Some wrecks are made of legend

The earliest recorded European shipwreck on our coast was the David in 1841. Maori lore points to one much earlier. MARK PACEY writes in his occasional series highlighting local shipwrecks.

Stories relating to unidentified sailing ships visiting New Zealand between Abel Tasman in 1642, and Captain Cook in 1769 are numerous.

Did any of these visitors come to Wairarapa? According to Maori lore, they did.

The story of Rongotute is fascinating, but also varied, and several different versions of the legend exist and not all relate to our region.

The Wairarapa story says that a strange ship appeared off the coast of Cape Palliser. It either anchored offshore or was blown onto land by fierce weather.

The Rongotute name is associated with the captain of the ship and not the vessel itself.

The Wairarapa coast has a grim history for shipwrecks, and it is highly likely the ship became stranded.

The next part of the story says that after a meeting with Maori, the crew were killed and eaten, and the ship stripped of all the things that could be used.

It was then set on fire to retrieve the metal nails and fittings.

At first, this may seem excessive, but looking at some of the behaviour of early European visitors to New Zealand, this action becomes justified.

There are many accounts of foreign sailors kidnapping Maori women from their tribes.

Also, men from ships would also come ashore to gather supplies with little or no regard for who owned those items or for those people already living there.

Many new items from the ship would have been seen by Maori for the first time.

Blue and white china was prized by Maori and was said to have been broken into pieces and turned into ornaments and pendants.

As yet, none of these has been found within an archaeological context.

Famed Wairarapa historian Austin Bagnall recalls in his book ‘Wairarapa – An Historical Excursion’ that a local chief named Whakataha-ki-terangi obtained a tomahawk from the wreck, which he mounted on a whalebone handle and named Te Whata-o-te-rangi.

Author and ethnographer Elsdon Best later put the question to Ngati Kahungunu scholar Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury whether he had heard anything from elders about Rongotute.

Jury told him about the tomahawk and red

blankets which were recovered from the survivors of the ship which Maori named tahurangi.

In Jury’s account, Maori were shown how to make damper by Rongotute’s men before things turned violent. Three survivors managed to escape and put to sea in a boat and were last seen heading up the east coast.

The sinister epilogue of this event came when Maori started becoming sick.

The ship had been carrying something else with it. Something Maori had no immunity to.

Whether this was

smallpox as some suggest or venereal disease, which would reinforce the vile intentions the sailors had with Maori women, remains unclear.

What is believed, is that this disease had the effect of decreasing the Maori population of Wairarapa during that time.

There are numerous stories of foreign vessels visiting New Zealand before and after Cook.

As to which country the Palliser Bay visitor came from is unknown.

Theories range from English to French and Dutch to Spanish.

The Rongotute name can also be attributed to different locations in New Zealand and different timeframes, so it is likely there was more than one Rongotute, each of them a mystery.

In the words of Bagnall, “until we can confirm the Wairarapa tradition by some identifiable relic or by the still possible discovery of some ship which did not return to base, Rongotute and his vessel must stand in question”.

For now, the sands of

Wairarapa are keeping their secrets.