A newspaper names five Kāpiti whaling parties

A volume from the WhaleLIBRARY

A newspaper names five Kāpiti whaling parties

1840-10-31

An October 1840 list names Evans, Frazer, Daymond and Young, Lewis, and Long George under Kāpiti, with Captain Daniell at Mana. The editor explicitly cautioned that the supplied list might not be fully correct. It is a valuable snapshot of reported operators, not a definitive count of archaeologically confirmed stations.

A newspaper count is a snapshot, not a complete inventory

Newspaper lists of whaling parties are valuable evidence of the operators active when the report was compiled. They are not automatically complete registers of every station that ever existed. Prickett’s synthesis gives a useful comparison: six Kāpiti–Mana stations and 23 boats in 1839, then two stations with seven boats in 1844.

When comparing the names in a newspaper with the archaeological map, the date and geographical scope must be stated. The disappearance of a station from a later list can indicate closure or changed reporting, but the list alone does not prove when its buildings were abandoned.

Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), chapter 9, pp. 83–96; see the relevant station section and its cited contemporary records. Interpretations are attributed above.

Five named whaling parties

A newspaper count of whaling parties provides a snapshot of organisation and employment, but the number of parties is not necessarily the number of permanent stations.

Compare the official returns

In 1839 the Kāpiti–Mana group was reported as six establishments and 23 boats. Later accounts show a smaller active fleet. These dated figures help frame, rather than overwrite, the newspaper list.

Who is counted — and who is absent?

The 31 October 1840 newspaper account groups Evans, Frazer, Daymond and Young, Lewis and Long George under Kāpiti and places Captain Daniell at Mana. Those are names attached to reported whaling parties, not necessarily the legal owners of every boat, the employers of every worker, or the occupants of distinct archaeological sites. Even the original editor cautioned that the list might not be fully correct.

The list raises a particularly useful question: which people were headsmen, which supplied capital, and which controlled access to the shore? An operator’s name in a colonial newspaper does not describe the full workforce, nor does its silence about Māori labour or relationships establish their absence. A reliable reconstruction needs contemporary pay records, agreements, land testimony and independent observations.

Compare this dated 1840 list with the district-wide 1839 figure of six stations and 23 boats, but do not treat the two as identical surveys. The categories, coverage and reporting dates differ. Source trail: this book’s 1840 newspaper report, cross-read with Nigel Prickett (2002), Kāpiti–Mana chapter.

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