Korohiwa: a drowning, a proposed transfer and Wilson’s crew
At Korohiwa opposite Mana, Wakefield visited in June 1840 shortly after a headsman drowned while coming through heavy surf. In 1842 merchant John Wade offered the station to John Guard. In 1847 a station recorded as Koroeva near Mana was operated by Wilson: one boat, eight men, ten tuns black oil and eight hundredweight whalebone. Archaeology includes a collapsed whalers-type hearth; a concrete chimney is later and cannot simply be called a whaling structure.
Korohiwa: a station beside the surf
Korohiwa occupied a small north-facing bay on the mainland opposite Mana Island, approximately 1.5 kilometres west of Titahi Bay. The low ground behind the beach extended about 50–60 metres inland and was bounded by steep slopes and cliffs. A narrow passage between rock platforms offered boats a way through the boulder beach. Its geography helps explain both the attraction of this landing place and the dangers faced by crews returning in rough weather.
Edward Jerningham Wakefield visited in June 1840, soon after the station’s headsman had drowned while coming ashore through heavy surf. In 1842 Wellington merchant John Wade offered the station to John Guard, whose Port Underwood whaling grounds were becoming depleted. Prickett interprets that offer as suggesting Korohiwa may then have lacked an operating party; it does not establish that the transfer took place.
The site has a complicated archaeological history. Elsdon Best saw what he believed to be a whaler’s hut site and an old stone fireplace in the early twentieth century. Later surveys distinguished a collapsed fireplace mound typical of whaling work from a concrete-and-brick chimney that was not itself built by whalers. Nearby terraces on the point were of Māori origin. These different layers of occupation should not be confused.
The published 1847 statistics identify Wilson as station owner. One boat and eight men produced 10 tuns of black oil and eight hundredweight of whalebone. Korohiwa also appears under spellings including Te Korohiwa, Koroheva, Koroiwa and Coalheaver. Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), pp. 84–85, drawing on Wakefield and contemporary statistics.
Korohiwa and the danger of the landing
A headsman drowned in the surf at Korohiwa in June 1840, an event that illustrates how perilous ordinary station work could be even without a whale chase. In 1842 John Wade offered the station to John Guard; by 1847 a record associates Wilson with one boat, eight men, ten tuns of oil and eight hundredweight of baleen. The sequence gives the place a history of accident, attempted transfer and continued production, not simply a pin on a map.
Operational chronology from archaeological research
Nigel Prickett’s 2002 survey brings together three separate glimpses of Korohiwa: the drowning of a headsman in surf in June 1840; John Wade’s 1842 offer of the station to John Guard; and an 1847 record of Wilson operating one boat with eight men, producing ten tuns of oil and eight hundredweight of bone. These are dated snapshots rather than proof of uninterrupted operation or an unchanging workforce.
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A dangerous passage through the surf
Korohiwa was a small north-facing bay on the mainland opposite Mana Island, west of Titahi Bay. Prickett describes a steep boulder beach and a narrow channel between rock platforms, with the working ground confined between the shore and surrounding slopes. This landscape was not incidental scenery. A whaleboat returning with men, equipment or a tow had to negotiate a particular gap through broken water. Wakefield’s report that a headsman drowned while coming ashore through heavy surf shortly before his June 1840 visit gives the physical setting human consequence. The surviving account does not establish every circumstance of the drowning, so we should not invent a boat crew, rescue attempt or weather sequence.
Archaeology also demands restraint. Prickett records a collapsed fireplace characteristic of whalers’ work and a separate chimney constructed partly from boulders and brick set in coarse concrete. He explicitly warns that the concrete chimney is not a whaling-period structure, although it may occupy an earlier terrace. In 1842 merchant John Wade offered the station to John Guard; in the 1847 newspaper return a station called Koroeva near Mana is associated with Wilson, one boat, eight men, ten tuns of black oil and eight hundredweight of whalebone. These are dated snapshots, not proof of uninterrupted occupation under one operator. Source: Nigel Prickett, The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling (2002), pp. 84–85, section 9.1; Prickett cites Wakefield (1845), Sherrard (1966) and the 1847 newspaper returns.
Evidence standard: the cited source supports the historical account; unanswered questions are retained rather than filled with speculation.
Explore connected history
- 1839 Kāpiti–Mana station grouping
- 1839 whaling scale
- A correspondent counts boats and oil at Kāpiti and Mana
- Early offshore whaling at Kāpiti
- Long Point: a workforce and a shifting economy
- Tokomapuna: Evans’s station and an unresolved date conflict
- Waiorua: a large working settlement in decline
- Taepiro: whaling attribution withdrawn by its original researcher
- Wharekohu: Mayhew’s landholding is not proof of a whaling station
- Waiorua’s earlier land claim remains ambiguous
- The Archaeology of New Zealand Shore Whaling — Nigel Prickett (2002)