Port Pegasus, officially Port Pegasus / Pikihatiti, (formerly South Port) is at the southern end of

Stewart Island Stewart Island (, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura, formerly New Leinster) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a la ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. From the 1890s to the 1950s, Port Pegasus was the site of a small

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

community. There was also a small

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

-mining boom in the area in the 1890s. Today, there is no settlement at Port Pegasus, but the location is frequented by tourists, fishermen, hunters, and divers.

History

In 1809, when William W. Stewart visited and mapped the island that was later named after him, he named the small bay "South Port". Later, it was renamed "Port Pegasus" to commemorate the ''Pegasus'', Stewart's ship. The

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

''Pegasus'' was the former ''Pegaso'', captured at the Peruvian port of Trujillo on 28 July 1807 by the British frigate , commanded by Captain Charles James Johnston, during a cruise against Spanish shipping and ports along the coasts of Spanish America. Johnston dispatched the ''Pegaso'' to

Port Jackson Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta ...

, where she arrived at the end of October. Submitted to the Court of Admiralty in Sydney, the ''Pegaso'', was condemned as a prize on 24 January 1808 and sold off, renamed ''Pegasus''. A few months later she was acquired by Thomas Moore and in May of that year she was made ready to go on the sealing trade to the southern part of New Zealand. This expedition took place between August 1808 and March 1809, when ''Pegasus'' was commanded by Captain Eber Bunker. ''Pegasus'' went on a second expedition under the command of Samuel Chase from Port Jackson to London by way of the sealing grounds in southern New Zealand from May 1809 to August 1810: William Stewart was first officer and made charts of the New Zealand coast, including

, which was subsequently named after him. It appears to have been Jules de Blosseville who first applied the name Port Pegasus to South Port, on his 1824 ''Carte de la côte méridionale de l'île de Tawaï-Poénammou (Nouvelle-Zélande)''; Blosseville was an officer on the expedition of the corvette Coquille commanded by

Louis Isidore Duperrey Louis-Isidore Duperrey (21 October 1786 – 25 August 1865) was a French naval officer and explorer. Biography Early life Louis-Isidore Duperrey was born in 1786. Career He joined the navy in 1802, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Cl ...

. Duperrey's expedition did not visit the southern part of New Zealand but Jules Alphonse Rene Poret de Blosseville compiled several charts of parts of New Zealand including charts of the southern part of the South Island, from information received when the ''Coquille'' called at Sydney. De Blosseville obtained most of his information about southern areas from Captain William Edwardson of the sloop ''Snapper'' but he also questioned captains of sealing vessels regarding New Zealand. Several charts of parts of New Zealand compiled by de Blosseville were included in the atlas dated 1827 published to accompany the account of Duperrey's voyage, ''Voyage autour du monde executé par ordre du Roi sur la corvette La Coquille pendant les années 1822…1825'', Paris, 1826). In the title of ''Carte de la cote meridionale de l'lle de Tawai-Poenammou''... de Blosseville acknowledged the chart was drawn from original work by Captain Edwardson.Brian Hooker, "Some Preliminary Notes on the Original and Revised Issues of the McDonnell-Wyld Chart of New Zealand", ''The Turnbull Library Record,'' vol.16, no.2, 1983, p.114. At the end of the 1970s near the Tin Range the

Kākāpō The kākāpō (; : ; ''Strigops habroptilus''), sometimes known as the owl parrot or owl-faced parrot, is a species of large, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot of the superfamily Strigopoidea. It is endemic to New Zealand. Kākāpō can be u ...

was re-discovered. Port Pegasus / Pikihatiti is only accessible by boat or by foot via an arduous hiking trail from

Oban Oban ( ; meaning ''The Little Bay'') is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William, Highland, Fort William. During the tourist seaso ...

that was first marked out by Stewart Island ranger Roy Traill.

References

External links

Port Pegasus
{{coord, 47, 12, S, 167, 40, E, display=title, region:NZ_type:waterbody_source:GNS-enwiki
J.L. Stokes, ''Chart of Port Pegasus,'' 1849.
Bays of the Southland Region Ghost towns in the Southland Region Landforms of Stewart Island Stewart Island 1890s establishments in New Zealand 1950s disestablishments in New Zealand