Early Shipping in New Zealand

Harlequin
In February 1830 Captain Scott left Sydney for New Zealand for a trading voyage on Harlequin. Onboard he had a cargo of muskets, gun powder, rum, tobacco and pipes. Trading with New Zealand Maori was fraught with danger and difficulties, so Captain Scott had enlisted the help of an interpreter, John Cowel, the son of a Sydney ropemaker. Cowel's interpreting skills drew praise from the trading community in Sydney. In March Harlequin returned to Sydney with a cargo of flax and potatoes. Allan Monteith was the next captain of Harlequin when she set sail for New Zealand from Hobart Town in June 1830. Monteith had previous experience in New Zealand waters as the second mate on Elizabeth and Mary. Harlequin stayed in New Zealand until July 22, when she returned to Sydney, arriving on August 9. In two months Harlequin was ready to go again, and still under command of Captain Monteith, she set sail for New Zealand on October 18.

Haweis
In late 1818 Captain John Nicholas brought the newly built brig Haweis into the Bay of Islands from Tahiti. In March of 1820, the captain and his ship were back at the Bay again, having examined the south east coast on her way from Sydney. After just five days in the Bay, Haweis left for Tahiti. It was not until March 1828 that Haweis, now under Captain James, reappeared at the Bay of Islands. This time she came from Sydney, but was still being used as a trading vessel. From the Bay of Islands, John James sailed Haweis along the south coast. In November 1828 Haweis departed Sydney for Antipodes and Bounty Islands, where a sealing gang was left. Gangs were often stationed on remote islands to cull as many seals as they could before the ships returned. Sealing was dangerous enough, but added to it was the very distinct possibility that their ship might never return. Sealers were crushed to death by seals, attacked, killed and eaten by Maori, and abandoned to starve by captains that couldn’t, or didn’t, return. After Haweis left her gang in the southern islands, she continued her voyage trading around New Zealand and called at the Bay of Islands in December to refresh. While at the Bay of Islands an interpreter was enlisted to assist in trading with Maori. They then sailed for the East Cape. In March 1829 Haweis was attacked and looted at Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty, with three crewmen killed. The ship was retaken a couple of days later by Captain Clarke of New Zealander, and Haweis arrived back at the Bay of Islands after her harrowing ordeal on March 15. Haweis’ sealing gang must have been more fortunate that others, as when the brig arrived back in Sydney in April, seal skins were among her cargo. This success saw Haweis sail to the sealing grounds in the south again the following month and when she arrived back in Sydney on June 29 from Stewart Island, her crew had taken another 340 seal skins. Haweis’ next voyage was an eight day return trip from Sydney to Newcastle, still under Captain John James. On 24 October 1829 James left Sydney on Haweis, bound for the Society Islands. By the following January grave fears were held for her safety.

Hawich
In April 1811 Captain Simmonds arrived at the Bay of Islands with his ship Hawich. The ship had been caught in a storm and a local Maori chief came on board to provide assistance to the ailing ship and crew. They vessel was in much need of repair before continuing it’s voyage to the whaling fishery. Among the crew was a man who would later become a famous name in pre-colonial New Zealand history. John (Jacky) Marmon’s account of life as Pakeha Maori in northern New Zealand is one of just a few documented tales of the adventurous men who immersed themselves in Maori life and culture.

Harriet
The first known whaleship to visit the Bay of Islands was Harriet in 1802. By early 1803 her hold was filled with barrels of oil extracted from whale blubber so Captain Chace set sail for England on February 4 from the coast of New Zealand. The arrival of Harriet to the Bay of Islands heralded the beginning of a new era for New Zealand. Although Captain Chace would not have been aware at the time, the beautiful bay he anchored in would become the first centre of European residency in New Zealand. Before 1814 when the first mission station was established, only the occasional deserter left his ship to live temporarily among local Maori until they could join another ship. After the mission was established the trickle of would-be residents became a small stream of missionaries, their families and mechanics. In other parts of the Bay of Islands sailors and ex-convicts began to live as Pakeha Maori among tribes, surviving by trading between visiting ships and local Maori. Eventually the stream would become a flood of vagabonds and miscreants that turned paradise untouched into what was described as the Hellhole of the Pacific, a rowdy town of bars and bordellos, every man a law unto himself.

Henry Freeling
In April 1837 Henry Freeling was reported to be at Otago where she was unloading whaling gangs and stores and reloading whale oil. Owned by the Weller Brothers, Henry Freeling had not long arrived from Sydney. One of the crewmen onboard Henry Freeling was Joseph Price who left an account of his visits to New Zealand, having arrived in the South Seas as crewman on a convict. In May 1831 Henry Freeling departed Otago for Sydney to deliver her cargo of oil, calling at Akaroa first. The voyage to Sydney across the Tasman must have been a difficult one, as when she arrived in port she had no provisions left for her crew and was all but a wreck. The Weller Brothers immediately chartered Dart to sail to Otago and bring back the balance of oil from their stations. By November Henry Freeling was back on the seas and had called at Port Cooper on Banks Peninsula. On December 12 she arrived in Sydney from Otago with 30 tuns of oil in her cargo. In September 1839 Henry Freeling suffered the ultimate fate when she was wrecked at Tautuku on the south coast of Otago.

Herald
In 1826 with much fanfare, and not a little difficulty, Henry Williams and his Christian Mission in the Bay of Islands launched their very own 55 ton ship Herald, at Pahia. She was launched in January and by February under Captain Mair, Herald was coastal trading, ferrying her trade between New Zealand and Sydney. Having their own ship was a lifeline for the mission station. Not only could they benefit from her trade, but it also meant that they weren’t reliant on other ships, particularly whalers, for transportation and communications. Soon after she was launched, Henry Williams sailed to Sydney on Herald to meet the mission’s newest recruits, William Williams and his wife. They arrived at the Bay on March 25 onboard Sir George Osborne. In June Herald sailed from Pahia on her first voyage to Tauranga with Henry Williams. Also on board were other early Bay of Islands European residents, George Clarke, Charles, Davis, James Shepherd and several Maori chiefs. For the next two years Herald was busy around the coast of New Zealand trading, and was still under command of Captain Mair. Sadly, in late May 1828, Herald was wrecked on the bar at Hokianga, and the Christian mission station lost their industrious little ship.

HMS Herald
On February 6 1840 about five hundred Maori signed a treaty at Waitangi, in the Bay of Islands. The treaty was organised by Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson with a view to securing British sovereignty over New Zealand. After the signing, on what is now New Zealand’s national day – Waitangi Day – copies of the treaty were made which were taken around New Zealand for signing. The responsibility of this fell on Major Thomas Bunbury, who sailed on HMS Herald in April 1840. On May 28 Bunbury arrived at Akaroa with a Maori language copy of the treaty for signing. After this, HMS Herald sailed south to Foveaux Strait where on June 4 she arrived at Port Pegasus, Stewart Island. Signatures of the southern chiefs were obtained on Ruapuke Island, then in Otago and at Cloudy Bay in the north of the South Island. When Kai Tahu’s paramount chief Tuhawaiki signed the treaty on Ruapuke Island, he recognised the importance of the occasion and wore a military uniform he had acquired in Sydney.

Hind
Hind worked in the Cook Strait region during the 1830 whaling season. In August 1829 she departed from Sydney for the South Sea Islands on a speculative voyage. She arrived back in Sydney in December having come from Tonga. A month later Hind, Captain Jack, left Sydney for New Zealand and while there secured 60 tons of pork, and flax. In March Hind was purchased by the whaling company R Campbell and Co, and was fitted out for work in the black whale fishery. By early May she was ready to go, and Captain Scott sailed her for Cook Strait where she commenced bay whaling. At the end of August she was almost full but didn’t arrive back in Sydney with her cargo of oil and whalebone until November 13.

Hope
In 1821 captain John Grimes arrived at Sydney on Hope having lost his chief officer and six men while at Open Bay on the South Island’s remote West Coast. The voyage was not altogether unsuccessful however, as the sealing voyage netted 800 seal skins. A month after arriving in Sydney, John Grimes sailed Hope for England, intending to call at New Zealand and Tahiti on the way to deliver missionaries to their stations. When Hope arrived back in New Zealand in April 1825, Captain Grimes was still her commander, and she had come from the whale fishery. She was reported to be at the Bay of Islands again in December 1825.

Hunter
In 1798 while crew from the ship Hunter were on the Thames River procuring timber, four crew including Thomas Taylor deserted. Unlike the barren unfertile land of New South Wales, the islands of New Zealand offered dense forests filled with massive trees that produced exceptional timber. The wood was ideal not only for repairing whaleships, but also as a source of material for building in Port Jackson. To obtain timber captains had to first seek permission of the resident tribe’s chief, and when they failed to do so or were ignorant of local culture, the repercussions proved deadly.