WRECK OF THE WAIRARAPA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20786, 22 July 1937, Page 5

WRECK OF THE WAIRARAPA

TRAGEDY RECALLED TWO SURVIVORS IN SOUTH CANTERBURY The good health of at least two men in South Canterbury contradicts a recent telegram from the North Island that what was believed to be the last of the survivors of the wreck of the ship Walrarapa in 1894, had passed away. The two South Canterbury survivors (and there may be more) are Messrs J. H. Willmott, of Melton Street, Timaru, and Richard Neil, of Pareora. They were brass-boy and storeman respectively on the Wairarapa, the wreck of which on the Great Bamer Island represented one of the major tragedies in the history of New Zealand shipping. Of the total of 251 persons on board, 121 were drowned.

‘‘lt was midnight, and in a fog as thick as pea soup, when we struck the reef,” stated Mr Willmott, in an interview yesterday. “There was a heavy ground swell, which soon pounded to pieces what had been the commodore ship of the Union Company’s fl-et. "The Wairarapa tilted sideways and put out of action the lifeboats on the lower side. Many persons were swirled off the slippery, sloping decks t and the disorder became more tragic when a consignment of horses, let loose by a man who had lost his head, scrambled among the passengers on the deck, knocking many into the water. The horses slipped into the sea. but returned to the ship after failing to find a landing place under the high cliffs a chain or two away. All the horses were drowned.’’ Mr Willmott was w’ashed overboard, but managed to support himself by means of two of the hundreds of cases of oranges which floated away from the ship. He was later picked up by one of the ship’s rafts, and when daylight came he was taken on board one of the lifeboats.

After great difficulty a line was taken ashore, and those left on board ship were safely landed by being pulled through the water, with the exception of two women passengers who lost their hold on the rope and were sw'ept away. After being on the rocks for over 30 hours, with nothing more sustaining than a few cases of oranges which had been washed ashore from the wreck, the survivors were discovered by some Maoris in boats and taken to Catherine Bay. The many heroic actions of the passengers on that tragic night have not erased from Mr Willmott’s mind, one incident in which heroism was not particularly marked. On the raft which rescued Mr Willmott was a ship’s engineer who had lost all his clothing. Immediately a girl slipped off her petticoat and handed it to the engineer, but the latter received no clothing whatever from a minister of a church, who was in full regalia. “When we were safely on land the parson called for us to go down on our knees in thankfulness for our salvation, but the group turned their backs on him and walked away,’’ said Mr Willmott.

Mr Willmott has had considerable experience at sea, and after the wreck of the Wairarapa he transferred to her sister ship, the Manapourl, and then served for two years in the Monowai, in the Sydney-Auckland-San Francisco service.