Amersham nostalgia: Town's unexpected historic link to whaling

You may be aware that this is the chorus of a sea shanty that recently went viral and catapulted Nathan Evans—a former postman—to the No. 1 spot in the UK charts. What you may not realise is that this 19th-century whaling song from New Zealand has its roots in Amersham!

The Wellerman of the song was a supply ship belonging to the firm of Weller & Co founded in Australia in the 19th-century. The money to establish the business came from the Weller Brewery in Amersham. Weller & Co, which was founded by Joseph Weller and his sons, Joseph, George, and Edward.

Joseph was born in High Wycombe in 1766 but most of his childhood was spent in Amersham after his father, William, bought into the existing brewery and moved to the town.

Joseph initially chose a military career and enlisted as an officer in the Bucks yeomanry. But in 1801, when he married Mary Brooks, he was working in the brewery. The family lived in Little Missenden and their first children were born there and baptised in Amersham. The brewery was a substantial business when William died, and Joseph inherited it with two of his brothers in 1802.

Joseph had been diagnosed with consumption and was advised to move to the coast. Consequently, he decided to sell his share of the brewery to his brothers and use the money to buy a sizeable estate near Folkestone.

Unfortunately, Joseph’s poor health continued and some years later another doctor suggested a sea voyage to the warmer, drier climate of Australia. The Kent estate was sold for a substantial sum (12,000 sovereigns according to family legend) and arrangements were soon made for the whole family to emigrate.

On arrival in Sydney in 1830 the family bought a large house and invested in land. Joseph’s eldest son, also Joseph, saw opportunities in neighbouring New Zealand. He started trading timber in North Island before venturing south with a sealing expedition. He soon realised that more money could be made from whaling.

There were staggering numbers of whales and it was an extremely lucrative business. Whale oil lit city streets and lubricated machines in rapidly industrialising countries like Britain and America. Baleen from whale jaws also provided the ‘bones’ to stiffen corsets or was used in much the same way as plastic is now.

In September 1831, Joseph junior, and his youngest brother Edward, just 17, left with a whaling gang and a new ship, the Lucy Ann, to establish one of the earliest whaling stations in New Zealand.

A plaque commemorates their landing point at Te Umu Kuri, Otago, an Anglicisation of Ōtākou. The landing point is still known as Weller’s Rock.

The station was an ambitious project with over 80 buildings constructed in six months.

Unfortunately, the entire enterprise was burnt down as soon as it was completed and so 1832 was a complete loss. The rebuilt development was the centre of a network of seven satellite Weller & Co stations. The first shipment of 180 tons of whale oil left in November 1833 and for a few years, the business flourished.

Dead whales were taken back to the shore station to be processed. “Tonguing” in the lyrics refers to cutting strips of blubber to render into oil in large vats.

The whalers were itinerant workers from all over the world and included Europeans, ex-convicts, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Whilst life on the ships was particularly harsh it was not much easier on shore.

These shore whalers entered a Maori world. The success of a station was dependent on their relationships with the local population.

Newcomers had to negotiate access to coastal land and resources, and this could be fraught with danger.

In 1833 Edward was kidnapped by Maori and his family paid a ransom for his return. The next year a serious dispute caused them to equip one of their ships (the Joseph Weller) with guns, but fortunately they were never needed.

In 1835 an epidemic of measles shockingly reduced the local population who had no resistance to the virus.

That year Joseph died of tuberculosis and Edward had to send his remains back to the family in a barrel of rum. Edward, just 21, was now the manager of the station with responsibility for approximately 85 men, 11 boat crew and their wives and children.

Many whalers had relationships with Maori women, including Edward. He married Paparu, daughter of high status Tahatu and Matua. After her early death, he married Nikuru, the daughter of the chief Taiaroa.

These mixed families were central to the success of the station. Māori women produced the station’s food and supplemented the business of whaling. The Wellerman shanty’s “sugar and tea and rum” were imported as rations, however flax, potatoes, and pigs were locally produced.

Any surplus was exported for profit alongside whale bone and oil. Maori men also worked in the industry, either on shore or as whaling crew.

Around 1837, the whaling business in Otago began to decline and the Weller luck ran out when 2 of their ships were wrecked. Edward’s second wife died in childbirth in 1840 and suffering from ill-health himself, he left for Sydney. He never returned but maintained links with his daughters in Otago.

A tenacious whaling captain in his day, Edward Weller may well have been the inspiration for the stubborn captain of the shanty who refused to cut the line attached to the harpooned whale.

“As far as I’ve heard, the fight’s still on;
The line’s not cut and the whale’s not gone
The Wellerman makes his a regular call
To encourage the Captain, crew, and all.”

All photos courtesy of Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.