Anchor rediscovery reopens wounds from early Māori encounter

The rediscovery of one of New Zealand's oldest European artefacts has reopened scars from an early encounter between Māori and a European explorer.

An anchor that once belonged to the French ship Saint Jean Baptiste, captained by Jean-Francois Marie de Surville, has been located in the waters of Doubtless Bay in the Far North.

During a storm in 1769 they lost an anchor and had to cut two more loose. Two of them have already been found, and the third was discovered by Kelly Tarlton in 1982 - however the co-ordinates were misplaced until now.

Chair of Ngāti Kahu and Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland Margaret Mutu said the crew of the Saint Jean Baptiste arrived in Doubtless Bay "in great disarray", several had scurvy and were nursed back to health by members of Ngāti Kahu.

"That time of the year in December, January we know up at Karikari that that's a time when you're subjected to the tail ends of cyclones that come down from the Pacific, it happens every year. So storms were quite common and during a storm apparently one of their boats... got washed ashore. You know things get washed ashore up there at home, they're ours and we'll take them."

Mutu said de Surville and his crew then "turned on" Ngāti Kahu, ransacked their kāinga (settlement) and then kidnapped a local rangatira named Ranginui. He later died of thirst and scurvy aboard the Saint Jean Baptiste.

The kidnapping was a portent of what was to come not unlike Captain James Cook's first landfall at Tūranga, a visit that ended when the British killed or wounded nine Māori, she said.

Many years later Ngāti Kahu were approached at Haiti-tai-marangai Marae, not far from where the ship lost anchor, asking them to support a plaque commemorating de Surville, she said.

"We talked about it at Haiti-tai-marangai... our mātua told us what had happened and we told those people to go away, we don't want to know about your de Surville."

But she said the recovery of the anchor may be a chance to discuss this part of New Zealand's history. Mutu said one of the first things she did when she heard about this find was to ring home and make sure people there had heard it too.

"Well people didn't know about it, so that's the first thing, we need to know about it, we need to sit down and talk about it and we will decide what happens to that anchor.

"I just get a little bit annoyed about that people came into our territory, we welcomed them, we nursed them back to health, we saved them, they did the dirty on us and now they're coming back and telling us 'we're going to this, we're going to that, we're going to do the other.'"

Heritage New Zealand recommended the site of the anchor remain undisturbed until tangata whenua have been consulted, and the area could be assessed by a professional archaeologist.

rnz.co.nz