A WRECK IN THE HARBOUR?
Lack of drift material in Monument Harbour
In January 2007, Chris, Matt and I clambered amongst the large boulders along Monument Harbour’s eastern coast to the harbour entrance. We saw no flotsam. I took...
THE JOURNEY
History and Archaeology
Norm Judd
30 Jun 2012 - 11:30
History and Archaeology
Norm Judd
23 Jun 2012 - 11:30
History and Archaeology
.jpg "Head of Monument Harbour. View to the Six Foot Lake outlet and Mt Honey in 2011. Image by Norm Judd 2011")
-SMcM.jpg "The Maia's first mate lowering the IRB which was used to ferry Norm back and forth across the bay with his magnetometer. Photo © Shelley McMurtrie, 2011")
-SMcM.jpg "Nigel and Steve descending Puiseux Peak to Six Foot Lake in January 2011. The location of timber beam is at the bright green grass at the lake outlet (left of image). Photo © Shelley McMurtrie.")
-SMcM.jpg "Nigel Prickett (back) and Steve Bagley lifting the sod on the timber beam in January 2011. Photo © Shelley McMurtrie.")
-SMcM.jpg "Nigel Prickett (back) and Steve Bagley measuring the timber beam in January 2011. Photo © Shelley McMurtrie.")
-SMcM.jpg "The timber beam after lifting the sod in January 2011. Photo © Shelley McMurtrie, 2011")
-SMcM.jpg "Nigel Prickett (from left), Steve Bagley and Shelley McMurtrie savouring the moment after completion of the sod lifting around the timber beam in January 2011. Photo © Shelley McMurtrie.")
-2011.jpg "The iron pin collected from the beam in Monument Harbour in January 2011. Photo by Norm Judd 2011.")
WHAT THE CAMPBELL ISLAND BICENTENNIAL EXPEDITION (CIBE) FOUND IN 2011
In December 2010, and January and February 2011, the Campbell Island Bicentennial Expedition, (CIBE) was on Campbell Island. The cultural heritage team; archaeologists Steve Bagley and Nigel...
Norm Judd
16 Jun 2012 - 11:30
History and Archaeology
01.jpg "A few rods and a small amount of timber were all that we could see of the beam. Photo by Chris Glasson, January 2007")
03.jpg "A 30mm long iron pin protrudes through the peat under the beam. Image by Chris Glasson, Januay 2007")
01.jpg "The plank on the other side of the stream. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
02.jpg "The plank had a rusted iron pin and a square head spike) embedded at one end. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
04.jpg "The objects were measured and the site surveyed. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
05.jpg "Norm probing timber beam ends under the peat to measure length while the local sea lions look on. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
03.jpg "New Zealand sea lions (Phocarctos hookeri) play near the plank on the east side of the stream. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
.jpg "A young male Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) Monument Harbour. Photo by Chris Glasson, 2007.")
.gif "The Beam in 2007. From JUDD, N., Wreckage in Monument Harbour, Campbell Island: Report to Historic Places Trust and Department of Conservation, in fulfilment of Authority No. 2007/132, ‘to investigate an archaeological site at Monument Harbour, Campbell Island’")
.gif "The Plank in 2007 From JUDD, N., Wreckage in Monument Harbour, Campbell Island: Report to Historic Places Trust and Department of Conservation, in fulfilment of Authority No. 2007/132, ‘to investigate an archaeological site at Monument Harbour, Campbell Island’.")
THE 2007 SURVEY
We arrived on New Year’s Eve 2006 and tramped to the site with guidance from Department of Conservation officer, Matt Charteris.
We found the beam on the west side of the stream from Six Foot Lake (see first image). A few rods and a small amount of timber were all that we could see of the beam (see second image). Then Matt found a plank of similar age on the east side of the stream.
...
Norm Judd
9 Jun 2012 - 11:30
History and Archaeology
01.jpg "‘Object’, view south to Monument harbour. Photo by Chris Glasson, January 1972")
02.jpg "‘Object’, view northwest to Eboule Peak. Photo by Chris Glasson, January 1972")
1972: Sixty years after the whalers, in January 1972, a weather station technician, Chris Glasson, tramped to a bay somewhere on Campbell Island’s southern coast. Here Chris saw a large timber beam with iron spikes sticking out of the peat.
It had been unearthed by wallowing elephant seals and Chris thought that the iron spikes protruding from the beam had discouraged the monsters from dislodging and...
Norm Judd
26 May 2012 - 11:30
History and Archaeology
01.jpg "Picture frame by a Campbell Island whaler 1912. Was the timber retrieved from Monument Harbour? Photo courtesy Mike Taylor, Picton Museum")
02.jpg "Close-up of picture frame by a Campbell Island whaler in 1912. Photo courtesy Mike Taylor, Picton Museum")
EARLY EVIDENCE
1874: Among several Campbell Island wreck reports of the 1800s, is the following from the December 1874 edition of Nature translated from the French, being part of an account by a French Expedition to Witness the Transit of Venus on Campbell Island that year [iii].
Where was this supposedly metaphorical middle of Campbell Island?
"While exploring the island they found...
Norm Judd
11 May 2012 - 17:00
History and Archaeology
.jpg "South-western coastline Campbell Island. Monument Harbour is hidden to the left of Jacquemart Island faintly visible in the distance. Image Archives NZ: RNZAF Photographer 1951 [ABFX 23 C5 W3639] - 3")
INTRODUCTION
Since 1976, my initial interest had been for the terrestrial historic sites of Campbell Island. One wreck only was recorded on Campbell Island; that of the sealing brig Perseverance in 1828. Two the crew of were drowned [i]. But over time I increasingly wondered about the bulwarks, parts of ship’s boats, planks and spars, old and new that had been seen in North West Bay in the mid to late ...
Norm Judd
12 Nov 2011 - 18:00
History and Archaeology
While we await the cultural heritage team’s report, I’ll entertain you with a yarn.
I thought that this could be a ghost story: but that’s a populist approach and I don’t believe in ghosts. There’s either a technical reason for what I’m about to tell you or the phenomenon was just simple coincidence.
When I first went to Campbell Island, my Dept. of Lands and Survey brief...
Norm Judd
16 Oct 2011 - 17:00
History and Archaeology
-S McMurtrie.jpg "Excaving the old fire place at the sod hut discovered on the east side of Tucker Cove by the history team during the Campbell Island Bicentennary Expedition. Photo by Shelley McMurtrie")
-SMcMurtrie.jpg "Steve Bagley, Nigel Prickett, and Shelley McMurtrie en route to Southeast Harbour to look for signs of habitation by sealers from the past. Photo by Shelley McMurtrie")
-SMcMurtrie.jpg "Steve Bagley and Nigel Prickett painting the finger post at Southeast Harbour. The paint will fade to a clear colour when dry, and will protect this historic site feature for a few more years. Photo by Shelley McMurtrie")
-S McMurtrie.jpg "Steve Bagley battling through the thick undergrowth on the way from Southeast Habour to Six Foot Lake to retrive an iron pin from an old shipwreck timber")
-SMcMurtrie.jpg "Steve and Nigel lifting the sod from a shripwrecked timber in Monument Harbour to remove the iron pin (in foreground) for metallurgical analysis. Photo by Shelley McMurtrie.")
The basic reporting on the ‘what’ and ‘where’ of the Heritage Team’s work is nearing completion. Site records will be sent for inclusion in the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA) Site Record File, which is the central repository accessed by the NZ Historic Places Trust, Department of Conservation and any researcher or other interested...
Norm Judd
5 Feb 2011 - 20:57
History and Archaeology
Expedition members are winding down their field visits, packing away equipment, samples and supplies for the return home and doing last minute checks on research to make sure there are no gaps that will definitely turn their results into toast on arrival home (after 9 February there’ll be no going back to Campbell Island for a quick look).
With all the bustle of closing down the expedition I am reminded of the 1916 Campbell Island farm station diary in which the headman wrote...
Norm Judd
2 Feb 2011 - 20:32
Terrestrial EcologyHistory and Archaeology
Many of the historic sites that were easily seen in 1981 are now obscured by scrub and other vegetation. I have included two images here that show the rate of vegetative growth on Campbell Island over the last 30 years.
The first image is one I took on my 1981 visit to the island. It shows posts and a central pole of what may have been a small tent camp from the early farming era beginning 1895 – a site now known as the ‘Bivvy’. In the middle distance are two...
Norm Judd
26 Jan 2011 - 21:53
History and Archaeology
Yesterday the History Team of Steve, Nigel and Norm walked to a site believed to have once held a try pot or try pots for rendering seal or whale blubber. It’s not too far from Beeman Camp where we are staying and we are thankful for this as we still have lots of walking to do to finish our research projects by 4 February. (In addition, the average age for our team is 64.3 making ours the oldest team by far. We three agree our knees have seen better days and have talked about getting...
Norm Judd
24 Jan 2011 - 21:42
History and Archaeology
On 21 January, the History Team (Steve, Nigel and Norm) walked over to the North West Bay hut. This was our base for visiting nearby sites. In cold and blustery north easterlies the following day, we carefully traversed Sandy Bay avoiding ‘beach master’ sea lions (otherwise known in Met. Station terms as ‘monsters’) and then climbed 35 metres onto Complex Point. Pushing through tussock, ‘draco’ and fern, we arrived at the knoll at the end of the point....
Norm Judd
24 Jan 2011 - 21:27
History and Archaeology
I left you in my last blog crawling through the draco in search of Fred Blogg’s Cave above North East Harbour.
We sidled below the long line of bluffs and the cave soon appeared above us; a dark, overhanging cavern offering shelter from rain and wind and the floor was dry. On Campbell Island this is a boon.
In the centre of the cave floor sat a large alloy bowl, its alloy lid anchored by a large rock. After photographs and measurements we carefully removed the rock...
Steve Bagley
20 Jan 2011 - 21:01
History and Archaeology
Yesterday I was at the Farmhouse site, which is tucked fairly snugly (as far as any place can be called snug on Campbell) into the gently sloping southern shore of Tucker Cove. Of course the house, woolshed and store shed are long gone and only the most durable bits and the stone structures such as the old boat haul-out give any sign that this was once the centre of life on the Island.
I was painting metal preservative on the old Shacklock ‘Orion’ stove under the...
Norm Judd
19 Jan 2011 - 21:13
History and Archaeology
Many year’s ago, someone said I must try to find So-and-So’s cave on Campbell Island. I can’t remember So-and-So’s name but let’s say it was Fred Blogg. His cave was said to be high up on the northern slopes of Campbell Island’s North East Harbour. Campbell Island is remote. Fred Blogg’s cave is remote on Campbell Island. The last time someone went there must have been in the 50’s or 60’s. Or so they said. And they found an old enamel...
Norm Judd
19 Jan 2011 - 20:25
History and Archaeology
It’s interesting how one easily forgets feelings of dire dread. I’d tramped these island hills in all weathers; mapping and surveying historic sites on and off for over 30 years and the feeling of dread came to me then only once or twice - that I might not make it back to the warmth and comfort of the weather station. Now the station is automated, there is no staff - all cooking and heating facilities have been removed. We are actually camping inside a gutted building with the...
Alex Fergus
15 Jan 2011 - 21:02
History and Archaeology
This island of ours has a surprisingly rich and well documented European history, given how inaccessible the old girl is. Many of the previous expeditions and leisure trips have documented the island from the very early days of Subantarctic exploration. William Dougall and his Southland team were among the first folks to venture south on a photographic sojourn to Campbell...
Nigel Prickett
12 Jan 2011 - 19:34
History and Archaeology
On a point at the head of Northeast Harbour on Campbell Island are well preserved remains of the 1911-14 Cook whaling station. The island was the last frontier of the New Zealand right whale industry, which began in the 1820s at Preservation Inlet and Te Awaiti, Tory Channel. In only a few years most stations brought to an end the ancient winter use of their bay or harbour by calving female right whales. For 30 years before 1964 not a single right whale was reported on the New Zealand...
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