Shore-based whaling
Shore-based whaling depended on lookouts, fast pulling boats, experienced headsmen and crews able to bring a whale back to a landing. Blubber was cut away and heated in large iron trypots; oil was stored for shipment. The surviving evidence is often modest: stone hearths, trypot stands, landing places and traces of former buildings. A station was therefore both a workplace and part of a wider coastal supply network.
The historical record
Shore-based whaling
Shore-based whaling
Shore-based whaling
The industry in figures
The Kāpiti–Mana production returns give a sense of the boom and contraction. In 1839 six establishments were associated with 23 boats and 466 tuns of black oil. By 1844, a different return recorded seven boats at two stations; in 1847, two stations and three boats produced 29 tuns. The returns have different dates and should not be read as a complete census of every historical site. Source: Nigel Prickett (2002), pp.83–97, drawing on Dieffenbach and Wakefield.