Arama Karaka Pi and the Taeopa

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga, Part XVII

On 5th March 1832, the armed sailing cutter Taeopa, one of New Zealand’s first Maori gun boats, entered Tauranga Harbour by the Katikati entrance. Owned and skippered by the Ngapuhi chief Arama Pi, and carrying heavily armed Maori and Pakeha-Maori fighting men, it made a swift reconnaissance of the harbour before departing.

The rangatira Arama Karaka Pi also known as Pihungu, lived at Waima, Hokianga and was one of the principal leaders of the Te Mahurehure hapu. In 1831, with the assistance of Eruera Maihi Patuone, he purchased a European sailing vessel. As the intertribal Musket Wars raged, many Ngapuhi and Southern Ngai Tahu rangatira began mounting cannon or carronades in the bows of their sailing cutters and whale boats, before deploying them as gun boats against enemy tribesmen on land and sea. Pi and Patuone’s acquisition was the 18-ton cutter Emma, purchased from the notorious captain of the Elizabeth, John Stewart who had transported Te Rauparaha and his warriors on their mission of slaughter to Bank’s Peninsula in 1830. Pi renamed his new vessel Taeopa (Tae opa) ‘to prevail over and drive out’ and, with the aid of Hokianga Pakeha-Maori, had a nine pound carronade mounted in the bow.

A schooner rigged cutter, the Taeopa was armed with a bow cannon for the Tauranga campaign

In November 1832, Pi and two picked groups of Maori and Pakeha-Maori fighting men boarded the Taeopa and, after crossing the Hokianga bar, sailed north to round Cape Reinga, and south, before entering the Bay of Islands. There, they joined the fleet of 80 waka taua and Maori sailing craft and 800 warriors that assembled at Kororareka (Russell) during December 1832. At the instigation of Titore Takiri (the leading war chief at the Bay of Islands following the death of Hongi Hika), the fleet voyaged slowly southwards to attack Ngai Te Rangi at Tauranga and to avenge past defeats.

Pi and the Taeopa had become part of a remarkable and unprecedented Maori amphibious artillery expedition that transported at least ten 9-12 pound long barreled cannon and short barreled carronades. Some rangatira including Pi and Wharepoaka had these pieces mounted in the bows of their cutters, and whaleboats powered by sail. Other rangatira had their purepo (great guns) placed as ballast in the hulls of their waka taua until they reached Tauranga.

This 12 pound ships’ carronade was one of eight identical pieces recovered by northern Maori following the attack and destruction of the Boyd at Whangaroa in 1809. Four Boyd carronades were later employed as land based artillery pieces by the Whangaroa rangatira Ururoa, during the bombardments of Otumoetai and Maungatapu Pa in 1832.

On the 3rd of March, the intertribal peacemakers Rev. Henry Williams and William Fairburn sailed the little mission schooner Karere (Messenger) into the Tairua estuary on the Coromandel Peninsula, where Titore’s invasion force was encamped. That evening, the missionaries watched the Taeopa recross the difficult river entrance after Pi had taken the vessel to Tuhua or Mayor Island that morning, in an attempt to take the Ngai Te Rangi hapu living there by surprise. Williams reported that Pi had instructed his warriors to hide below the gunwales with only his Pakeha-Maori on show. The Islanders were not taken in by the ruse and subjected the cutter to musket fire as it approached the shore. Under the direction of Pi’s Pakeha-Maori master gunner, the Taeopa returned fire from its bow gun before tacking away to rejoin the Ngapuhi expedition at Tairua.

On the morning of 7th March 1832, Taeopa and Titore’s fleet, having previously camped on Matakana Island, advanced up the harbour towards Otumoetai Pa. Henry Williams who accompanied the fleet in Karere described it as ‘a formidable body’ comprising ‘about 80 boats and canoes.’ With all craft and warriors bedecked for war, musket barrels glittering, war trumpets blaring and a multitude of battle flags flying (obtained from the shipping), for the Ngai Te Rangi defenders, Titore’s fleet must have appeared a fantastic and ominous sight.

Williams and Fairburn did not describe the Taeopa’s role in the subsequent and unsuccessful sieges of Otumoetai and Maungatapu Pa during March and April. It is likely however, that Pi’s Maori and Pakeha-Maori warriors joined Titore’s infantrymen during their repeated attacks on these fortresses. It is also likely that Pi and his unidentified Pakeha-Maori gun captain employed their carronade as a shore based weapon during the remarkable day-long Ngapuhi artillery bombardment of Otumoetai Pa (as described by Henry Williams) on 16th March 1832, when every great gun was brought to bear, without being able to create a breach in the palisades.

Arama Karaka Pi (left) bore the same name as his father, who co-owned the Taeopa with Eruera Maihi Patuone (right)

On 31st March, Henry Williams visited the Ngapuhi encampment following their later siege and bombardment of Maungatapu Pa, noting:

Many shook their heads signifying that they were tired, and others complained of want of food. Their attempts had failed They found that their opponents were not backward to meet them, and their great guns had been brought into action but of no use. They had dragged them close to the pa two days after we had sailed from the Bay and were firing nearly the whole day without any effect, but had sustained some loss themselves and the two guns belonging to Moka [the Boyd’s two 12 pound cannon], had nearly fallen into the enemy’s hands.

The combination of war weariness, food shortages, fierce enemy opposition, casualties and an ineffective artillery arm saw Ngapuhi raise the siege at Maungatapu and exit Tauranga Harbour in several smaller fleets. Taeopa avoided the fate of some waka taua that were lost in heavy seas during the return voyage to the Bay of Islands, along with their crews and great guns.

On his return to Hokianga Pi, who had agreed to pay for the Taeopa by supplying John Stewart with a cargo of flax and timber, ended up forfeiting two blocks of land as the cargo was not completed in time. Additionally, though Pi and Patuone believed they were now full owners of the cutter, Stewart retained its registry papers and was able to repossess and on-sell the Taeopa to a Mr. Poyner. Titore in turn seized the cutter when Poyner arrived at the Bay of Islands and returned it to Pi before they both embarked on another unsuccessful seaborne campaign to Tauranga in 1833. Arama Karaka Pi and Titore Takiri were subsequently killed during interfactional fighting at the Bay of Islands in June 1837.

References

Bentley, Trevor, Tribal Guns and Tribal Gunners: The Story of Maori Artillery in 19th Century New Zealand, Wilsonscott, Christchurch, 2013.

Carleton, Hugh. The Life of Henry Williams, Archdeacon of Waimate, Vol.1, Upton, Auckland, 1874.

Colenso, William, Fifty Years Ago in New Zealand, Harding, Napier, 1888.

Markham, Edward, New Zealand or Recollections of It, E. H. McCormick (ed.),  Government Printer, Wellington, 1963.

Pi  / NZ History, New Zealand history online https://nzhistory.govt.nz › declaration › signatory

Williams, Henry, The Early Journals of Henry Williams, 1826-1840, L. M. Rogers (comp.), Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1961.

Illustrations

Prichett,  R. T; ‘The swoop of the gannet’, in Sullivan, Edward, The Project Gutenberg Book of Yachting, Vol. 1, Lord Brasset (ed.), London, Longman, Green, 1894: 192.

Carronade, from the ship "Boyd", burnt at Whangaroa Harbour, 1809. Carron Company; artillery maker(s); circa 1780; Scotland, cast iron. Dimensions: Overall: 500mm (width), 350mm (height), 1220mm (length), 460kg (weight), Purchased 1933. DM000143, Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tonga Rewa, Wellington.

Arama Karaka Pi, 1808-1867, in "Through Changing Scenes" by K. Abercrombie, Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #15 (1), 1956, www.methodist.org.nz/files/docs/wesley%20historical/15(1)-%20through%20changing%20times%20.pdf

Crombie, John, (attributed), ‘Patuone. Brother of the loyal and faithful chief Tamati Waka.’ 1855, E-452-f-003-2. National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.