Whale Song, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone (2025)
Published by Whale Song in December 2025, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone draws together documentary evidence about the whaling era, trade and settlement around Kāpiti Island. A second print run followed in March 2026.
About this Whale Song publication
Its page 16 records eleven vessels off Kāpiti between 25 August and 12 October 1837: Persian (Hopton), Dublin Packet (Clayton), Roslyn Castle (Richards), Marianne (Mansford), Isabella (Maughan), Caroline (Cherry), Sea Witch (Newson), Louisa (Hayward), Samuel Cunard (master not named), Bee (Gluvins) and Taiaroa (Hempleman). The names in parentheses are the recorded masters.
Page 11 also records Alexander Fraser's 1840 Kāpiti station accounts: £394 for pork and £436 for flour, with supplies to local Māori including 25 pairs of blankets, two kegs of tobacco and a hogshead of spirits valued together at more than £88.
Source: Whale Song, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone (2025), pp. 11, 16.
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