A whaling boom and a sudden collapse at Long Point
In 1840, five boats at Long Point returned 44 tuns of oil and 57 hundredweight of whalebone. A year later, six boats reportedly produced 172 tuns of oil and eight tons of bone. By 1842, the returns had dropped to seven tuns of oil and seven hundredweight of bone. The contrast is striking, but these figures describe reported production, not a complete explanation of why the fishery declined.
Three seasons that changed everything
The accounts also record changes among the people doing the work. Thomas Evans appears as a headsman in 1841. Nigel Prickett suggests that experienced hands may have moved towards the Waiorua station associated with Robert Jellit. That possibility helps explain the historical puzzle, but it remains an interpretation rather than a demonstrated transfer.
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Fraser’s Long Point station expanded to six boats and reportedly produced 172 tuns of oil and eight tons of whalebone in 1841. By 1842 its catch had fallen to seven tuns of oil and seven hundredweight of whalebone. Prickett notes changing headsmen, including Thomas Evans in 1841, and suggests that skilled workers may have moved to the Waiorua operation associated with Robert Jellit. That labour-movement explanation is an interpretation, not a directly established cause.
A boom and collapse measured in oil
The Long Point station’s three known seasons show how rapidly the fortunes of a shore-whaling enterprise could change. Five boats returned 44 tuns of oil in 1840. Six boats produced 172 tuns in 1841. In 1842, despite the station still appearing in Fraser’s accounts, the recorded output collapsed to seven tuns.
The whalebone figures followed the same trajectory: 57 hundredweight in 1840, eight tons in 1841 and seven hundredweight in 1842. The changes cannot be explained by boat numbers alone. The account book identifies new headsmen in successive seasons; Prickett suggests the departure of experienced men and shifting activity towards Waiorua contributed to the decline.
This local example belongs within the broader Kāpiti downturn. Contemporary figures cited by Prickett describe six stations and 23 boats producing 466 tuns of black oil in 1839, but only two stations, three boats and 29 tuns in 1847. The measures describe different years and areas of operation; they should not be treated as a single station’s catch. Source: Prickett (2002), pp. 84, 86.
What changed between 1841 and 1842?
Long Point's oil production rose from 44 tuns in 1840 to 172 in 1841, then fell to seven in 1842. Its whalebone return moved from 57 hundredweight to eight tons and then to seven hundredweight. The change was severe even by the standards of a seasonal fishery.
Prickett notes new headsmen in 1841, including Thomas Evans, and suggests that the end of Evans's Tokomapuna operation may explain some of the movement. All three headsmen were new again in 1842. Robert 'Jellit' may have taken experienced men to Waiorua, which subsequently became the leading Kāpiti station. That possible transfer is an interpretation of the account-book evidence, not a recorded statement of intent.
Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (Department of Conservation, 2002), pp. 86. See the full report in the Reports bookshelf.
A boom followed by a fall
Long Point’s recorded oil output rose from 44 tuns in 1840 to 172 tuns in 1841, then fell to seven tuns in 1842. The corresponding bone returns were 57 cwt, eight tons and seven cwt.
What the sequence means
These are Fraser’s station returns, not totals for the entire island. They show the volatility of one enterprise; the causes of the decline require evidence beyond the numbers alone.
The Long Point returns
Prickett records a striking sequence for Long Point: in 1840 five boats produced 44 tuns of oil and 57 cwt of bone; in 1841 six boats produced 172 tuns of oil and eight tons of bone; in 1842 the returns fell to seven tuns of oil and seven cwt of bone. The changing returns illustrate volatility, not a smooth year-by-year decline.
Source: Nigel Prickett, “The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling” (2002), pp. 83–97.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- Fraser’s Long Point accounts reveal workforce turnover
- Long Point: a workforce and a shifting economy
- Fraser’s Long Point station: an account book opens a lost world
- Prickett national archaeological inventory
- 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
Follow this history into other books
Continue with these connected accounts. Each opens a separate book with its own evidence and perspective.
Long Point by the numbers: three seasons that changed everything
The figures from Alexander Fraser’s Long Point station describe a dramatic expansion followed by a near collapse. These are shore-station production returns, not the catches of individual named ships. They belong to the wider story of boats setting out from a difficult coastline, crews working in dangerous conditions, and oil and baleen passing through a network of local suppliers and maritime carriers.
| Year | Boats | Oil (tuns) | Whalebone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1840 | 5 | 44 | 57 cwt |
| 1841 | 6 | 172 | 8 tons |
| 1842 | Not established here | 7 | 7 cwt |
Recorded oil output in 1841 was almost four times the 1840 figure. In 1842 it fell to around 4% of the 1841 total. These comparisons are powerful, but they do not by themselves establish the cause. A fall in whales encountered, changes in staffing, competition, weather, market conditions and record coverage are distinct possibilities to investigate, not facts to choose between without evidence.
What is a tun? What is a hundredweight?
A tun was a historical unit used in the oil trade. It is a quantity of oil, not a number of whales. A cwt is a hundredweight: in the British imperial system, 20 cwt equal one long ton. The returns use different units for oil and baleen, so the two columns must not be added together or compared as though they measured the same substance.
The accounts as a human record
Fraser’s surviving account material, as discussed by Prickett, includes headsmen, boat crews and specialist work such as coopering. An entry recording a payment is evidence of a financial transaction, not automatically evidence that the named person remained throughout a season. A complete prosopography—the reconstruction of every person’s involvement—requires transcription of names, dates, payments and role changes line by line.
Source and status: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), chapter 9, summarising Fraser’s manuscript accounts and station returns. Figures are drawn from the supplied research corpus; original Fraser manuscript has not been independently transcribed in this edition.