The Wreck of the Wairarapa

Southland Times, Issue 13063, 10 November 1894, Page 2

The Wreck of the Wairarapa

(By Telegraph.) Auckland, Nov. 9. Among the passengers by the s-s. Monowai for Sydney were several survivors of the Wairarapa. MrF.A. Wallace,chemist,Christchurchwasnot drowned as supposed. He came by the Manapouri and left for the Lake country. The body of Mr Dryborough of Sydney is to be buried here and that of fireman Pratt is to be sent to Melbourne. The Northern Company’s steamer Wellington left with excursionists to-day for the wreck. Steaming away from Catherine Bay the Argyle passed round Miners' Head, and on the nor'-eastern side of that point, about a mile round, the wreck was sighted. Rounding a high bluff about half a mile beyond the Head, the steamer all at once came upon the Wairarapa. The scene and the surroundings were certainly appalling. Great bare cliff's towered up seven or eight hundred feet perpendicularly from the black-looking water, only a few stunted pohutukawa gaining a precarious footing here and there. Thia locality is certainly the wildest and most perilous on the whole island. The precipitous basaltic cliffs, coloured here and there with some sort of mineral veins, are inaccessible to even goats for miles around. All eyes were strained for a glimpse of the Wairarapa as the steamer rounded the bluff. At last she was seen, and an exclamation of amazement went up from all hands. Right in under the frowning cliffs lay the steamer, a mere pigmy compared with the mighty wall of rock at which she tilted. As the steamer approached closer and dropped her anchor in deep water a few hundred yards from the wreck, the one question was, “ How ever did anyone escape at all ?” If the Wairarapa had sought round the whole coast of the North I Jand she could havq discovered no more stupendous spot on which ts leave her bones, The steamer lay with her head pointing S. 3. E., canted over on her port or seaward side at an angle of 45 degrees. Her head was jammed close in under the cliff, right below which she lay apparently firmly wedged on the rocks. A stray goat on the sky-line, 800 feet above the water level, was the only sign of life, and the once fine steamer was dwarfed into the relative size of a toy yacht when compared with th? great cliff. On boarding the wreck, which was done on the starboard or landward side, it was seen that the vessel’s bow was pointed in the direction of a nook or cave which ran in

under the cliff, end the piece where she first struck the cliff could be plainly seen where some rock had been knocked off by the shock. A lamentable eight of wreck met the eyes of the party as they clambered up on to the steamer’s forecastle head, the only dry part. It being low water, the starboard side was out of the water, but the swell every now and again sent showers of spray over tho ship (though it was calm weather), and roared through the lost ship with a noise as of thunder. It was seen that the standing rigging and stays stood firm, and both masts were intact, even to the gilt trucks which glittered at the mastheads. The four hatches were off and the ship was full of water. The sea had made a clean sweep of everything between the foremast and mainmast, bridge, deckhouses, funnel and everything being gone, only a couple of engine-room ventilators were left standing. On the starboard side the bow was within four yards of the ledge of rocks on which the passengers landed, the steamer being quite firmly fixed by the rocks through her bottom. After a lot of trouble the forecastle decking was cut through, and one after another 83 bags of mails were hauled out and sent off to the Argyle. The ship’s bell was taken away, as a mournful relic, and the party then returned to the Argyle,—-Auckland Star.