make fast to the whale for the night. In the morning conditions were worse, but later in the day a third boat arrived with very welcome provisions. Towards evening the three boats,. roped together in line, set out for home, tow-

ing the whale, whose flukes were lashed down to its body to decrease resistance in the water. The party arrived back at Moeraki with their prize after 26 hours’ hard pulling. Whaling was a jolly life, says Haberfield, in spite of the loneliness, the dangers, and the hardships. One of the greatest of the drawbacks was the monotony of the food. When salt oeef ran out they had to subsist on Maori diet—fish, kakas, pigeons, fern root, and potatoes, for which at first they had to go to Otakou. Later they had their own cultivations: in' fact, as will be seen later, this was one of the special features of Moeraki as compared with most of the other stations. The whalers had brought pigs with them on their first arrival, but it w r as impossible to feed them, so they had to be released. They ran wild, and multiplied in the hills behind Hampden. Goats were also brought and kept on the little rocky island of Manukiekie. The whalers were a peaceable lot, according to Haberfield; there was no fighting, and by agreement among themselves no liquor was brought to the station. On the question of the sobriety of the Moeraki whalers, howfever, there would seem to have been two opinions.

Fish Oil Year. caught. in tuns. 1837 ,. .. .. 23 88 1838 .. 119 1839 .. .. 25 108 1840 .. .. .. 19 55 1841 .. 54 1842 .... 2 .9 1843 .. .... 1 8J 1844 .. * 10 1845 ., • • • • * 25 1846 .... * 7 1847 .. .. .. + t