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Wellerman
"Soon May the Wellerman Come", also known as "Wellerman" or "The Wellerman", is a folk song in ballad style first published in New Zealand in the 1970s. The "wellermen" were supply ships owned by the Weller brothers, three merchant traders in the 1800s who were amongst the earliest European settlers of the Otago region of New Zealand.
In early 2021, a cover by Scottish song artist Nathan Evans became a viral hit on the social media site TikTok, leading to a "social media craze" around sea shanties and maritime songs.
The history of whaling in New Zealand stretches from the late eighteenth century to 1965. In 1831, the British-born Weller brothers Edward, George and Joseph, who had emigrated to Sydney in 1829, founded a whaling station at Otago Heads near modern Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand, seventeen years before Dunedin was established. Speaking at centennial celebrations in 1931, New Zealand's Governor General Lord Bledisloe recalled how the Weller brothers had on their voyage to New Zealand "brought in the 'Lucy Ann' (the Weller brothers' barque) a good deal of rum and a good deal of gunpowder...and some at least were rum characters". Weller brothers initially engaged in whaling on Otago Peninsula in 1831, and from 1833, they sold provisions to whalers in New Zealand from their base at Otakou, which they had named "Otago". Their employees became known as "wellermen".
Unlike whaling in the Atlantic and northern Pacific, whalers in New Zealand practised shore-based whaling which required them to process the whale carcasses on land. At its peak in 1834, the Otakou station was producing 310 tons of whale oil a year and became the centre of a network of seven stations that formed a highly profitable enterprise for the Wellers, employing as many as 85 people at Otago alone. From the Otakou base the Wellers branched out into industries as diverse as "timber, spars, flax, potatoes, dried fish, Māori artefacts, and even tattooed Māori heads which were in keen demand in Sydney".
By 1835, the year that Joseph Weller died in Otago from tuberculosis, the brothers became convinced of the need to abandon the station even as they branched out into massive land purchases in New Zealand. The Weller brothers' success in the whaling industry was fleeting, and they were declared bankrupt in 1840 after failed attempts at large-scale land purchase in New South Wales. The Otakou station closed in 1841, with 10 tons of oils produced. In 1841, the Court of Claims in New South Wales ruled that the Weller brothers' purchases of land in New Zealand were legally invalid, after which the Wellers "slipped unobtrusively out of the pages of New Zealand history".
With the success of the Otakou station, the Weller brothers extended whaling grounds from Akaroa on Banks Peninsula in the north to Stewart Island in the south, with three within Otago Harbour and one in Blueskin Bay, and at least five between Pūrākaunui and Banks Peninsula. Their operations drew attentions from other whalers including Johnny Jones, leading to the expansion of the industry along the east coast of the South Island and establishments of competing stations throughout the Otago region. However, the industry was short-lived in general due to overexploitations causing depletion of local whale stocks and dwindling catches. Additionally, arrivals of whaling ships from Sydney presumably triggered an epidemic in the region.
Industrial whaling in New Zealand continued until the 1960s. Commercial and illegal whaling operations triggered depletions of whale populations and their migrations, especially the Southern Rights (Tohorā) and the Humpbacks (Paikea). Right Whales were named as the "right whales to hunt", and were prioritized targets for their behaviors being slow and coastal and docile, quantities of oils and baleens and whalebones they yield, and their carcasses with high buoyancies.
The whale lookout point Weller's Rock, or Te Umukuri in te reo Māori, was named after Weller brothers, and has become a protected historic reserve, along with their whaling tools and artifacts being preserved. Historic presences of whales and whaling industry in Otago Harbour have become an influential topic for educational and cultural aspects, such as introductions of whale-based designs on artworks and buildings and the Wellerman sea shanty became a global hit.
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Wellerman
"Soon May the Wellerman Come", also known as "Wellerman" or "The Wellerman", is a folk song in ballad style first published in New Zealand in the 1970s. The "wellermen" were supply ships owned by the Weller brothers, three merchant traders in the 1800s who were amongst the earliest European settlers of the Otago region of New Zealand.
In early 2021, a cover by Scottish song artist Nathan Evans became a viral hit on the social media site TikTok, leading to a "social media craze" around sea shanties and maritime songs.
The history of whaling in New Zealand stretches from the late eighteenth century to 1965. In 1831, the British-born Weller brothers Edward, George and Joseph, who had emigrated to Sydney in 1829, founded a whaling station at Otago Heads near modern Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand, seventeen years before Dunedin was established. Speaking at centennial celebrations in 1931, New Zealand's Governor General Lord Bledisloe recalled how the Weller brothers had on their voyage to New Zealand "brought in the 'Lucy Ann' (the Weller brothers' barque) a good deal of rum and a good deal of gunpowder...and some at least were rum characters". Weller brothers initially engaged in whaling on Otago Peninsula in 1831, and from 1833, they sold provisions to whalers in New Zealand from their base at Otakou, which they had named "Otago". Their employees became known as "wellermen".
Unlike whaling in the Atlantic and northern Pacific, whalers in New Zealand practised shore-based whaling which required them to process the whale carcasses on land. At its peak in 1834, the Otakou station was producing 310 tons of whale oil a year and became the centre of a network of seven stations that formed a highly profitable enterprise for the Wellers, employing as many as 85 people at Otago alone. From the Otakou base the Wellers branched out into industries as diverse as "timber, spars, flax, potatoes, dried fish, Māori artefacts, and even tattooed Māori heads which were in keen demand in Sydney".
By 1835, the year that Joseph Weller died in Otago from tuberculosis, the brothers became convinced of the need to abandon the station even as they branched out into massive land purchases in New Zealand. The Weller brothers' success in the whaling industry was fleeting, and they were declared bankrupt in 1840 after failed attempts at large-scale land purchase in New South Wales. The Otakou station closed in 1841, with 10 tons of oils produced. In 1841, the Court of Claims in New South Wales ruled that the Weller brothers' purchases of land in New Zealand were legally invalid, after which the Wellers "slipped unobtrusively out of the pages of New Zealand history".
With the success of the Otakou station, the Weller brothers extended whaling grounds from Akaroa on Banks Peninsula in the north to Stewart Island in the south, with three within Otago Harbour and one in Blueskin Bay, and at least five between Pūrākaunui and Banks Peninsula. Their operations drew attentions from other whalers including Johnny Jones, leading to the expansion of the industry along the east coast of the South Island and establishments of competing stations throughout the Otago region. However, the industry was short-lived in general due to overexploitations causing depletion of local whale stocks and dwindling catches. Additionally, arrivals of whaling ships from Sydney presumably triggered an epidemic in the region.
Industrial whaling in New Zealand continued until the 1960s. Commercial and illegal whaling operations triggered depletions of whale populations and their migrations, especially the Southern Rights (Tohorā) and the Humpbacks (Paikea). Right Whales were named as the "right whales to hunt", and were prioritized targets for their behaviors being slow and coastal and docile, quantities of oils and baleens and whalebones they yield, and their carcasses with high buoyancies.
The whale lookout point Weller's Rock, or Te Umukuri in te reo Māori, was named after Weller brothers, and has become a protected historic reserve, along with their whaling tools and artifacts being preserved. Historic presences of whales and whaling industry in Otago Harbour have become an influential topic for educational and cultural aspects, such as introductions of whale-based designs on artworks and buildings and the Wellerman sea shanty became a global hit.