VANISHED SHIPS

Grey River Argus, 10 November 1931, Page 2

VANISHED SHIPS

N.Z. COAST MYSTERIES. TOLL OF LIFE. While little hope remains for the safety of the little motor vessel Kotiti memory goes back to the scores of either vessels, large and small, which left one New Zealand port for another and were never heard of again. Tie? Dominion’s maritime history contains all too many such cases, and the price that has been paid in human lives is tragically high In some instances wreckage has been washed up on the coast, bujt more often than not the vessel concerned has completely disappeared. leaving no clue as to her fate. With improvements in shipbuilding and the invention of wireless and other devices for safety at sea, the number of cases of vessels mysteriously disappearing while on shoqt. coastal trips is fortunately not nearly as heavy in these times as it was in the last century, but nevertheless there have been several such cases in recent years. In some instances well-found ships have vanished in clear weather and not even a spar ha s been picked up; in other ships which have apparently been swallowed up by the sea have been known to have encountered tempestuous. weather.

Sailing Vessels Disappear. In August, 1902, the Timaru, a barquentine of 354 jtons register, sailed out of Lyttelton bound for the Kaipara. On the 24th of the same month she was sighted off Kaikoura. but tha was the last' seen of her. She carried a crew of eleven. Then there was the case of the Constance Craig. In July, 1907, this vessel, a wellfound barque of 527 tons, left Gisborne for Hokianga, and she was seen ten miles off Hokianga Heads on July 26. When she failed ;to come into port it was thought that she had been blown off the land and would show up again at any time, but nothing more was heard of her, and she was eventually posted as missing. The brigantine Linda Weba (114 tons ) left Gi? borne ou March 23, 1901, in ballast for Hokianga. Three days later she was li spoken” off Tokomaru Bay. but that was the last -ever heard of her. She carried a crew of seven. ( Cases of smaller vessels disappearing on the coast are numerous. In 1865 the small paddle steamer City of Dunedin sailed out of Wellington for Hokitika, carrying fifteen passengeis. It is believed that she came to grief on Tom’s Rock, but no defini'e information is available on thpoint. In April, 1877, the brigantine Kate Brain (Captain Gay) cleared Timaru for Auckland with a crew of | six, but she never arrived there. Her fate is a mystery to this day. The schooner Poneke left Onehunga in

June, 1880, for Picton, but i? was her last voyage. One report says that j she was sighted as far south a s Greymouth. In November 1899. small schooner Wolverine, with a crew of seven, disappeared on a trip from Whangaroa to Bluff. She is supposed to have capsized off Cape Saunders. To give full details of all vessels which were never heard of af er setting out on a voyage up or down tht New Zealand coast would occupy a bock. In 1883 the 39-,ton schooner Wild Wave disappeared on a trip from Lyttelton to Pelorus Sound The Excelsior, a 92-ton schooner, was lost somewhere between ’Timaru ami Wellington early in. 1878. Six men disappeared wi f h the schooner Euphrosyne, which never reached Oamaru after leaving Dunedin in March. 1875. The schooner Awake left Dunedin for Greymouth in Augus,t. 1881, with a cargo of coal and never reached her destination. Four years previously the steamer Sir Donald had cleared Auckland for East Coast ports and had been lost with her crew of six.