Whaling supplies shipped to Mana
Shipping intelligence records the schooner Mana, about 21 tons, sailing for Mana Island with whaling stores on 6 March 1842. This small notice illustrates the supply chain behind the stations, including the transport of equipment and provisions from Port Nicholson.
What it took to supply a shore station
Whaling stations depended on regular coastal transport for provisions, tools and containers, as well as on local trade. A shipment of supplies to Mana therefore belongs to the working history of the station, not merely to shipping trivia. Food, casks, rope and iron equipment could determine whether crews could remain at a remote landing for a season.
Alexander Fraser's Long Point accounts, discussed by Nigel Prickett, show the wider system of station purchases, wages, equipment and movements of goods between Cook Strait and Sydney. This does not prove that a particular Mana shipment belonged to Fraser; it illustrates the kind of commercial network within which the recorded consignment moved.
The ship's name, manifest, date and consignee must come from the original shipping notice before the precise route can be reconstructed. The presence of supplies at a station should not be mistaken for a documented whale catch on the same day.
Sources: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), Kāpiti chapter, pp. 83–97 (especially Paremata, Tahoramaurea and Te Kahuoterangi); where specified, Whale Song, Kāpiti – Blood, Oil and Bone (2025). Interpretations and source limitations are distinguished in the text.
Supplies heading for Mana
Shipping supplies to Mana meant provisioning people working in a mixed maritime and agricultural settlement. Wakefield described the eastern landing in 1839 as a “sort of half-farm, half whaling-station” beside Te Rangihaeata’s pā.
A working settlement
Fraser’s Mana operation recorded two boats and 15 men in 1844, producing six tuns of oil; in 1845 two boats and 14 men produced 15 tuns and eight cwt of bone, according to Prickett’s compilation.
A twenty-one-ton schooner and the supply chain
The shipping notice places the schooner Mana, described as about 21 tons, departing on 6 March 1842 for Mana Island with whaling stores. The figure is a description of the vessel’s tonnage, not a weight for the cargo. The destination is Mana Island, and the wording does not name the recipient of the goods.
Small coastal craft could connect a station with the larger commercial port without being whaling ships themselves. The notice is evidence for movement of supplies, not evidence that the schooner hunted whales or that a particular station made a particular catch. Distinguish the schooner Mana from Mana Island in every index entry.
A next-level vessel record would seek the original departure notice, any master’s name, registration particulars, manifests, and matching arrival notices. Until found, leave those fields blank. Source trail: 6 March 1842 shipping intelligence as transcribed in this book; compare the Fraser Long Point account book for the wider economics of supplies, not for identification of this cargo.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- 1839 Kāpiti–Mana station grouping
- A correspondent counts boats and oil at Kāpiti and Mana
- Four Europeans reported drowned off Mana
- Four whalers reported drowned off Mana
- Mana and Kāpiti catch figures later published
- Te Wai-o-Rongomai and Te Puna-o-Rongomai
- Waikanae naming traditions
- Whale Song, Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone (2025)
- Puketapu ki Paraparaumu — History and Living Connections
- Modern whaling and whale watching
- Kāpiti — Blood, Oil and Bone
- Eleven ships off Kāpiti in 1837