Tahoramaurea: Te Rauparaha, Mayhew and the whaling settlement

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Tahoramaurea: Te Rauparaha, Mayhew and the whaling settlement

1839

Tahoramaurea was known by several nineteenth-century names, including Rauparaha’s and Mayhew’s Island. Prickett cites accounts placing Te Rauparaha on its northern shore when the Tory arrived in October 1839, while American whaler William Mayhew ran a two-boat station on the southern shore. In 1982 Prickett documented stone-walled huts and substantial hearths on the island; later sketches depict buildings on the north side. He suggests whalers may have shifted operations after Te Rauparaha departed, but that remains an interpretation.

Tahoramaurea: two shores, overlapping histories

Tahoramaurea, a little more than 100 metres from Motungarara, has archaeological remains on both its northern and southern raised beaches. On the northern side, stone-building traces extend for about 40 metres. A substantial unmortared hearth stood beside a five-by-five-metre hut platform, close to the shore; at least three more stone-walled huts and another hearth were recorded nearby. On the southern side, archaeologists found a hearth, stone revetment and other features. Some terraces and pits on higher ground relate to Māori occupation and must not simply be assigned to the whaling station.

The island appears under several nineteenth-century names, including “Rauparaha’s”, “Stubbs’s” and “Mayhew’s”. When the Tory anchored in October 1839, Te Rauparaha was living on the northern side. At the same time American whaler William Mayhew operated a two-boat station on the southern shore platform. These were contemporaneous activities in a small, closely shared landscape.

William Swainson’s sketches of April 1849 show a deserted station, while J. A. Gilfillan’s 1844 sketch also depicts buildings on the northern platform. Prickett suggests the pictures and archaeology may indicate that whalers shifted to the more sheltered northern side after Te Rauparaha departed. This is an interpretation of the evidence, not an independently dated relocation. Source: Prickett (2002), pp. 89–91; Dieffenbach and the historical drawings cited there.

Mayhew and the changing shore of Tahoramaurea

When Ernst Dieffenbach visited the Kāpiti area in October 1839, he recorded the American William Mayhew operating two whaleboats from the south side of Tahoramaurea. This is a contemporary description of a working station rather than a later guess from surviving stones.

J. A. Gilfillan's 1844 sketch and William Swainson's April 1849 views depict a group of buildings on the island's northern shore platform. Prickett notes five buildings visible in one of the later drawings and considers the images alongside the surviving archaeological evidence.

That evidence points to changing use of the island over time. It does not justify assigning every stone structure to Mayhew personally or assuming that all the illustrated buildings stood in 1839. Each document captures a different moment in the island's history.

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.

Two sides of Tahoramaurea

Tahoramaurea held more than one strand of Cook Strait history. Dieffenbach placed Te Rauparaha on the northern side of the island in October 1839 and recorded the American whaler William Mayhew operating a two-boat station on its southern shore platform.

William Swainson's sketches of April 1849 show a group of buildings on the northern shore; a drawing by J. A. Gilfillan in 1844 shows the same side. Prickett interprets the combined archaeological and pictorial evidence as suggesting that whalers later shifted to the more sheltered northern side after Te Rauparaha departed. The sketches and stone remains tell different parts of the same story.

Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (Department of Conservation, 2002), pp. 89–91. See the full report in the Reports bookshelf.

Two shores, overlapping histories

At Tahoramaurea in 1839, Te Rauparaha was associated with the northern side and William Mayhew with a two-boat whaling station on the southern side. Stone remains survive in the archaeological record.

A place of more than one story

The island brings together Māori political history, settlement and commercial whaling. Neither side of that history should be treated as an incidental footnote.

Two sides of the island

Prickett distinguishes evidence on the northern and southern shores of Tahoramaurea. A report from 1839 places Te Rauparaha on the north side and William Mayhew’s two-boat whaling station on the south. Sketches attributed to Swainson (1849) and Gilfillan (1844) depict the northern shore. The visual record and station attribution must not be collapsed into a single location.

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