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Tune
1 K midi
of Soon May the Wellerman Come.
Maude Gonne's Wellerman
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Mike Moroney writes;
"The fiddle player in the Pog band at that time was Tarek Bazley (who you hear interviewing auspicious people on National Radio these days). Tarek was also a member of a fantastic, yet rough-as-guts, originals band called Maud Gonne that had a strong celt-folk feel to them. We picked up that version of Wellerman pretty much as is from Tarek's band."
Whaling in New Zealand
In the 18th and 19th centuries, whale oil was was in great demand for lubricating delicate machinery, and as a clean burning fuel for lamps.In the late 18th century, whaling ships came from Europe, America, and Australia to catch whales the waters off New Zealand. The whalers quickly discovered that whales from the mid Pacific Ocean, began to arrive off the west coast of New Zealand in early May each year, and made their way south past Kapiti Island and the mainland, heading through Cook Strait for Kaikoura and then Stewart Island.
So whalers set up Whaling Stations in those areas where the whales were known to frequent or pass through:
- 1828, Cloudy Bay, Foveaux Strait
- 1829, Arapawa Island, Malborough Sounds
- 1831, Weller's Bay Whaling Station, Otago Harbour.
- pre-1837, Richards & Co two stations on Kapiti Island
- 1837, A. Oliver at Ocean Bay and Port Underwood
- 1839, Acker Whaling Station Colihoc [Colac] Bay, Stewart Island
- ----, Preservation Harbour, Foveaux Sound,
- 1841, Fyffe Whaling Station, Kaikoura
- ----, Mana island, near Wellington
- 1846, Tuatuku Station, Sth-east Stewart Island
The workers at these bay-whaling stations were not paid wages, they were paid in slops (ready made clothing), spirits and tobacco. Weller Bros were major suppliers of shore whalers supplies, as this 1839 contract to supply the Acker whaling station at Colac Bay shows:
Agreement with Lewis Acker 24th Dec 1839 to whale at Colihoc Bay, Centre Island. Weller Bros to provide casks, trypot, as required for a fishery (3 boats) and supply provisions and gear. . .However the Wellers failed to supply provisions for that 1840 season. When the vessel eventually turned up, Acker had disposed of the boats and gear and was getting ready to return to America.
Wellers' Whaling Station
Joseph Weller, a wealthy Englishman businessman, was unwell, suffering from Tb, and was advised by his doctor to take a sea voyage. He became interested in emigrating to Australia and arrived there with his wife and sons in 1830.Some of the family's ample capital was invested in land and property but their main interest was directed towards whaling and in 1831 he purchased a barque the "Lucy Ann." After obtaining a crew and provisions, two of his sons, Joseph Jr and Edward, set sail for New Zealand in it, in September 1831.
They landed at a promontory 'Te Umu Kuri' (which became known as Wellers' Rock) on the east coast of Otago harbour- and established a whaling station there.
It is not known what arrangements were made with the local Maori, but construction of the whaling station started immediately. However a few months later, the station and its whalers houses were been burned to the ground by a Maori raiding party.
Whaling operations in 1832 were clearly severely restricted by this, but in May 1832 Weller sent his son George from Sydney in the Lucy Ann to help his brothers re-establish the Station for the 1833 bay-whaling season. With Joseph Jr. in charge, whaling at Otakou (as the Weller station was then known) was very successful, with 130 tuns (barrels) of whale oil being collected.
In 1834 Joseph Jr. became ill with Tb and died, and because there was not yet a Christian burial ground or minister anywhwere in Otago, his young brother Edward pickled his corpse in a puncheon of rum and shipped it back to Sydney for burial.
- a Free Church of Scotland settlement was established in Otago in 1848.So Edward Weller became manager of Weller's Otakou establishment when he was only twenty years of age. For a few years the business flourished, becoming one of the biggest whaling stations on the New Zealand coast, and did considerable business with calling ships as a general store.
Difficulties began to increase. The number of whales using those coastal waters became fewer in number; opposition from other whalers became more severe; there were difficulties over land possession, both with the local Maori and also with the New Zealand Government. In 1840 Edward Weller returned to Sydney due to to ill health and did not return.
Octavious Harwood, an employer of Wellers, then bought part of the Otakou station in partnership with C.W. Schultze the Station's manager, and they ran it together -mainly as a general store for other whalers. WELLER FAMILY WEBSITE
Edward
Weller's grandson, Edward Pohau Ellison, had a long and faithful career
as a Medical Officer and Public Servant in the Pacific Islands.