Bee
Tumbledown Bay, one of the many small bays on Banks Peninsula where whalers sought shelter
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First in the employ of Bunn & Co in New Zealand waters, the brig Bee was used to bring back the season's cargo of whale oil and some of the men from Bunn's Preservation station on the south coast of Fiordland.
In 1834, Captain Robertson was her charge and Bee sailed south from Sydney to Macquarie Island to bring back a sealing gang who, it turned out, had had an unsuccessful season. By 1836, a dozen whaling ships were working off Banks Peninsula including Bee. Her captain was George Hempleman. |
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Both Robertson and Hemplemen are remembered today in Banks Peninsula history for being at the beginning of the area's European settlement.
Hempleman is credited with establishing the first shore based whaling station on the peninsula when in 1836 he put tryworks ashore for his men to process their catch. Pictured, right, is a whale pot owned by Hemplemen from his station at Peraki. Today, it sits on the shore of Akaroa township on Akaroa Harbour. George Hempleman and his wife were the first German settlers in New Zealand. Yours to own - The Peraki Log (Diary of Captain Hempleman)
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George Hempleman's whale pot, at Akaroa, New Zealand
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