Māori prisoners captured at Rangiriri

Maori prisoners captured at Rangiriri, from the Illustrated London News, February 1864.

This illustration supposedly shows Māori prisoners waiting to be placed on board HMS Pioneer. However the Pioneer was a paddle-steamer; this is the steamer Corio. The Illustrated London News acknowledged this mistake three issues later.

The British took 183 Kingite warriors prisoner at Rangiriri. These men were initially held in the the prison hulk Marion on Auckland Harbour before being transferred to Kawau Island, in the Hauraki Gulf north of Auckland. On 11 September 1864 they escaped to the mainland near Warkworth before eventually making their way home to Waikato unmolested.