Invercargill Mayor Joseph Hatch’s vessel, ‘Gratitude’ which was wrecked on Macquarie Island in 1898, surrounded by Royal penguins. Southland’s penguin oil industry was started by Invercargill’s one-time mayor Joseph Hatch who was granted a licence to extract oil from royal penguins on Macquarie Island in 1891. Contrary to the popular rumour, the birds were not herded alive into the digester but clubbed and gutted first. In April 1891 one paper reported: “ Mr Hatch has a considerable industry on his hands in the Macquarie sea elephant and penguin oil business. He has a refinery at Invercargill where the oil, roughly prepared at the island, is filtered, and otherwise purified for use.
