A MAP OF MANY WRECKS

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 21

A MAP OF MANY WRECKS

(By "Martingale.")

TWENTY TEAES OP SPAKE- TIME KESEAECH

Twenty years of spare-time work have been barely sufficient to enable Mr. Frederick J. Halse, of Wadestown, to complete a task which he set himself in middle-age. His most enjoyable hobby during these past two decades has been collecting data of wrecks on the Dominion coast; hundreds of them. And now, as the result of this difficult labour, he has a chart which contains the names and dates of all the traceable disasters of New Zealand's marine history. There is probably no other record so comprehensive as this; even the official records of the Marine Department probably lack details which Mr. Halse has unearthed.

From the earliest tragedy, that of the Boyd in December, 1809, to the loss of the Kotiti in 1931, Mr. Halse has a list that is unique and one which would be well worth placing in, say, the Wellington Central Library or the National Museum (when it is completed). This chart is something more than a mere map covered with names of now almost forgotten ships; it is a work of art upon which hours of careful penmanship have been spent. Mr. Halse was for many years attached to the Lands and Survey Department in Wellington as a surveyor, and he has seen this city grow up from a mere scattering of houses along the waterfront to what it is today. He has never been to sea in the accepted] sense of that term, but he has always kept a weather eye on the doings of sailors and ships, and in the days of the old Government steamers Hinemoa and Stella he often toured around the New Zealand coast. In that way he came into possession of a great deal of information which has proved of material assistance to him in compiling his chart. A long time ago he began his collection of wrecks on a small map, but complexities set in as his fund of information grew. So he decided to begin again. He prepared a fresh map about 2Jft x 3Jft in size and upon it set down. only the essentials of topographical detail. Then he added the names of the wrecks he had unearthed from the muddle of New Zealand's maritime past. Tod*y he has more than 500 names on his chart, each giving the date of the disaster concerned and the numbers of lives lost, if any. So many wrecks have happened on some parts of the coast—such as near Greymouth, Hokitika, Cook Strait, Kaipara, Foveaux Strait, Timaru, and Oamaru—that Mr. Halse has been obliged to set them out ;) in columns some distance away from the actual place on the map where the disasters took place. In and about Cook Strait, for instance, about a hundred wrecks are recorded. The earliest date Mr. Halse has noted is September, 1795, beside the name of the ship Endeavour in Facile Harbour, Dusky Sound. This can scarcely be termed a wreck, however, as the ship was deliberately run on' shore and scuttled. Next comes the disaster to the Boyd. in December, 1809, when 70 people were massacred at Whangaroa and the ship burnt. This tragedy ranks fifth among New Zealand marine casualties for its toll, OfTh Ven'there is the loss of the Active in 1814; this took place south of Hokitika, near to the Awarua River.The hull of the vessel is reported to be Taylor in his "Te Ika a Mam," publish Pd in 1870. He records the fact Sat'a Nelson paper of September, 58. stated that the hull of the ship was then lying 200 yards from highwater mark with a small tree growing through it. These details were quoted by the Rev. Mr. Taylor to show how

earthquakes had affected the West Coast. Then again, Mr. Halse has unearthed the interesting, and probably unheard of (by most people) information that the Government schooner Victoria was wrecked at Lake .Wakatipu on January 4, 1868. This is the only wreck of a large ship that has occurred on New Zealand's inland seas. As far as Wellington is concerned, Mr. Halse states, only fourteen wrecks have happened within the harbour entrance. TheSe range from the loss of the- ship Inconstant (later Noah's Ark) in 1842 until 1921. Palliser Bay also has fourteen wrecks to its discredit, from the ship Elbe in December, 1841, to the ketch Rona in 1909. As for Cook Strait, that area on the chart is a mass of names and dates in red ink. Some of the earliest wrecks in and about Wellington are those of the schooner Waterloo, at Waikanae, in October, 1833, the schooner John Dunscombe, at Kapiti Island, on May 5, 1840, the schooner Phoenix, outside French Pass, in 1842, and the barque Vittoria, at Farewell Spit, on February 29, 1840. Other old wrecks are those of the ship Brampton and the brig Queen Charlotte at the Bay of Islands in 1823, the ship Betsy, at Taku Bay, North Auckland, on October 29, 1815, in which 11 lives .were lost, the brig Mercury at Whangaroa on March 3.. 1825, the schooner Enterprise, at Hoki-1

anga, in April, 1828, the schooner Regina, off New Plymouth, on November 5, 1841, and the brig Harriet near the Okahu River, on April 29, 1834, with 12 people lost. There is a wonderful wealth of story in the mere recital of these names, from the Boyd massacre in 1809 to the losses ■of the steamers Manuka, in 1929, and Kotiti in 1931. Here indeed is New Zealand's maritime history in a nutshell. "It would be pretty hard for you to name a* boat I haven't got there," Mr. Halse said, and from the comprehensiveness of his collection it certainly seems as though he is right.