Cape Expedition
Encyclopedia
Cape Expedition was the deliberately misleading name given to a secret five-year wartime
program of establishing coastwatching
stations on New Zealand
’s more distant uninhabited subantarctic
islands. The decision to do so was made by the New Zealand Government’s War Cabinet
in December 1940, with the program terminating at the end of the Pacific War
in 1945.
merchant vessel
Erlangen, which had sailed from Dunedin
, supposedly for Australia
, on 26 August 1939 – shortly before war had been declared in Europe
– had, instead, supplemented her meagre coal reserves with timber from the Auckland Islands
and headed for South America
. The suspicion was later confirmed when the first coastwatchers in the program found areas of newly cut Southern Rata
forest at Carnley Harbour
on Auckland Island
. Moreover, the loss of the ships SS Holmwood and MS Rangitane
to German raiders
in November 1940 gave rise to the suspicion that the raiders were using the subantarctic islands as bases.
The Cape Expedition program was managed by the Public Works Department's
Aerodrome Services Branch. The auxiliary schooner
Tagua, carrying the first contingent of coastwatchers, sailed from Wellington on 5 March 1941. The ship reached the Aucklands on 10 March and sheltered in the natural harbour of Port Ross
before proceeding to Carnley Harbour, arriving there on the 13th.
, Campbell Island
. The stations were small, with four men (increased to five in the second year) at each. At first the coastwatchers were civilians, but all were attested as privates
in the New Zealand Army
from December 1942.
The stations consisted of portable prefabricated huts
with double plywood
walls and double windows. Each station also had a dinghy
with an outboard motor
. Because it was understood that resupplying them could be problematic and sporadic, the stations were provided with three years' supply of food, clothing and other consumables. A larger vessel, the 57-ton MV Ranui with a crew of four, was based at Waterfall Inlet in the Aucklands to serve as a link between the stations and, in an emergency, the outside world.
of the islands. Each station made radio contact daily with New Zealand, at staggered times to minimise the risk of their presence becoming known. The men were relieved yearly, though a few repeated their tours of duty; two of them spent three years on the islands, with the naturalist J.H. Sorensen spending four years on Campbell Island.
A popular recreational activity, which also supplied fresh meat to supplement the preserved food rations, was hunting
the introduced species
of wildlife on the islands. On Auckland Island there were wild pigs
and, on Enderby Island, wild cattle
and blue rabbits
. On Campbell Island the feral sheep
provided high quality lamb and mutton.
joined the relief parties. Surveyors
, geologists
and naturalists
also became part of the program, during the fourth and fifth years of which a special party of three completed the survey of the island groups. When the coastwatchers were demobilised
on 15 October 1945 and withdrawn, the Campbell Island station was retained as part of New Zealand's weather forecasting service. Many of the scientific results garnered through the work of the Cape Expedition’s coastwatchers were later published by the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
in its Cape Expedition Series of bulletins.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
program of establishing coastwatching
Coastwatchers
The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II to observe enemy movements and rescue stranded Allied...
stations on New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
’s more distant uninhabited subantarctic
Subantarctic
The Subantarctic is a region in the southern hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° – 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and...
islands. The decision to do so was made by the New Zealand Government’s War Cabinet
War Cabinet
A War Cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers. It is also quite common for a War Cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members....
in December 1940, with the program terminating at the end of the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
in 1945.
History
It was suspected that the 6,000-ton GermanNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
merchant vessel
Merchant vessel
A merchant vessel is a ship that transports cargo or passengers. The closely related term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire...
Erlangen, which had sailed from Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
, supposedly for Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, on 26 August 1939 – shortly before war had been declared in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
– had, instead, supplemented her meagre coal reserves with timber from the Auckland Islands
Auckland Islands
The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of the New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands and include Auckland Island, Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island and Green Island, with a combined area of...
and headed for South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. The suspicion was later confirmed when the first coastwatchers in the program found areas of newly cut Southern Rata
Metrosideros umbellata
Southern rātā , is a tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 15 m. or more tall with a trunk up to 1 m. or more in diameter. It produces masses of red flowers in summer...
forest at Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour
Carnley Harbour is a large natural harbour in the south of the Auckland Islands, a subantarctic part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Formed from the drowned crater of an extinct volcano, the harbour separates the mainland of Auckland Island from the smaller Adams Island...
on Auckland Island
Auckland Island
Auckland Island is the main island of the Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. It is inscribed in the together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-004 Auckland Isls, New Zealand S50.29 E165.52...
. Moreover, the loss of the ships SS Holmwood and MS Rangitane
MS Rangitane (1929)
The RMS Rangitane was a passenger liner owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. She was one of three sister ships delivered to the company in 1929 for the All-Red Route between Britain and New Zealand...
to German raiders
Merchant raider
Merchant raiders are ships which disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels, whilst actually being armed and intending to attack enemy commerce. Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I, and again early in World War II...
in November 1940 gave rise to the suspicion that the raiders were using the subantarctic islands as bases.
The Cape Expedition program was managed by the Public Works Department's
New Zealand Ministry of Works
The New Zealand Ministry of Works, formerly the Department of Public Works and sometimes referred to as the Public Works Department or PWD, was founded in 1876 and disestablished and privatised in 1988...
Aerodrome Services Branch. The auxiliary schooner
Auxiliary ship
An auxiliary ship is a naval ship which is designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, usually of a self defensive nature.Auxiliaries are extremely...
Tagua, carrying the first contingent of coastwatchers, sailed from Wellington on 5 March 1941. The ship reached the Aucklands on 10 March and sheltered in the natural harbour of Port Ross
Port Ross
Port Ross is a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands....
before proceeding to Carnley Harbour, arriving there on the 13th.
The stations
Three stations were established, at Port Ross at the northern end and Carnley Harbour at the southern end, of Auckland Island, and at Perseverance HarbourPerseverance Harbour
Perseverance Harbour, also known as South harbour, is a large indentation in the coast of Campbell Island, one of New Zealand's subantarctic outlying islands. The harbour is a long lateral fissure which reaches the ocean in the island's southeast, and is overlooked by the island's highest point,...
, Campbell Island
Campbell Island, New Zealand
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic island of New Zealand and the main island of the Campbell Island group. It covers of the group's , and is surrounded by numerous stacks, rocks and islets like Dent Island, Folly Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island, the latter being the...
. The stations were small, with four men (increased to five in the second year) at each. At first the coastwatchers were civilians, but all were attested as privates
Private (rank)
A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank .In modern military parlance, 'Private' is shortened to 'Pte' in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and to 'Pvt.' in the United States.Notably both Sir Fitzroy MacLean and Enoch Powell are examples of, rare, rapid career...
in the New Zealand Army
New Zealand Army
The New Zealand Army , is the land component of the New Zealand Defence Force and comprises around 4,500 Regular Force personnel, 2,000 Territorial Force personnel and 500 civilians. Formerly the New Zealand Military Forces, the current name was adopted around 1946...
from December 1942.
The stations consisted of portable prefabricated huts
Prefabricated home
Prefabricated homes, often referred to as prefab homes, are dwellings manufactured off-site in advance, usually in standard sections that can be easily shipped and assembled....
with double plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
walls and double windows. Each station also had a dinghy
Dinghy
A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed for use as a ship's boat by a larger vessel. It is a loanword from either Bengali or Urdu. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor,...
with an outboard motor
Outboard motor
An outboard motor is a propulsion system for boats, consisting of a self-contained unit that includes engine, gearbox and propeller or jet drive, designed to be affixed to the outside of the transom and are the most common motorized method of propelling small watercraft...
. Because it was understood that resupplying them could be problematic and sporadic, the stations were provided with three years' supply of food, clothing and other consumables. A larger vessel, the 57-ton MV Ranui with a crew of four, was based at Waterfall Inlet in the Aucklands to serve as a link between the stations and, in an emergency, the outside world.
Coastwatching
Early instructions to the coastwatchers emphasised concealment, with emergency radios set up in the scrub near each station. As well as their primary task of keeping their eyes on the sea for ships, the men (no women were involved) carried out surveys, took weather measurements, and made observations on the wildlifeWildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
of the islands. Each station made radio contact daily with New Zealand, at staggered times to minimise the risk of their presence becoming known. The men were relieved yearly, though a few repeated their tours of duty; two of them spent three years on the islands, with the naturalist J.H. Sorensen spending four years on Campbell Island.
A popular recreational activity, which also supplied fresh meat to supplement the preserved food rations, was hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
the introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
of wildlife on the islands. On Auckland Island there were wild pigs
Auckland Island Pig
The Auckland Island Pig is a feral breed of domestic pig found on subantarctic Auckland Island, New Zealand. Various introductions of pigs were made to the uninhabited island as a source of food for stranded sailors or visiting whalers, the first in 1807 with further liberations in 1840, 1842 and...
and, on Enderby Island, wild cattle
Enderby Island Cattle
Enderby Island Cattle are a breed of cattle that existed in a wild state in isolation on Enderby Island, New Zealand for over 80 years. Only about seven specimens remain today, in New Zealand, after a rescue expedition by the Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand , and a culling program...
and blue rabbits
Enderby Island Rabbit
The Enderby Island Rabbit, or simply Enderby Rabbit, is a rare breed of domesticated European Rabbit originating from rabbits introduced to Enderby Island, an uninhabited subantarctic island in New Zealand’s Auckland Islands group, from Australia in October 1865 to serve as castaway food...
. On Campbell Island the feral sheep
Campbell Island Sheep
Campbell Island sheep are a feral breed of domestic sheep formerly found on Campbell Island, New Zealand.-The sheep farmers:The sheep were originally introduced to Campbell Island in the late 1890s, following the inclusion of the island in New Zealand’s pastoral lease system in 1896...
provided high quality lamb and mutton.
Results
Although no enemy ships were sighted during the duration of the program, the secondary work carried out by the coastwatchers proved successful. From June 1942 the stations began reporting weather conditions daily; the reports were so valuable that in the third year of the program trained meteorologistsMeteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
joined the relief parties. Surveyors
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
, geologists
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and naturalists
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
also became part of the program, during the fourth and fifth years of which a special party of three completed the survey of the island groups. When the coastwatchers were demobilised
Demobilization
Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary...
on 15 October 1945 and withdrawn, the Campbell Island station was retained as part of New Zealand's weather forecasting service. Many of the scientific results garnered through the work of the Cape Expedition’s coastwatchers were later published by the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research
Several countries have organizations called the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated DSIR.-United Kingdom:...
in its Cape Expedition Series of bulletins.