Six stations, twenty-three boats and the whaling boom
Prickett cites Ernst Dieffenbach for six Kāpiti and Mana stations operating 23 whaleboats and producing 466 tuns of whale oil in 1839. About half the reported oil came from Tommy Evans’s six-boat Tokomapuna operation. These are period figures transmitted through Dieffenbach, not modern audited production totals.
Six stations, twenty-three boats
The 1839 total is one of the clearest numerical snapshots of Kāpiti shore whaling: six stations, 23 boats and 466 tuns of black oil. Dieffenbach's figure specifically excludes tonguers' oil, so it is not a full account of every product extracted from the catch.
The identity of the leading station changed quickly. Tokomapuna was the largest producer in 1839, Long Point led in 1841, and Waiorua subsequently became the leading Kāpiti station before the industry's collapse. The pattern suggests an industry whose crews, capital and successful landing places were not fixed from season to season.
Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (Department of Conservation, 2002), pp. 83–84. See the full report in the Reports bookshelf.
The 1839 boom in one snapshot
Dieffenbach’s 1839 account gives six Kāpiti–Mana stations, 23 boats and 466 tuns of black oil, excluding tonguers. The figures convey the scale of work and labour around the islands at the height of activity.
The leading stations changed
Tokomapuna led production in 1839; Long Point in 1841; Waiorua became important later. Prickett (2002), pp.83–97, assembles these records with the archaeological evidence.
The contraction after the boom
The 1839 return records six stations and 23 boats, while 1844 records two stations and seven boats, and 1847 two stations and three boats. These are not estimates of the same season: they are successive published snapshots of a declining recorded industry.
Source: Nigel Prickett, “The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling” (2002), pp. 83–97.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- Wakefield describes whaling boats and island stations
- Prickett national archaeological inventory
- A visitor describes the three small islands and their whaling crews
- Six stations on Whale Song map
- The archaeology of New Zealand shore whaling
- 1839 Kāpiti–Mana station grouping
- Kāpiti stations, work and processing
- Kāpiti whaling economics
- Kāpiti archaeological evidence
- Mana and Kāpiti catch figures later published
