Tokomapuna: Tommy Evans’s station in stone
At Tokomapuna, also called Evans’s Island, Prickett recorded at least seven stone fireplaces, hut terraces, a probable tryworks mound and a sheltered landing place during his 1982 investigation. A possible grave was also noted. He considered the surviving evidence outstanding and associated the station with whaler Tommy Evans. The archaeological remains provide a way to locate working and living spaces described in the 1839–40 written record.
Tokomapuna: an island turned into a working station
Tokomapuna was not simply a lookout or temporary landing place. Prickett describes a whaling station occupying almost the whole island, about 1.5 kilometres off Kāpiti. In Charles Heaphy’s coastal profile of 1839–40, the place is identified as Evans’s Island English Whaling Establishment. The name ties the mapped place directly to a named operator, Tommy Evans.
Prickett’s 1982 field observations describe at least seven surviving stone fireplaces, three small terraces west of the ridge and a large boulder mound marking the tryworks behind the north-eastern beach. He also records a possible grave, but explicitly treats it as possible rather than identified. Reefs protected the landing place used to launch boats and bring in whales. Dense vegetation meant the archaeological survey could not necessarily find every feature.
In the 1839 regional production figures, the six-boat Tokomapuna station accounted for roughly half of the 466 tuns of black oil produced by six stations around Kāpiti and Mana. That is an unusually strong indication of this small island’s commercial importance. Prickett links Evans tentatively to the Thomas Evans named as a headsman in Fraser’s Long Point accounts in 1841; the identification is plausible, not proved.
The published discussion contains an apparent year inconsistency: one sentence describes Long Point’s rise from 44 to 172 tuns as occurring from 1839 to 1840, whereas the separate Long Point account explicitly assigns 44 tuns to 1840 and 172 to 1841. This library follows the dated Long Point account and does not silently treat the conflicting sentence as a second production series.
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.
The station at Tokomapuna
Tokomapuna was the leading Kāpiti producer in the 1839 whaling returns. It is marked as a station on Charles Heaphy's 1839 coastal profile, at a time when Long Point was not yet shown as occupied by a station.
Fraser's Long Point accounts introduce Thomas Evans as a new headsman in 1841. Prickett considers this consistent with Evans's earlier Tokomapuna station having ceased operations and its skilled workers moving elsewhere. The link is historically valuable precisely because it comes from comparing a coastal drawing, dated production figures and a business ledger, rather than from a single narrative source.
Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (Department of Conservation, 2002), pp. 83–86, 94. See the full report in the Reports bookshelf.
Tokomapuna at the height of the hunt
Tokomapuna was the most productive station in the Kāpiti–Mana group in 1839, according to the returns assembled by Nigel Prickett. The site is associated with Tommy Evans and surviving stone features.
An unresolved chronology
Different historical accounts attach Evans to more than one whaling location and date. Rather than merge them, the library keeps the station-specific records visible and connects readers to Long Point and the archaeological surveys.
Who was associated with the station
Prickett identifies Thomas “Tommy” Evans as a headsman at Long Point in 1841 and associates him with Tokomapuna. The surviving evidence is not a complete crew list or an unbroken account of station ownership.
Source: Nigel Prickett, “The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling” (2002), pp. 83–97.
Explore connected books
Explore connected history
- Tokomapuna: the physical remains of Tommy Evans’s station
- Tokomapuna: Evans’s station and an unresolved date conflict
- Prickett national archaeological inventory
- Six stations, twenty-three boats and the whaling boom
- 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.