Having two books on the go is part of Dr Trevor Bentley’s usual work process, knocking out a book every two years on average.

With each themed historical tome also taking around two years of research, the Pāpāmoa author and historian has been able to dig up some of the most interesting and important events in Tauranga’s past, many of which took place before its occupation by British and colonial forces.

His latest book, Early Maritime Tauranga, number nine in his body of work, has 370 pages, eight sections, and 42 chapters. And this is just the first of two volumes, richly illustrated with old sketches, paintings, and photographs.

For hundreds of years, daring Polynesian migrant-settlers and resident iwi plied the harbour waters and seas of Tauranga Moana in a variety of waka.

Starting with the voyaging canoes and then the Māori wakas, Trevor’s book covers a history of the vessels, visitors, residents and events in Tauranga’s early maritime period from the 1200s to the1860s.

He provides a colourful account of the voyaging, war, utility and dugout canoes, before diving into the first interactions with Pākehā from 1760 to 1827. The book brings to life shipwrecks and castaways, raids and boat building.

“Tauranga had a reputation of no ships being attacked. It was a busy whaling port from 1790 – 1840s. No one was living here then, and missionaries didn’t want anything to do with whalers.”

Pirates and the old whaling days, Captain Cook, Dumont d’Urville’s Astrolabe, and then the turbulent 1820s, are all covered in 10 fascinating chapters.

The 1830s arrive and with that decade we read about the intertribal musket warfare, the missionary peacemakers and the resident traders.

Following this is a section titled The Treaty Decade, with the book ending with a section on the shipping trade from the 1840s to 1864.

“We had lots of pirates hiding here,” says Trevor, a long-term member of the NZ Military Historical Society.

He recounts the tale of Australian convicts stealing a ship and the musket wars‘ effect on locals.

Tauranga’s seas and harbour waters are central in any historical account of its past – the zones where much of its history has been made and remade.

To support this, Trevor, who has a PhD in New Zealand history, has donated 20 books to Pāpāmoa College.

A former secondary teacher, Trevor taught history for 25 years and was head of a social studies department.

“I love teaching history and finally got a chance to write full time.”

Early Maritime Tauranga is a fascinating history that not only covers the period of Polynesian migrants but also is the story of visiting European explorers, whaling skippers, pirates, sea traders, hydrographers, shipwreck survivors, fugitive convicts and sailors.

Describing Tauranga’s seas, seagoing vessels and seafarers, it reflects the courage and seamanship of the captains and crews of Tauranga’s trading fleets.

His next book, volume two in this series, is titled Māori sailors on Euro-American whalers 1790 – 1900.

After that, he’s writing a book covering the Pacific slave trade in the 1860s and 70s.

Early Maritime Tauranga is a must-read and provides a well-researched record of Tauranga’s pre-colonial, seafaring past.