Wakefield travels from Kāpiti to Mana by whaleboat

A volume from the WhaleLIBRARY

Wakefield travels from Kāpiti to Mana by whaleboat

1840-05

In his published expedition account, Wakefield describes a visit to Long Point, where the Justine, William Wallace, Susannah Ann and John Dunscombe were anchored. He then travelled in Captain Lewis’s whaleboat from Kāpiti to Mana and stayed at a pā on the mainland opposite Mana. The account illustrates the movement of people between whaling stations, Māori communities and shipping anchorages.

Modern historical interpretation of Wakefield aboard a nineteenth-century whaleboat near Kāpiti Island — Wakefield travelling by whaleboat — modern historical interpretation, not a contemporary depiction.

A coast connected by small boats

Wakefield's journeys among Kāpiti and Mana whaling communities show why the water between the islands and the mainland was a working corridor. Open whaleboats connected people and supplies in places without developed wharves or reliable roads.

The island geography shaped the danger of every landing. At Korohiwa in June 1840, Wakefield arrived shortly after a headsman had drowned while bringing a boat through heavy surf. The event connects the everyday mobility of whaling crews to the risks of exposed coastal landings.

Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (Department of Conservation, 2002), pp. 84–85. See the full report in the Reports bookshelf.

A passage by whaleboat

Wakefield’s journey from Kāpiti to Mana shows how the same craft used for the hunt could carry passengers between settlements. These voyages crossed waters that could be dangerous in wind and surf.

The places reached

Mana Island’s eastern landing was described in 1839 as a mixed farming and whaling settlement beside Te Rangihaeata’s pā. Fraser’s later returns document its whaling activity.

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