WHALING DAYS RECALLED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 67, 11 December 1937, Page 4

WHALING DAYS RECALLED

Finding of Try Pots at Ocean Beach 100-YEAR-OLD REIICS A most interesting find recalling the whaling days of a eentury ago^ iu Hawke's Bay has heen made at Cape Kidnappers by two Hastings residents, Messrs. Neil. Murton and 8. W. Baldwin. After .sxtensiva excavations they unqovered last week three large round cast-iron me!ting-dov. u — or trying — pots whicli are in a good state of preservation, A fourth pot of square desigu, and made of different material, was aiiupst entirely corroded. The pots, which are about three feet deep aud measure about three feet across, have a capacity qf approximately 125 gallons. The pots are all set in stope cradles and a ffue ^ from each connects with a stope chimney placed behind, The two centre pots each have spouts to provide for an overliowing into the end pots. In one of the pots was found a heavy iron rake with a handle about threa feet in length. Remains of stone houses are to be seen close by, which suggest that considerable activity was shown when the whaling was carried on. In addition there is the remains of a wooden bollard which would have been used in the hauling of the whales on to the beach. The site of the discovery is on Ocean Beacli about one and a-half miles from Cape Kidnappers and about 300 yards from the boiler of the Go-Ahead, which was wrecked in 1887 after strapding on the reef