Worst of all wrecks

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 10

Worst of all wrecks

The Wreck of H.M.S. Orpheus. By Roy M. Hetherington. Cassell New Zealand. 157 pp. N.Z. price $6.95. H.M.S. Orpheus was wrecked at the entrance to Manukau Harbour on February 7, 1863. Of the ship’s complement of 258, 189 were drowned, making it the worst maritime disaster in New Zealand’s history. Mr Hetherington has compiled a full and interesting account of the wreck, allowing those concerned to tell their own stories. These include the signalman at Manukau Heads, the bosun of the Orpheus, who survived, reports by New Zealand officials, and excerpts from the New Zealand inquiry and the Admiralty inquiry. Of these quite the best is the account given by Signalman Wing. (He lived until 1930.) He describes seeing his signals ignored, and watching the warship run aground on the Middle Bank, where before long she began to break up.

Wing was in an isolated spot and could do nothing to help the Orpheus; nor could he summon help for this was long before the day of the telephone. There are confusions and con-

fltcts m some of the evidence presented, especialy in the proceedings of the Admiralty inquiry, but it is possible to form a fairly strong opinion on the cause of the wreck. Extracts from the “New Zealand Herald,” which include an account of the funeral of Captain W. F. Burnett, commodore of the Australasian naval station, show that the people of the young town of Auckland were deeply moved by this tragedy at their back door. Included in the appendices are a midshipman’s letter to friends in Tasmania, a poem by an anonymous Australian, and a so-called sidelight to the disaster. One wonders why. They seem to be of little interest or relevance. The final appendix is a list, in chronological order, of all New Zealand wrecks between 1800 and 1974, in which lives were lost. It is claimed to be an “authentic and complete record.” The entry for the collier Kaitawa says she was bound from Timaru to Whangarei, but in fact she sailed from Westport. The findings of the court of inquiry have been oversimplified and give a misleading impression of the cause of the disaster.