THE WRECK OF H.M.S. ORPHEUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15094, 10 September 1912, Page 8

THE WRECK OF H.M.S. ORPHEUS.

DEATH OF LAST SURVIVING OFFICER. The death (says the London Times) has just occurred, at the age of 67, of Mr. Charles George Brooke-Hunt, the last surviving officer of H.M.S. Orpheus, which was wrecked on the west coast of New Zealand in February, 1863. The Orpheus was a steam corvette of 21 guns and 1706 tons. She was making a round of the stations under Commander Burnett when she ran on the bar of", the harbour at Manukau and became a, total wreck,. with the loss of her commander, 23 officers, and 166 sailors. Royal Marines and boys. Seventy members of the crew were rescued, the majority by the men of the Wonga-Wonga, a small steamer, whose captain on arrival found heavy seas breaking clear over the Orpheus half-way up the rigging. All the officers and men had climbed on to th» rigging, the commander, with his young officers, being in the mizzen>top. As the flood-tide rose the maeta fell one by one.. Those who sought refuge in the tops were heard cheering and encouraging each other as. they fell. Fragments of spars and large masses of ; wreck were earned inshore by the tide with some members of the crew clinging to them in the last state of exhaustion, * °'