How Nelson was Discovered.

It is a curious fact that Nelson Settlement was named long before a site was chosen for it. It was the second of the little colonies planted by the Wakefields for the New Zealand Company, and it was named in England before the pioneer ships sailed in 1841. When the expedition reached Wellington, the problem was to find a location page 20 for the Colony. The Wakefields were inclined to send the pioneers to Lyttelton Harbour, then called Port Cooper. Governor Hobson wanted the settlers to make the just-founded settlement of Auckland their home. The expedition was commanded by Captain Arthur Wakefield and consisted of the ship “Whitby,” the barque “Will Watch” and the brig “Arrow,” with a staff of surveyors and others and a party of working men numbering about seventy, who were described at the time as “a most likely-looking crew to form the nucleus of a new colony.”

The existence of Nelson Haven was then quite unknown to Europeans, but there was an enterprising young master mariner in Wellington, Captain F. G. Moore, who commanded a smart brigantine called the “Jewess” and who had traded with the Maoris at West Wanganui and other places on the Northern end of the South Island. He was a friend of Charles Heaphy, the surveyor, afterwards famed for his explorations. Moore thought it might be profitable to the New Zealand Company to search Blind Bay or Tasman Bay for a suitable site, and the Wakefields asked him to accompany the “Whitby” as pilot in the exploration. The ships sailed across Cook Strait and anchored at Astrolabe Island, in Blind Bay. From Captain Wakefield's, Moore and Heaphy cruised about the great bay in boats—two large Deal luggers brought out in the “Whitby.” It was Captain Moore who, with a young surveyor named Brown, and a crew consisting of Coxswain Cross and four sailors, was the first to discover the celebrated Boulder Bank, and the safe haven behind it. Moore was the first white man to set foot on the 9-miles long stony bank. Rejoining the boat he sailed into the sheltered harbour, took soundings, and reconnoitred the landing in the strange uninhabited country, and the crew pitched camp on November 5, 1841.

That was a dramatic Guy Fawkes night. When dark came on, Moore and his comrades saw a fire blazing in the distance on Astrolabe Island, where Captain Wakefield had promised to light one. The arrangement was that the boat's crew should light a fire and signal with rockets if a suitable site were discovered. So presently up blazed the first pakeha bonfire on the shore of Whakatu (“stand up and fight”), where Nelson now stands, and after a little a rocket sailed up from the ship at distant Astrolabe. Moore fired three rockets as an answering signal, another one flashed from the “Whitby,” and the dull boom of a ship's gun came over the water. The night was calm and clear, and all hands rejoiced at the fortunate conclusion of the day's work and a tot of brandy was served out to each in celebration of the history-making occasion. Four days later the three pioneer vessels arrived in the new haven, piloted by Captain Moore and under the secure lee of the great natural breakwater—the Tahuna-a-Tamaiea of the Maoris—lay the founders of the now wealthy province of Nelson.

The facts about the actual discovery of Nelson Haven are not generally known. Some have credited Captain Wakefield with the finding of the harbour, other writers have named the coxswain Cross, a Deal boatman, as the finder. Captain Moore however, was the real discoverer, he had a shrewd idea, from his partial knowledge of the coast, that a usable harbour should be found somewhere at the bottom of Blind Bay.