Mines Off The Coast Brought War To N.Z.

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32394, 5 September 1970, Page 6

Mines Off The Coast Brought War To N.Z.

(By

J. F. ALLAN)

In the course of two world wars, New Zealand suffered only four successful attacks by the King’s enemies. All four invoked the sinking of ships, and the loss of lives around this country’s coastline. By far the most famous of the four ships was the Union Steam Ship Company’s transpacific liner Niagara, which went down in the Hauraki Gulf in the early hours of June 19, 1940. The less well-known losses, Port Kembla in 1917, Wimmera in 1918, and H.M.N.Z.S. Puriri in 1941, all served to illustrate the vulnerability of this country to offensive mining. The initial sinkings in each conflict also showed how easy it is for mines to be laid in complete secrecy, both before and after the event, until the first ship goes down. The situation was similar in Australia, where in the First World War mines claimed the Federal steamer Cumberland in July 1917. And in 1940, the Cambridge, City of Rayville, and Nimbin were lost on mines laid by German raiders, and the Hertford was badly damaged.

Another sad loss in 1940 was that of the Australian minesweeper Goorangay, which was in collision with a merchantman. The minesweeper was lost, together with her entire ship’s company of 24 officers and men of the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. Taken To Nelson The first indication of enemy activity off the New Zealand coast was the explosion which rocked the Port Kembla at one o’clock in the morning of September 18, 1917, when she was off Cape Farewell whilst on passage from Melbourne to Wellington. The ship sank in half an hour.

There was time to launch only two boats, and indeed the master and two of his officers were in the water for half an hour before being picked up by the ship’s boats. About 6.30 a.m. the boats were sighted by the Anchor Shipping Company’s steamer Regulus, which took the 59 survivors on board and towed the two boats to Nelson. It was thought that the blast had been caused by an internal explosion, presumed due to a bomb put on board in Melbourne, and the inquiry into the loss accepted this explanation. But it subsequently came to light that the German raider W'olf had laid mines in the area. In fact some of the crew of the Port Kembla claimed that they heard the noise of machinery during the silent hours, which might have been the Wolfs mine-laying equipment.

All Saved

No lives were lost, and the survivors were given a tumultuous welcome by the people of Nelson when they landed, so great was interest in the sinking. The First World War had then ran its course for three years, and no-one in New Zealand dreamed that it would ever come quite so close to home.

But the Wolf had other ideas, and another of her mines laid off North Cape claimed the Wimmera, June 26, 1918, whilst on passage from Auckland to Sydney. Her passengers and crew were not so fortunate as those of the Port Kembla, as 26 lives were lost, including that of the master. Captain Kells. The master was subsequently criticised for taking his ship into an area in which 11 mines had already been swept, the Wolf being known to have spent some time off this coastline. All ships had been warned to keep well to seaward of the normal shipping lanes, but Captain Kells apparently took this instruction too lightly. The Niagara The war ended in 1918, and soon after the Niagara made her first major headlines. She was blamed for bringing the greatest influenza epidemic in the history of New Zealand. A total of 6700 deaths was recorded. The first impact of this world-wide epidemic was felt in Auckland after the arrival from overseas of die Niagara.

When she berthed she carried about 100 sick. But she also had on board the Prime Minister, the Hon. W. F. Massey, and his Minister of Finance, Sir Joseph Ward. Possibly because of the presence of these important personages, the authorities were influenced to grant a clearance to the ship, when its entire complement should have been held in strict quarantine.

During the inter-war years, the Niagara was employed on the Vancouver mail service. She was outward bound for Suva, Honolulu, and Vancouver in June, 1940, when she met her end. As midnight approached, th r Niagara’s master. Captain W. Martin, must have weighed his chances of meeting a German raider. It was known that some raiders had sailed, and thinking back to the First World War, Captain Martin would recollect the losses they had inflicted, and the strain they had imposed on the Royal Navy, by prosecuting their policy of disorganising British shipping by sudden appearances at widely separated points. The vast spaces of the Tasman and Pacific oceans were ideal hunting grounds. During the war the Orion, Komet, Pinguin and her captured auxiliary Passat, were to raid with success in these seas.

The raider Orion anproached New Zealand direct from Cape Horn on the night of June 13/14, 1940. Screened by the early dusk of mid-winter, she entered the Bay of Plenty and laid barriers of mines across the eastern and northern approaches to the Hauraki Gulf.

According to German sources, she sighted a cruiser which entered harbour during the night (probably the Achilles), but was not herself seen. Having laid 228 mines, Orion made off at full speed into the Pacific. Whilst Captain Martin knew nothing of this, he had good cause to be concerned not only for the safety of his ship, but also at the crisis in Europe. And he had better cause to realise the seriousness of this crisis than all New Zealanders who slept warmly in their beds that night, half a world away from the war zone. For the Niagara had in her hold about one half of the total New Zealand stock of small arms ammunition, which was being sent to England, so acute was the post-Dunkirk shortage.

Paris had fallen on June 14. just four days before the Niagara sailed, and FrenchGerman armistice negotiations were proceeding as Auckland slipped astern in the small hours of a winter morning. The war was at its worst for Britain and her Allies, which did not then include the United States. However, the United States was a vital source of war material, and to pay for some of this, the Niagara carried also

gold, to the value of £2,500,000, which belonged to the Bank of England. Captain Martin, of all the people in New Zealand who listened to the 8.8. C. broadcasts of these dark days, understood the full gravity of the situation. He knew his ship carried in full measure the two elements upon which the strength of any nation at war depend: gold and lead. He knew the high hopes that went with a safe voyage for the Niagara. Salvage Feat In the event, the recovery of 94 per cent of the gold, from deep inside a big ship sunk at a greater depth than salvage operations had ever been carried out before, was a ijiost remarkable feat It was carried out by two divers, the brothers J. and W. Johnstone, working from the 260-ton Claymore, a ship built in 1902, and taken off the mud of Auckland harbour for the purpose. In April 1953, prompted by the increasing value of gold, the diving team tried again. Working from the salvage craft Foremost 17, they met with more success, and eventually only five bars of gold, out of the original 590, were left on the sea floor.

If Captain Martin’s worst fears were realised on that winter morning, when shortly before 4 a.m. a mighty explosion rocked his ship, he and his ship’s company were more than equal to the emergency.

Distress signals were sent, reporting first an explosion in one of the Niagara’s forward holds, and next that her engines were disabled, the hold flooded, and the ship sinking. In calm weather all the 136 passengers and 200 crew got safely away in the ship’s lifeboats before she sank at 5.32 a.m.

"It was a wonderful show” declared the Captain after his rescue. “Everything went like clockwork right from the start. Officers and crew, to the last man, did their job, and acted in the finest traditions of the sea.” Sank Quickly Nevertheless, the ship settled so fast that passengers left wrapping coats over their night attire. Some of the crew had to escape hurriedly, and one fireman, Mr J. C. Murray, was so intent on his duties that he reached the deck after all the boats had left. When his plight was noticed, one speedily returned to take him off the sinking ship. The eighteen boats kept together, and were sighted at 8 a.m. by H.M.N.Z.S. .Achilles, which had steamed at full speed from Auckland. The Wanganella, inward bound from Sydney, also stood by, but owing to the presence of a minefield both these ships lay off at a safe distance.

It was not until 11 a.m. that the coaster Kapiti, and a number of launches, transferred all the passengers and crew to the Wanganella.

Casualties were limited to one woman with an egg-sized contusion on her head, where it had hit the head of her bed when the mine blew up: one man with a cut on his head; two sprained ankles, and several women suffering from shock.

Unhurt, and apparently undismayed, was an 84-year old passenger who was on a voyage for the good of his health!

During the morning, minesweepers disposed of two mines in the vicinity, and on June 23 the steamer Waitotira cut another mine adrift with her paravane. It was not until April, 1941,

that a concerted effort was made to clear the minefield, and it was in this operation that H.M.N.Z.S. Puriri was lost, with five fatal casualties. By September, 131 mines had been accounted for. The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, calmed the country with his assurance that “though it may be necessary to place restrictions on shipping for a sufficient period to enable all danger to be removed, there is no cause whatever for public alarm or uneasiness.” But in Australia, before the end of 1940, the Minister for the Army, Mr P. Spender, was taking a different line. “Perhaps Hitler rendered us, unwittingly, a service when he blew up a few ships on our doorsteps. He told complacent Australians that the war was in Bass Strait." The lesson will not have been wasted if, in any future conflict. New Zealand and Australia are prepared for mining attacks in both Cook Strait and Bass Strait

The photographs of the Wimmera and the crowd at Nelson greeting the survivors of the Port Kembla are reproduced by courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library. The photograph of the Niagara was lent by the Union Steam Ship Company.