REOCCUPATION OF RIPA ISLAND

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21865, 19 August 1936, Page 10

REOCCUPATION OF RIPA ISLAND

Departmental Use For Stores MEMORY OF RUSSIAN SCARE [From Our Parliamentary Reporter] WELLINGTON, August 18. Reports which are current in Christchurch that the Defence Department had reoccupied Ripa Island in Lyttelton harbour were confirmed this evening by the Minister for Defence, the Hon. F. Jones. The island, which has been leased privately for some years, will be used for storage. Mr Jones said that it was true that the department was again taking oyer the occupation of the island. The existing buildings would be repaired and renovated and the wharf built between the island and the mainland. The accommodation would be used for certain stores of the department.

-Fort Jervois. on Ripa Island, perpetuates for the South Island the memory of the “Russian scare” of 1883. Its establishment caused - umours at the time* that it was a means of defence for Christchurch itself. Far from, that, obviously, it was only a logical means of protection for the harbour. The existence of a fort there held little significance again until August. 1914.

On August 3, a set of public traffic regulations governing the admission of shipping to Lyttelton Harbour was announced. They were drawn up by Colonel C. J. Cooper, officer commanding the Coast Defence troops, and Mr Cyrus J. R. Williams, secretary to the Lytteltcn Harbour Board, and came into force cn the following night. No. 4 Company of the New Zealand Garrison Artillery was mobilised at Lyttelton on August 5; they went to the island on the same day. '

All vessels entering the harbour were examined, and the Cygnet was chosen as the examination steamer. Ihe officers who carried out the duties under instructions from the Defence Department were the Harbour Board’s two pilots. Captain Hunter and Captain Crawford. There were arrangements that all vessels approaching the harbour should be stopped by the Cygnet. A thorough examination was made, and if the authorities were satisfied, they gave to the vessel a coded signal which would take it past Fort Jervois and give -it access to the inner harbour. On leaving Lyttelton steamers were given another coded signal to clear the heads. Those were the daytime precautions. After nightfall, any vessel which passed the examination of the authorities was allowed to .proceed inwards or outwards with a lamp on the mast. The Wahine was the first vessel affected by the regulations. She left Lyttelton at 8.35 p.m. bn August 4, carrying a red lamp at her foremast. Shot Across Bows The first shot was fired from Fort Jervois on the morning of August 5. A coastal steamer, the Wakatu, entered the harbour without first waiting for examination from the Cygnst.. -When.the. Wakatu was sighted from the Harbour Board’s signal station at Ad-' derley Head, she was signalled , in Morse to wait for the Cygnet. No notice was taken; the Wakatu came straight into the harbour. She was ■abreast of Ripa Island when the defence authorities saw that she flew ho signals. There was no indication that she had been cleared by the Gygnet. A shot was fired across her bows. The Wakatu continued on her course. Since no other shots were fired, she reached Lyttelton without further incident. Colonel Cooper, in charge of the fort, asked the Customs to retain the Wakatu until a satisfactory explanation of the disregard for the signals was given. Captain Wills later gave an explanation v,finch Colonel Cooper accepted. The vessel was allowed to be cleared and to depart. The guns on the fort were of fixed armament type, anchored in concrete. There were two Bin -guns, and the same number of 6in. These were on disappearing mounts, and had been specially constructed by Armstrong for the fort, which required guns suitable to a low sight battery; The fort was in effect a usual kind of battery commander’s station. There were the necessary range finders and other equipment of a control position. ' Beside those guns, were two 1 six-pounders, Nordenfeldt qiiick-firers. It was those guns which were used for firing across "the bows of disregardful vessels, since they did not use expensive ammunition. A barracks was established on the island, which had also tremendous capacity for .the storage of ammunition. The guns are still in position, though they have been made useless by being stripped of parts. Their range was about 8800 yards—which makes their outmoded at the present time.

Ripa Island, too. must be associated always with the name of Count Felix von Luckner, commander of the notorious raiding ship the Seeadler. After his ship was wrecked, von Luckner was captured and imprisoned on Motuihi Island, in the Waitemata harbour. From there he made his famous escape m the scow Moa. He was recaptured again at the Kermadec Islands, and his second term of incarceration was at Fort Jervois. He remained there until the Armistice occupying part cf the officers’ quarters.

The island’s commission as a post of defence lapsed within a year or two of the end of the war. Until recently it was leased privately, and has been used at times as a yachting base by Lyttelton, residents. It is bound up also with the annals of the Lytteltcai Naval Reserve, which at one time went there for training.