Whale Stranding
Te Aro 1884
In January 1884, fishermen in Wellington harbour noticed a depletion of stock at their favourite fishing grounds and suspected that there were whales in the harbour. A few days later, four bottle-nosed ‘blackfish’ became stranded on the Te Aro foreshore. It is not clear what the exact species is, and the newspaper refers to them as whales. Locals inferred that it was the arrival of the Union Steam Ship Company’s ‘Takapuna’ in the harbour that frightened the whales, causing them to swim into shallow water. The receding tide left three orca stranded while the fourth managed to escape.
An employee at the gasworks could see the whales splashing about in the water just inside the trestle bridge built for the Te Aro reclamation. With several of his colleagues, he waded out to the whales ‘armed with the rudest of implements’ and ‘proceeded to inflict injuries upon them, which they no doubt considered were bound to prove fatal.’ Their efforts continued with ‘extraordinary vigor’ from 3:15pm until 7pm and ‘several acres of water were dyed red with blood.’ (New Zealand Times, 1 February 1884, page 4).
Word soon spread of the stranding and thousands flocked to the shore during the afternoon and evening. About 400 people climbed on to the trestle bridge for a better view. The crowd cheered each effort the whales made to elude their captors.
By 11pm, the crowd had dispersed and an attempt was made to haul one of the dead whales nearer the high tide mark. The whales were measured, the largest was 31ft in length, the second 25ft and the third 23ft. William Travers, who was a local politician and naturalist, paid a deposit to secure one or more of the skeletons. It was presumed he intended them to go to the Colonial Museum’s collection. Alfred Tyer, tanner and fellmonger at Ngauranga purchased the oil from the whales for £31 per tun and the yield was 2 ¼ tuns.
(1884, January 25). Town and Country. New Zealand Mail, 18.
(1884, February 1). Stranding of Three Whales. New Zealand Times, 4.
Stranded blackfish whales underneath Te Aro reclamation trestling at the foot of Taranaki Street, Wellington. Williams, Edgar Richard, 1891-1983: Photographs and papers. Ref: 1/1-025538-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22759759
Detail from above image.