Anchor

Two of the anchors were discovered in 1974, this one by Kelly Tarlton and the other by Mike Bearsley. They were recovered by a team of divers including Bearsley and Tarlton, and conserved in Kaitaia. This anchor is now displayed in the Te Papa foyer, and the other is at Museum @ Te Ahu in Kaitaia.

The St Jean Baptiste sailed from India in June 1769 on a voyage of trade and discovery. The ship travelled to Malacca, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands before setting a course for New Zealand in November 1769. By then the scurvy-ridden crew were desperately in need of fresh food and water. The ship reached Hokianga Harbour on 12 December 1769, and anchored in Doubtless Bay (which they named Lauriston Bay) five days later.

Unbeknownst to De Surville, the Endeavour, captained by James Cook, was making its way up the East Coast on a separate voyage of discovery. The two ships never met, and as historian John Dunmore wrote in 1969, ‘Cook sailed on to fame and de Surville to death and almost complete oblivion’ (Fateful Voyage, 9).

While anchored at Doubtless Bay the crew of St Jean Baptiste traded with Ngāti Kahu, exchanging cloth for fish and vegetables. Violent storms battered the ship and almost wrecked the St Jean Baptiste upon the rocks. Three of the ship’s six anchors had been dropped but they began to drag. One anchor cable snapped and de Surville ordered the other two to be cut away. As soon as the ship’s water supplies were replenished de Surville sailed on to South America.

The crew’s interactions with Ngāti Kahu were mostly friendly. However, on the 31st of December 1769, his last day in the Bay, de Surville noticed a small yawl, thought to have been lost in a storm, sitting on the beach. He searched for the yawl for hours, but it had been dragged away and hidden. De Surville ‘arrested’ Ranginui, a Ngāti Kahu leader, and ordered the destruction of whare and other property. Ranginui was apparently well treated on board the St Jean Baptiste, but like many others was afflicted by scurvy. He died at sea on 24 March 1770.

With the crew greatly diminished, the St Jean Baptiste limped into Chilca, Peru, in April 1770. De Surville drowned trying to get ashore, and the ship was seized by local authorities. The remaining crew had to wait in Peru for more than two years before they were granted their release papers. Of the 173 who had sailed from India, only 66 returned to France. 28 crew members deserted, and 79 died.

The 'de Surville anchors' are almost certainly the oldest authentic European objects found in New Zealand, and are implicated in one of the earliest encounters between Europeans and Māori.

References

• Dunmore, John. 1969. The Fateful Voyage of the St Jean Baptiste. Christchurch: Pegasus Press.
• Dunmore, John. 1990. 'Surville, Jean François Marie de'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1s28/surville-jean-francois-marie-de
• Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 'Kidnapped Ngāti Awa chief Ranginui dies on French ship '. New Zealand History website. (https://nzhistory.govt.nz/maori-kidnap-victim-dies-french-ship)