Kia ora everyone. My brother Steve and I are sharing a story about our grandfather, Oswald Te Āhuru Huntley, known as Ossie, and his years at Fishing Bay in Tory Channel.
We are still learning about the people and families who worked there. We hope these photographs and sources might help someone recognise a name, remember a workmate or find a little more of their own family history.
Don Grady's history of the Perano whalers names Ossie as the shark man of Fishing Bay.
At night, Grady writes, Ossie could hear white pointers twisting against the station breastwork as they tore blubber from floating whale carcasses.
In July 1956, he hand-harpooned two white pointers in two days.
The larger was recorded as 4.5 metres long, 2.7 metres around the girth and weighing about 1.5 tonnes. Both were taken while feeding on whale carcasses. The larger shark was finally stopped with rifle fire.
Grady says the biggest shark Ossie probably killed came earlier, on 1 June 1954. It measured 5.8 metres.
Then comes one of the strangest details in the account. When that shark was opened, a blind eel was found in its flank. According to the book, the eel had eaten its way through the shark, leaving a path that could still be traced.
He also recorded what Ossie did with the money from selling shark livers to a maker of medicinal fish oil. He gave it all to the whalers' end-of-season break-up party.
That detail matters to us. It remembers Ossie as a workmate, as well as the man in the photograph.
Shore whaling belongs to a difficult chapter of our history. We can acknowledge what was killed while also learning about the working lives, skills and communities around the stations.
The photographs bring those threads together: Ossie with the two white pointers, the gold-mounted shark tooth in my hand, and the engraving on the back of its mount: "Ossie Huntley July 1956".
If you remember Ossie, the station or the families who worked the Tory Channel whaling grounds, we would love to hear from you. Photographs, memories and corrections are welcome. If we have something wrong, please let us know. We want to learn and keep the record accurate together.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Don Grady, The Perano Whalers of Cook Strait, 1911-1964, pages 121 to 123. This is the source for the shark incidents, the recorded measurements, the blind eel and the contribution to the whalers' party.
Book details and library lookup. This is a catalogue record, not the full text:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Perano_Whalers_of_Cook_Strait_1911_1.html?id=xYMNAQAAIAAJ
NZHistory: background on the Perano whaling station and the wider history of Tory Channel whaling. This provides context for the station, rather than independent confirmation of each shark incident:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/perano-whaling-station
Photographs shared from our family collection. The photographer of the historical image has not been identified here. The two colour photographs show the tooth and its engraving.
MORE FROM OUR SERIES
For anyone joining us here, these earlier stories are in the public Aotearoa New Zealand History group:
The Chief Who Would Not Get Off the Ship:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/399298005225901/posts/1610462087442814/
The Four Women Behind the Chair:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/aotearoanzhistory/posts/1609262604229429/
The Woman Who Sang for Her Life:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/aotearoanzhistory/posts/1609268970895459/
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