The talk was about early Wellington history at Balaena Bay and the Norwegian sailor John Martin who set up a ferry and boat repair facility in the Bay about 1880. He ferried police and prisoners across Evans Bay to the Miramar peninsular, but earlier in 1867 he was a crewman on the "Rifleman" when it was seized by Te Kooti’s followers at the Chathams and sailed to the East Coast. Martin died in 1911 but his site had already been taken over by commercial boat builders whose activities continued until the 1950’s.