An ill-fated figurehead

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 17

An ill-fated figurehead

She gazes down from her lofty position in the Shipping Hall with a haughty and regal air. Once her royal stare was towards the great oceans of the world whose waters had often dowsed her splendid robes and whose winds had unsuccessfully tried to disturb her posture. She was monarch of all she surveyed. Sadly, her domain now is that of ship models and sub-Antarctic diaramas.

A product of a master carver’s skill, she is Queen Victoria in wood and once she graced the bow of the 1317-ton iron barque Derry Castle. It is unusual to use a likeness of a living person for a ship’s figurehead; to use a living Queen is almost unheard of.

The Derry Castle came from the yards of Dobbie and Co., of Glasgow in 1883 and was owned by F. Spaight and Sons of Liverpool, which employed the vessel in the Australian wheat trade. March 20 found her under the command of Captain Golfe, nine days out of Melbourne heading for Falmouth, her ample holds filled with the golden grain. At 2 a.m., while travelling at a good 12 knots through hazy weather, the Derry Castle struck the most northern tip of Enderby Island at the northern end of the Auckland Island group. Her bows passed over the reef but her stern held fast \

Within minutes the vessel broke in two, and the hapless crew of 23 were thrown into the raging sea. A distance of 200 yards separated them from the shore but so bad were the conditions that only eight men struggled to safety. The master and two mates were among the 15 who perished. Bleak indeed was the plight of the survivors. Wet, poorly clothed, no food or shelter at the beginning of the sub-Antarctic winter, was a situation that few could expect to survive. Hope was raised by the finding of an empty hut on the other side of the island. This was followed by the finding of some matches which, to their profound disappointment, failed to strike. Then, almost as a miracle, one survivor, James McGhie, found a revolver cartridge in his jacket pocket. This was to prove to be the means of their salvation. Exploding the cartridge provided the much needed fire which was never allowed to die out for the 92 days they stayed on Enderby. Wheat washing ashore from the wreck provided food. It was pounded into a slurry and mixed with shell fish.

The bodies of their dead shipmates were buried in a mass grave

By

BADEN NORRIS

as they were washed ashore, and various pieces of the wreck placed over them. From the southern end of the island the Castaway Depot at Port Ross, on the main island, could clearly be seen by the crew, a tantalising six kilometres away. A lucky find of an iron axe head provided the means of crossing the gap and effecting their escape from slow starvation. Timber found on the shore from the wreck was carried across the island to Sandy Bay where it was fashioned, with the aid of the axe, into a punt. After caulking the seams with rope yarn, the eight men were ferried across to the comfort of the depot at Erebus Cove, Port Ross, three months after the tragic loss of their ship. On July 19, 1887, the sealer Awarua, in search of a ship’s boat left in the area some time previously, arrived and rescued the Derry Castle’s survivors. It was a lucky chance indeed. Some time later Captain Fairchild of the Government steamer Hinemoa recovered the Queen Victoria figurehead from the shore and placed it over the grave of the seaman. On subsequent visits to Enderby he had the figurehead cleaned and painted. Showing signs of deterioration and its age, the life-sized bust was recovered at the end of the Second World War and was presented to the Canterbury Museum by the Government in 1945. The wooden head board, the punt, and several other items recovered from the wreck site, have now been collected and stored in the old boat shed at Erebus Cove.

The iron axe head which played a major role in this story was found by an expedition to Enderby in 1945 and was presented to the Southland Museum.

It seems to me that the subAntarctic’s story and its ship wrecks would be better served if the many relics taken from the area were housed in one repository. I believe that this should be the Canterbury Museum where they would join an already impressive collection.

Prized above all is the figurehead of the Derry Castle.