Having a blast researching forges in Northland

WORDS: John O’Hare IMAGES: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

A week-long dive trip at Luncheon Cove in Fiordland back in 2008 fuelled a curiosity about ships’ forges that Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga volunteer Jack Kemp is using to research a possible early French site in Pēwhairangi Bay of Islands.

The dive trip that took place 14 years ago introduced Jack to a place that Lieutenant James Cook named and charted in 1773 – as well as the site of a forge which was used by some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s earliest Pākehā settlers some 20 years after Cook’s visit.

“Luncheon Cove is the site of the first temporary European settlement on

Aotearoa New Zealand shores dating back to 1793. Closer to the water’s edge you can see the remains of the forge which was used by would-be settlers to repair their ship,” Jack says.

“I found an abundance of charcoal around the circular hole in the ground where the forge was, which is where Professor Ian Smith of Otago University did a study and survey in the 1990s. It is a significant area for several reasons – including being the place where the first foreign ship was built in New Zealand using native timbers.”

Fast forward to 2022 and Jack’s abiding interest in forges has stood him in good stead. So much so that he moved to Blacksmiths Bay just out of Kerikeri – the place where repairs were carried out on the HMS Osprey by Royal Navy sailors using a portable forge.

“The forge in Fiordland was of great interest to me and after moving to the Far North I built a working forge on my property,” he says.

After catching up with archaeologists Bill Edwards and James Robinson in the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga office in Kerikeri earlier this year, the long-term volunteer heard that they had found what they suspected was the site of a possible metal work repair forge on Moturua Island built by early French explorers. They suggested that Jack join them for a look.

“The feature on Moturua Island looked very similar to the Cook site – a hole in the ground with a ditch leading from it down to a stream. Using a metal detector we found many metal targets – most likely being scale from when they were striking metal with a hammer,” he says. The blacksmiths in question would have been French sailors who would have been with mariner Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne during his disastrous sojourn in Pēwhairangi Bay of Islands in 1772. Du Fresne had brought his two ships the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries into the bay for repairs, and for his scurvy-ridden crew to recuperate. Although things had started well with Māori in the bay, a series of misunderstandings and missteps on the part of the French resulted in tension which spilled over into violence. Du Fresne and several of his men were killed, and French retribution resulted in the deaths of over 200 Māori.

“Before things deteriorated into warfare, however, the French were able to carry out ship repairs at this location by using their go-ashore forge,” says Jack.

Jack was keen to test his theory about the suspected Moturua island forge, and with a bit of guidance from James and

Bill, undertook some experiments.

“I built a similar pit forge, which operates above a simple hole in the ground, and did some tests. Though instead of a set of bellows – which the sailors would have used – I rigged up a mechanical blower in the base of the hole to generate the heat required in the forge to soften metal.”

Using a bag of charcoal from a local hardware store and his electric bellows substitute, Jack was amazed to see the required temperature of 1,500 to 2,000 degrees Celsius – enough to soften metal – was reached after about five minutes. He believes Du Fresne’s men would have used mānuka wood and a couple of sailors working a portable set of bellows.

“Bending the metal on an anvil wasn’t a problem – even with low carbon metal –and I was able to make a few fishhooks,” he says.

“The fire in a pit forge would be fine for a repair or for bending metal, though probably not for welding two pieces of metal together which would have required a more conventional forge. It was certainly hot enough to do the job that was needed though.”

Jack’s experiment is a perfect example of how archaeological theories can be ‘ground-truthed’ by subjecting them to a good dose of reality – in this case 1,500 degrees of heat. Jack’s theory came through the fire unscathed according to James Robinson.

“When you take the evidence we have –the distinctive shaped hole in the ground, journal and map records from people travelling with du Fresne, as well as the evidence of what appears to be hammer scale – and then combine all that with a working model of the device we believe could have been used, you end up with a full picture of what is likely to have occurred on the island,” says James.

“Further analysis will be undertaken, but thanks to Jack’s specialist knowledge and technical curiosity, the shallow hole on Moturua Island may well be found to be one of the very few physical remnants from the brief time the French were in the Bay of Islands 250 years ago.”

For Jack, the chance to explore this angle of early Aotearoa New Zealand history has been a lot of fun.

“Working as a volunteer for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga has been an absolute blast. They are fantastic people to work with – and who knows what finds may emerge next?” says Jack.

“With sea levels rising our history is in danger of being lost to the ocean so it’s important that we record as much of it as possible – places like this possible forge site are just one example. There are so many places untouched in the north with new discoveries being made each day.” n