Radio Hauraki’s Ship Tiri Wrecked

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31589, 29 January 1968, Page 1

Radio Hauraki’s Ship Tiri Wrecked

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, January 28.

Thousands of Radio Hauraki fans listened to their favourite radio station with their hearts in their mouths late on Saturday night when the pirate broadcasting ship sent out a Mayday call and then drifted on to rocks on Great Barrier Island.

After an all-night drama that started at 11.16 p.m. with the first distress call from the stricken ship, the Tiri lay wallowing on the rocks today its back apparently broken and all hopes of salvage abandoned.

There was about five feet of water in the bottom, and big timbers which had been ripped away when the boat hit the rocks were being tossed about in the swell.

All day Saturday the Tiri had been taking part in a search for a man who fell overboard from a launch anchored in the island’s Naval Cove Bay.

According to crew members they left the search area about 5 p.m. and started to make their way back.

But by the time they reached Great Barrier it was too dark to find their moorings so they decided to cruise until daylight. The newly-reconditioned engine began to falter. The water pump broke down and the ship started to drift helplessly toward the treacherous rocks half-way between Okupu and Tryphena.

The crew worked frantically to get the engine going with makeshift repairs carried out by the skipper, Mr Lloyd Griffiths. Listeners were shocked as the call went out: “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is the Tiri. We are drifting on to rocks at the entrance to Whangaparapara Harbour. Would anyone' listening to this broadcast get in touch with Musick Point radio station.”

People from as far away as Wellington responded almost immediately to the message and the Musick Point station was inundated with telephone calls. Some Hope

Meanwhile there was a brief moment of hope as the Tiri started to drift clear. But then came the sound of banging and smashing as the ship pounded on the rocks again and stayed there.

The tired and bedraggled crew of seven abandoned ship and scrambled ashore on to a narrow beach.

Apart from Mr Griffiths they were Paul Lineham, r disc jockey, Graeme Parsonage, a news announcer, Ross Ferguson, aged 20, a student acting as deckhand, Derek King, aged 21, assistant radio technician and cook, John S. Tremain, aged 20, radio technician, and the Samoan cook, John Moafua. With only the clothes they stood up in they spent the rest of the night huddled round a fire watching helplessly as their ship was battered by the surf. But within minutes of the Mayday call help was on its way. The first man on the s-ene was Mr C. A. Gibbs, a local fisherman and owner of the Tryphena store at Shoal Bay. Another Launch He arrived in his launch, Marauder, about 15 minutes after the first distress message and was soon joined by a yacht, another launch and the fisheries protection vessel Kahawai, which was berthed at Tryphena. Mr Gibbs said the other launch and the yacht could not get very close to the Tiri. He managed to get a line on

board and tried to tow her off, but failed. “Then the Kahawai arrived and tried to give it a tow,” he said, “but the rope gradually swung them toward the rocks and they thought they’d hit. “So they called out to me to give them a tow but then their line to the Tiri got caught in one of their screws and they had to abandon the attempt.” Navy Minesweeper Then the Royal New Zealand Navy minesweeper Inverell arrived and Mr Gibbs went back to Shoal Bay to wait for the managing director of Radio Hauraki, Mr D. J. Gapes, who flew out from Auckland with other staff members.

Mr Gapes looked worried when he arrived at Mechanics Bay shortly before 5 a.m. “It’s not the boat so much as the equipment,” he said. "The Tiri is insured but the equipment is not covered.” He arrived on the scene in the Marauder about 6 a.m. to find the Inverell and the Kahawai still standing by waiting for a line from the Tiri. But even then it looked as though the ship was beyond help. With her bows facing sheer cliffs she was being mercilessly battered by the breakers and appeared to be jack-knifing as the swell lifted the stern. Tow Line Mr Griffiths and Mr Moafua were on board waiting to receive the tow line while the other five crew members were helpless bystanders on a strip of land barely 15 feet wide. Earlier they had been joined by a local policeman, Constable G. Mason, of Claris, and three other men, Mr J. Daly, of Claris, Mr A. D. McMahon, of Tryphena, and Mr J. Sykes, of Okupu. The four men had driven as far as possible over a rough track and then walked to the Tiri with hot drinks and food for the crew. They later took the crew back to Shoal Bay. Manouevring his boat skilfully in the heavy seas Mr Gibbs managed to pass a light line to the Tiri and then took it to the Inverell ready to take the tow rope. But the line was lost and the minesweeper had to send out one of its whalers with a new rope.

Meanwhile another launch, the Rossina, had arrived and sent out a dinghy rowed by 18-year-old lan Poole who ferried some of the Radio Hauraki staff from the Marauder to the Tiri. The trip out to the Tiri was made through seas up to 7ft high in places, with the Rossina bucking and slamming against the waves. Using a walkie-talkie they radioed reports back to Mr Gapes on the Marauder. ’Die news was bad.

The hull had been badly holed and the ship had already taken about sft of water. In the studio the water was about one foot deep and threatening the transmitting

and generating equipment. Fearing that the Tiri would sink if she was towed off Mr Gapes decided to abandon the attempt and concentrate on salvaging the equipment. He boarded the ship for a closer look shortly before the Marauder left. Mr Gibbs said later that unless the weather improved the Tiri would probably break up on the rocks.