Harriet
The first known whale ship to visit the Bay of Islands was Harriet in 1802. By early 1803, her hold was filled with barrels of oil extracted from whale blubber so Captain Chace set sail for England on 04 February from the coast of New Zealand. The arrival of Harriet to the Bay of Islands heralded the beginning of a new era for New Zealand. Although Captain Chace would not have been aware at the time, the beautiful bay he anchored in would become the first centre of European residency in New Zealand.
Before 1814, when the first mission station was established, only the occasional deserter left his ship to live temporarily among local Maori until they could join another ship. After the mission was established, the trickle of would-be residents became a small stream of missionaries, their families, and mechanics. In other parts of the Bay of Islands, sailors and ex-convicts began to live as Pakeha Maori among tribes, surviving by trading between visiting ships and local Maori. Eventually the stream would become a flood of vagabonds and miscreants that turned paradise untouched into what was described as the Hellhole of the Pacific, a rowdy town of bars and bordellos, every man a law unto himself.
Before 1814, when the first mission station was established, only the occasional deserter left his ship to live temporarily among local Maori until they could join another ship. After the mission was established, the trickle of would-be residents became a small stream of missionaries, their families, and mechanics. In other parts of the Bay of Islands, sailors and ex-convicts began to live as Pakeha Maori among tribes, surviving by trading between visiting ships and local Maori. Eventually the stream would become a flood of vagabonds and miscreants that turned paradise untouched into what was described as the Hellhole of the Pacific, a rowdy town of bars and bordellos, every man a law unto himself.