The Star: October 08, 2020

The Star Thursday October 8 2020
14
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
$12k plan to restore historic whale pots
8 - 18 OCTOBER
POLAR FILM FESTIVAL
RELICS OF Akaroa’s whaling days will
be restored after decades of damage often
caused by children clambering in and
out of the large cast-iron try pots on the
foreshore.
A $12,000 conservation project will start
soon, with the three pots on Beach Rd
to be carefully prised from their broken
brickwork setting and then removed for
intensive restoration.
The triple try pots – dating back to the
early 1800s – have gradually deteriorated
in the face of the corrosive sea environment
and their popularity with hands-on
young visitors to Beach Rd. Whalers used
the pots – which would sit on ship decks or
in whaling stations dotted on the foreshore
around New Zealand from the 1830s – to
boil down whale blubber for use in lamps
and soap. The pots were usually organised
in a “nest”, with a fire lit underneath. The
shore-whaling era on Banks Peninsula
ended about 1850.
All three pots came from local whaling
stations, with the centre pot – created by
the Coalbrookdale foundry in Shropshire,
England – moved to the township from
nearby Peraki Bay. The other two pots
probably came from Whakamoa Bay.
The pots have rusted and pitted, requiring
delicate conservation work that does
not lessen the heritage value of the original
structures. They will be carefully cleaned
and the corrosion will be treated at a
conservator’s workshop, with a blend of
natural oils.
Along with the pots, preparations are
also under way to remove and restore the
nearby Britomart Cannon. The timber
sections of the carriage require extensive
repairs.
The Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand,
Captain William Hobson, sent a ship,
the Britomart, to Akaroa in 1840 to establish
British authority before the arrival
of the French. While the 1808 Kinman
cannon on the Akaroa foreshore is not
from the ship, it is very similar. It came to
New Zealand for display at the 1906-1907
International Exhibition in Christchurch
following a request from Akaroa mayor
Etienne Le Lievre.
The cannon has been at its present site
since 1908.
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