Davey Jones of Wakatahuri

A farm, a fish-factory, a boat-building facility, a ship-breaking base and a community hub, Wakatahuri in the outer Pelorus Sound at the top of the South Island has been many things to many people. For legendary navigator Kupe it was a place to repair his waka. For the McManaway, Wells and Jones families it has been a place to live and thrive and for countless fishermen, seafarers and summer visitors it has been a place of fascination and wonder. From the early 1900s there was a post office and a school, and even in the 1950s there was a permanent population of 42. It became a scrap-yard for ships. When Wellingtonians had 'Rotten Row', an eclectic collection of veteran steamships and hulks rising and falling with the tide off Kaiwharawhara, the Wells brothers had Wakatahuri, their very own 'Rotten Row'.
Davey Jones came to Wakatahuri as a young fisherman in 1956 and he still lives there much of the time. This book draws on the stories he heard from the Wells family and from his own experiences as a ship-breaker, boatbuilder, trawlerman and ocean wanderer. Above all it's a book about ships and boats, the many vessels that were built, repaired or broken apart at Wakatahuri where the sea remains the only highway, and the men and women there who had saltwater in their veins.