Whalers' Rhymes

DESCRIPTION: "Along the coast the Magnet came, With Captain Bruce, a man of fame, But in his face there is no shame On the beautiful coast of New Zealand." Short tales of various people set "On the beautiful coast of New Zealand."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1884 (Dunedin Evening Star [October 25 edition], according to Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ; Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook claims a date of 1840 but without documentation)
KEYWORDS: ship New Zealand nonballad travel food
FOUND IN: New Zealand
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Bailey/Roth-ShantiesByTheWay-NZ, p. 17, "Whalers' Rhymes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cleveland-NZ-GreatNewZealandSongbook, p. 43, "Whalers' Rhymes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Garland-FacesInTheFirelight-NZ, p. 50, "(Whaler's Rhymes)" (1 text)
Tod-WhalingInSouthernWaters, p. 125, "The Beautiful Coast of New Zealand" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King of the Cannibal Islands" (tune) and references there
NOTES [1190 words]: This was apparently recorded as "The Beautiful Coast of New Zealand," which is certainly a better name.
The history behind the was the subject of an article by Frank Fyfe, first published in Maorilander, parts 1-4 (1970-1971); I have not seen it. In addition to the Dunedin Evening Star citation, it was apparently quoted in Herries Beattie's 1939 book The First White Boy in Otago, according to Frank Tod, Whaling in Southern Waters, New Zealand Tablet Co. Ltd., 1982, p. 63.
All the characters and places in this song seem to be historical -- at least Tod was able to identify all of them.
"Captain (James) Bruce": In 1836-1837, he sailed Johnny Jones's vessel the Sydney Packet from Preservation Inlet, carrying seal skins, whale oil, and whalebone (Tod, pp. 33-34, 55). By 1838 he had moved to the Magnet, because in that year he left Sydney in that vessel "to take down [Jones's] various whaling gear and casks for the 1838 season" (p. 56); he went on to visit various Jones stations (p. 60). "Captain Bruce was master of the Magnet when she brought the 1840 settlers [to Waikouaiti, seemingly from Australia], and he was later identified with Akaroa" (p. 63). The Magnet was certainly busy in 1838; Tod, p. 97, lists five trips she made to Sydney in that year, carrying a total of 294 tuns of oil. There is a picture of him on p. 60. He established a "Bruce Hotel" at Akaroa in 1841; Tod has a picture of the hotel on p. 83.
"Mr Wiltshire" is George Willshire, who "settled at Port Molyneux about 1840" (Tod, p. 63). There is a Willsher Bay in New Zealand, near the south end of the South Island, where he lived (Tod, p. 71), so I assume it's named for him.
"Bloody Jack" is the Maori Tuhawaiki, "the leading Maori chief of Otago" (Tod, p. 63). He was apparently also known as "Tooawook" (Tod, p. 83), and "John Towack." He was a member of the Ngai Tahu tribe, and "is counted among the great South Island chiefs, noted for his intelligence, commercial acumen, leadership, and charm" (Jackson/McRobie, p. 237). NewZealandEncyclopedia, p. 555, says he was "an able and resolute paramount chief of the South Island, who inflicted three decisive defeats on the Ngati Toa, Te Rauparaha's tribe. He was known as 'Bloody Jack' by the earliest European settlers in the South Island, because of the use of the word bloody in his speech. He was later converted to Christianity, and earned widespread respect among the Europeans with whom he came in contact."
The whaling boss Johnny Jones bought a lot of land from him on very typically unfair terms (Tod, p. 73). The Weller Brotherss also bought land from him (Tod, p. 78). In 1839 he sold land to George Hempleman (Tod, pp. 83, 85) -- only to bring a large band to the Peraki whaling station and killed one boy and threatened another until placated with a fine whaleboat (Tod, p. 85). It appears he was literate enough to sign his name to the contract -- at least, Tod prints the agreement on p. 85, and while most of the Maori signers apparently signed with an X, there is no X by the name of "John Tuhawaike." He signed the Treaty of Waitangi that, in effect, made New Zealand a British colony in 1840 (Tod, pp. 87-88, although Morton, p. 115, says that he had trouble understanding the northern Maori dialect into which the British had translated it).
Interestingly, it appears that he sometimes tried to outsmart the Europeans as well as vice versa: the visiting Bishop Selwyn reported that he kept a large barrel of rum, from which he gave away or sold drinks (Rickard, p. 102, who makes no mention of Tuhawaiki drinking from it himself).
He apparently was an impressive figure. Joseph Hay, who met him, said he was "tall and powerfully built, with handsome features and a stately carriage... brave and resourceful, and, alike for tactics and personal prowess... easily the finest warrior in the South Island.... This truly great chief... enjoyed the respect and affection of the Whites as well" (Morton, p. 172). He is said to have been "highly successful in adopting European ways and using European techniques" -- which the bigoted whalemen claimed was an example of their civilizing influence (Morton, p. 217). He had built a "European-style house" by 1844 (Morton, p. 253), the year he lost his life when his boat was caught in a storm (Reed, p. 153; Wikipedia says he was born c. 1805). Nonetheless Johnny Jones contracted to buy the whole South Island from him (Morton, p. 305), which was hardly in position to sell and for which Jones would not pay a reasonable price anyway -- the Maori went to Sydney and signed the paperwork in return for a small payment and annuities. (According to Reed, p. 152, Tuhawaiki had originally asked for a million pounds, which was at least semi-reasonable, but got talked down to £2400, or "three - halfpence an acre"! The copy of the agreement on p. 100 of Tod says Tuhawaiki's share was £900. Jackson/McRobie, p. 237, say he had also been to Sydney in 1838, for commercial reasons.)
There is a book about him, F. G. Hall-Jones, King of the Bluff. The life and times of Tuhawaiki ("Bloody Jack"), Southland Historical Committee, 1943. I have not seen it; it seems to be very rate.
"Peter Shavatt" is a reference to someone Tod, p. 34, calls "Peter Chevatt" while admitting that no one seems to have actually known how to spell his name. He is said to have been a "Moeraki whaler." Tom Kennard described him as "a Frenchman, and... a baker by trade" who set up an oven at Matammic Flat once the need for whalers declined (Tod, p. 64), although Kennard knew nothing of his hat. He is the "Peter Chavat" who was a cooper working for the Wellers and was lured away from them by John Hughes when the latter struck out on his own (Morton, p. 229).
"John Hughes," according to Kennard, had "Maori shoes," but the recorded text said "shocking bad shoes," probably by confusion with Chevatt's hat mentioned in the preceding line.
Hughes is described as a "bit of a celebrity" (Tod, p. 64). He "won the respect of everyone who met him" and supposedly "could do anything... just the sort of man for early colonial life" (Morton, p. 307). He commanded a whaleboat in 1835 (Tod, p. 28). He had spent at least three years in that role for the Weller Brothers when he struck out on his own in 1836 (Tod, p. 43; Morton, p. 229); Tod has a whole chapter "John Hughes at Moeraki (pp. 43-51). Rickard, p. 59, says that Hughes's station was the longest-lived and most productive of those in New Zealand while recording on p. 91 that he also grew crops there. (He also kept a slave -- a man he had redeemed from the Maori by buying him. Hughes may not have called him a slave, but the Maori did; Morton, p. 221.) On at least one occasion Hughes himself was threatened with death by the Maori but was saved by a Maori woman (Morton, p. 257); he eventually married a Maori wife and based his land claim on her property rights (Morton, p. 307).
Addding it all up, this song almost has to be from the late 1830s. I suspect this is why Cleveland dated in 1840: not because there is a copy from that year but because the internal evidence suggests it. - RBW
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