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| James Hay In June 1814 Captain Thomas Folger sailed into the Bay of Islands on his ship James Hay. She had arrived from Sydney and was on her way to London. James Hay was considered a trader and a privateer – a pirate in the South Seas. |
| Jane Jane was a whaler working in the Cook Strait region in the early 1830s. Her captain was John Watson, and she arrived at Cloudy Bay on 26 July 1831. When Jane returned to Sydney in December her crew had taken 140 tuns of oil. On another expedition to the whaling grounds, a terrible tragedy struck the crew of Jane. While returning to Sydney, and in pursuit of a whale, two boat loads of crew became separated from their ship. Captain Watson and the remainder of the crew searched in vain for the missing men. After a week they still hadn’t found them and were forced to leave off the search and sail back to Sydney, where they arrived on 4 July 1833 with 1200 barrels of sperm oil. |
| Janus The whaler Janus worked in New Zealand waters in the early 1820’s having first arrived at Sydney from Rio in 1820. She left Sydney on July 26 and after 13 weeks at sea, arrived at the Bay of Islands. One of her crew was sick, so Captain Mowatt sent him in a ship’s boat to the Christian mission station for assistance. On October 27 Janus departed from the Bay of Islands. Her next visit was in early January 1821, when several whaleships were at the Bay. Later that year she arrived back in New Zealand, still under the guidance of Captain Mowatt, and on November 9 1821 she departed New Zealand for England. |
| Java Packet Java Packet was a trader that arrived at the Bay of Islands from Hokianga with a cargo that included flax, timber in the form of plank and spars, and maize. She stayed until Captain Lambert sailed her to Sydney on October 20. In June the following year Java Packet headed back to New Zealand and in October was reported to be in a bad way before leaving again for Sydney where she arrived on November 3 with timber and ballast. On June 9 1830 Captain Lambert sailed Java Packet from Sydney to New Zealand again, where she was reported to be working in the Cook Strait region. Java Packet was pirated in New Zealand about this time, and ended her days scuttled somewhere in the Pacific Islands. |
| Jefferson The whaler Jefferson frequented the coast of New Zealand between 1812 and 1815. In 1812 her Captain was L Jones. With the first Christian mission station still to be established, the actions and behaviour of the whale captains and their crew could only be checked by their own character. A Tahitian known as Jem living at the Bay of Islands at the time of Jefferson’s first visits accused Captain Jones of cruelty to the New Zealanders. In early new European contact, there are several instances of ship captains abusing Maori whaling crew and New Zealand women and men that boarded the ships anchored in the Bay of Islands. By 1813 Captain Jones had transferred to King George and Robert Barnes took over as master. He brought Jefferson into the Bay in 1813, and again in December 1814 while on her way to the whaling grounds from Sydney. On February 12 1815 Jefferson was back at the Bay of Islands where she would have replenished before departing for England. |
| John Barry In September 1834 the Weller Bros chartered John Barry, under Captain Robinson, to sail from Sydney to Otago to collect oil which had been procured by their whaling gangs over the winter season. John Barry arrived back in Sydney on 12 November 1834. |
| Joseph Weller The schooner Joseph Weller has its own special place in early New Zealand shipping history. She was built by a group of men who were left on Stewart Island by Captain William Stewart of the Prince of Denmark in 1826. The men had come from Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, but when Stewart never returned for them as promised, they set about building their own ship. The Weller Brothers who had whaling stations on the Otago coast, agreed to purchase the vessel in 1832, and Joseph Weller was launched at Port Pegasus in the autumn of 1833. Her first voyage was to Sydney under Captain Morris. Her cargo was flax and timber, and the party of shipbuilders who were keen to return to Bay of Islands. Joseph Weller remained in Sydney until February 17, when she left again loaded with stores for the whaling stations. There were still very few ships along the Otago coast, but while Joseph Weller was there in 1834, a large unidentified ship washed up 20 miles north of the Weller Bros station. On 18 August, Joseph Weller arrived back in Sydney, with a new group of passengers on board; Cloudy Bay resident John Guard and twelve of his men. The men were desperate to get help to rescue John Guard’s wife and their two children who had been kidnapped by Maori after the Harriet had wrecked on the west coast of the North Island. A month later Joseph Weller was back in Otago under Captain Snowden. This time her turn around was almost immediate, as she sailed again within a week with a letter from Captain Hayward for the authorities in Sydney to say they were all waiting to be killed by Maori in Otago who had just returned from a raid to Cloudy Bay. Also on board was the ship’s owner Edward Weller. When Edward returned at the end of September he took with him passengers Philipson and William Shaw, and Joseph Weller had a new captain, Stitt. In February 1835 Joseph Weller sailed from New Zealand to Sydney again, with a new edition to trans Tasman cargo, dried fish. The Weller Bros in typically entrepreneurial fashion saw an opportunity for a new commodity. Captain Camroux was next at the helm of Joseph Weller when she sailed back to Otago in May. They stayed in New Zealand for two months. Sadly just after the schooner Joseph Weller sailed for Sydney, her namesake Joseph Weller died at Otago, aged 33. Two more captains, Rapsey and Gaunson, were master of Joseph Weller for her final voyages as part of the Weller Brothers whaling venture. In April 1836 she was sold in Sydney for coastal trade in Australia. |
| Juno At the beginning of 1831, Juno was in Sydney where she was preparing to sail for New Zealand for the agent R Jones. Her first destination in New Zealand was Cloudy Bay where she was engaged in bay whaling, evidently with much success. When she sailed for Banks Peninsula in early July, her hold was already filled with 1000 barrels of oil. The visit south was to be a turning point in the voyage of Juno. While there, Captain Peterson murdered one of his crew, a man by the name of Johnston. Another ship, Guide, was there at the time, and Captain Ashmore arrested Captain Peterson. At the end of August Juno sailed back to Kapiti, now under the captaincy of Smith, who had previously been ship’s mate. Smith sailed her onto Sydney where they arrived on 23 September. In November 1832 Juno was back at Cloudy Bay, now under Captain Banks. The following February she sailed back into Sydney with 150 tons of sperm whale oil, and a ship wrecked Captain Egar, whose ship Frisk had wrecked at Wallis Island. |