Pelorus Jack

A world famous dolphin

For nearly 25 years, Pelorus Jack, a Risso's dolphin, met and escorted ships travelling between Wellington and Nelson across Admiralty Bay, north of French Pass.

In 1904, he was protected by Order in Council under the Sea Fisheries Act - possibly the only individual sea creature to be legally protected anywhere in the world. He remained a protected creature until his disappearance in 1912.

This 1920's parlour piano song (words by P. Cole and music by H. Rivers) testifies to his popular fame:

Pelorus Jack. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives 19950370073
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Pelorus Jack. Marlborough Historical Society - Marlborough Museum Archives 19660491040Click image to enlarge

It is thought that ‘Jack' was orphaned, which may have explained his unusual behaviour pattern. It is also presumed that Jack enjoyed getting a ride from the ships' pressure waves as they passed through his territory.¹ Jack delighted passengers, who came from all over the world, some travelling the Nelson/Wellington route just to see him.²

He was described in a letter in the London Daily Mail in 1906: "For the last twenty years no steamer has been known to pass this Sound unaccompanied, for at least part of the way, by a large white fish, part shark, part dolphin, called Pelorus Jack...... He is first noticed leaping out of the sea in the distance, but in a few moments is swimming through the water just in front of the ship's stem. Sometimes he remains only a few moments leaping out of the water and swimming just ahead; then he shoots away out of sight. But at other times he stays for quite ten minutes. He is said never to come to sailing ships or wooden-bottomed steamers; but no matter which way a steamer crosses the Sound, whether by day or night, Pelorus Jack is always in attendance as a sort of pilot." ³

Cover of the London Illustrated News, 24 Dec 1910, featuring a painting by Cecil King of Pelorus Jack escorting a steamship. Alexander Turnbull Library
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In 1906, Pelorus Jack was cited as a chief tourist attraction in New Zealand, with many visitors from Australia and beyond taking the ‘Sounds excursion': "his exploits have been spread abroad through the medium of guide books, and have been much improved in travellers' tales." ⁴

Much loved by seafarers and passengers alike, a painting of Pelorus Jack appeared on the front cover of the London Illustrated News  on 24 December, 1910.⁵

Jack was first seen sometime in the 1880s. There is a story that the crew of the first ship that saw him wanted to harpoon him like a whale, but some horrified women on board stopped them, and he swam alongside the ship for 12 hours.⁶ "It is said he has the tail of a shark, the fins of another fish, and the head of another, that he has a blow and spouts like a whale," reported the Rev E.W. Matthews who, while travelling both ways, only saw him briefly.⁷

In fact, Jack was later identified from photographs as a Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus)- a beakless dolphin with a similar shape to a pilot whale - and his sex was never verified.⁸ He was variously reported as being nine feet (2.7 metres) to 15 feet (4.5 metres) long- although this may have been related to sightings over the years as he grew to maturity.

There are many stories about Jack, including a myth that he guided ships through the turbulent French Pass- local residents said he never went through French Pass.⁹ But the strangest story is about Pelorus Jack and the steamer, the Penguin. Whether Jack was struck by the Penguin in 1904, ¹⁰; or a passenger shot at him from the bow of the Penguin, from that day on he gave the steamer a wide berth until some weeks before the Penguin was wrecked in 1909. ¹¹

The only surviving female passenger of the Penguin, Ada Hannam, reported feeling a ‘strange sensation' as Jack dived and leapt round the bow of the Penguin as they left Nelson on the afternoon of 12 February, 1909. It ran into stormy weather in Tory Channel and sank off Wellington Heads with the loss of 75 lives, including Ada's husband and children.¹²

Pelorus Jack: the White Dolphin of French Pass, New Zealand from J Cowan, 1911 (photo taken by Capt. C. F. Post, of the N.Z. Govt. SS Tutanekai).
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Pelorus Jack. Nelson Provincial Museum. Bett Collection 31452
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There was always concern when Jack didn't appear.  In March 1911, a male dolphin resembling Jack was washed up at D'Urville Island, with locals thinking it could be Jack.¹³However, in April of that year, he was seen ‘as frisky as ever'.¹⁴

Pelorus Jack was last definitely seen at the end of 1912, and while there were various rumours that he had been shot, he would have been at least 25 years old when he disappeared - the normal lifespan of a dolphin.¹⁵

In 1929, Bishop Bennett of Aotearoa  said Māori at the settlement of Ohoka, near Jack's old haunts, had told him that there had been an old tradition of such a fish who was a taniwha, or pet fish of a tohunga. ¹⁶

Another Maori legend says that  Kupe, the great navigator who is reputed to have discovered New Zealand, placed one of his guardian taniwha, Tuhirangi, in Cook Strait / Te Moana-a-Raukawa to guide and protect canoes.  He was later believed to have reappeared in the form of Pelorus Jack.¹⁷ Legend says the taniwha was sent by Tangaroa, the ocean god, to watch over Kupe, and that the taniwha can rest on the bottom of the ocean for long periods of time, until called by Tangaroa again.¹⁸

See how Pelorus Jack delighted tourists on Te Ara¹⁹ (film clip)

Updated August, 2020

Story by: Joy Stephens