Thomas Coop (1838 - 1924) emigrated from England to Australia with his parents and siblings in 1853, arriving there not long before his 15th birthday. Thomas worked in a variety of jobs in Australia including gold puddling and pit-sawing before coming to New Zealand in 1861. In 1861, Thomas was at Gabriel's Gully; the same year as the outbreak of the Gabriel’s Gully goldrush. From Gabriel's Gully, Thomas went to the Cromwell area where he was engaged in timber cutting (pit-sawing); returning to Australia briefly in June 1862.
You can read more about Thomas' family background here and more about Thomas' life in Australia and New Zealand here and here.
In 1862, Thomas was engaged to travel back to Victoria to bring back a consignment of horses to New Zealand. The means by which he delivered them is what prompted the family story that Thomas swam to New Zealand.
It appears that the story about Thomas swimming to New Zealand was started by Thomas' daughter, Sarah Jane [Coop] Sheehy (1874 - 1959) when she jokingly commented in an interview for an article written by Keith Cree in The Weekly News of May 1957[1], that her father swam to New Zealand:
' "My father swam to New Zealand" she remarked, with a twinkle in her eye as she watched for my reactions. "That was a hundred years ago" '
'The man who swam to New Zealand was Thomas Coop, who, born in 1838, came with his parents to Australia. In his early twenties he was engaged to bring a consignment of horses from Victoria to this country and landed at a spot near Waikouaiti. The horses were dumped overboard and made their own way to shore for there was no wharf. Coop followed them by diving into the sea and swimming to shore. That was how he swam to New Zealand'.
Waikouaiti is on the East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, north of Dunedin:
[2] Article: 'Mr Thomas Coop' (p.698) from: Cyclopedia Company Ltd., 1905 The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts] The Cyclopedia Company Ltd., Christchurch via the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington [Website]. Accessed 7 December 2022: https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d5-d51-d15.html
[3] The intention of the Cyclopedia Company Ltd. was to record information about the settlement and progress of the Colony. The publication favoured those individuals who could afford to pay for inclusion and entries were generally from the memory and perspective of the person featured in them. See: 'The Cyclopedia of New Zealand' via the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington [Website]. Accessed 7 December 2022: https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-cyclopedia.html
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| Thomas Coop (1838-1924) |
It appears that the story about Thomas swimming to New Zealand was started by Thomas' daughter, Sarah Jane [Coop] Sheehy (1874 - 1959) when she jokingly commented in an interview for an article written by Keith Cree in The Weekly News of May 1957[1], that her father swam to New Zealand:
As the reporter, Keith Cree, goes on to explain in his article, when Thomas returned to New Zealand with the horses, there was no wharf at Waikouaiti at which to land the horses. The horses were put over the side to swim to shore. Thomas joined them in the water and swam to shore with them; hence Sarah’s comment that her father swam to New Zealand:
Sarah's account, as reported by Keith Cree, suggests that Thomas was in his early 20's and that the incident occurred about 100 years before the 1957 article, so about 1857. Thomas would have turned 20 in 1858. It is more likely that it was 95 years before the article that Thomas swam the horses ashore. That is, in 1862 when he was 24 years old. This would fit with the account about Thomas in The Cyclopedia of New Zealand[2], which would have been based on information from Thomas himself[3].
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| Location of Waikouaiti relative to Dunedin on a modern map Photo from: ©Google Maps |
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| Waikouaiti and coastline Photo from: ©Google Earth |
N.B. I have now moved by blogging efforts from this platform to We Are.xyz so that I can integrate building my family history archive with blogging. This post, or a similar version of it, can be found at: How Thomas Coop 'Swam' to New Zealand
Notes
[1] Article: Keith Cree 'Her father Swam to New Zealand' in The Weekly News (Auckland) May 1957 Copy held by Author.[2] Article: 'Mr Thomas Coop' (p.698) from: Cyclopedia Company Ltd., 1905 The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts] The Cyclopedia Company Ltd., Christchurch via the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington [Website]. Accessed 7 December 2022: https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Cyc04Cycl-t1-body1-d5-d51-d15.html
[3] The intention of the Cyclopedia Company Ltd. was to record information about the settlement and progress of the Colony. The publication favoured those individuals who could afford to pay for inclusion and entries were generally from the memory and perspective of the person featured in them. See: 'The Cyclopedia of New Zealand' via the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington [Website]. Accessed 7 December 2022: https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-corpus-cyclopedia.html
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