RED AND BLACK FUNNELS: UNION SHIPWRECK LOSSES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 939, 8 December 1933, Page 6

RED AND BLACK FUNNELS: UNION SHIPWRECK LOSSES.

To-day’s Special Article.

Three Great Maritime Disasters: The Tararua, Wairarapa and Penguin.

Like all great shipping concerns, the Union Steam Ship Company, in the course of its fifty-eight years’ history, has had to pay toll to the sea. It would indeed be remarkable if a concern of its magnitude and length of service could claim a record unattended by tragedy. Within a few months of its formation in 1875, the young company had the misfortune to lose the steamer Bruce at Otago Heads, and down through the years the sea has periodically claimed units of the red-funelled fleet as its victims.

JN THE STORY of the losses suffered by the company, apart from those which occurred as the result of enemy action during the war, three wrecks stand out in lurid relief. Each was a tragedy which sent a wave of horror, not only throughout New Zealand, but also over th e greater part of the world. The first was the wreck of the Tararua on Otara Reef, Waipapa Point, in 1881, the second the loss of the Wairarapa on Miner’s Head, Great Barrier Island, some years later, and the third the disaster which befell the forty-five-year-old Penguin near Cape Terawhiti, Cook Strait, in 1909. Since the wreck of the Penguin no mishap that has come the way of the company has been attended by any heavy loss of life. Th© Tararua Disaster. Of 152 persons on board the Tararua (563 tons), when she crashed on to Otara Reef in thick weather shortly after 5 a.m. on April 29, 1881, only a score were saved. Although boats were quickly got into the water, difficulty was experienced in finding a landing place, and several of them capsized. The news of the disaster was taken ashore by a passenger, who bravely swam through the surf. Soon after the Tararua struck, waves were breaking over her deck, and a number of passengers and crew were washed overboard. In the evening, when there were still a number of the passengers and crew on the wrecked ship, the vessel btoke in half. A number of the passengers clung to the wreck, and during the night their pathetic calls for help could be heard from the shore. On the following morning the wreck had almost entirely disappeared. It was stated afterwards that ten minutes before the vessel struck. Captain Garrard went aft to verify his course by the standard compass, and that while he was doing so it as found that the ship was in a dangerous position. The course was immediately changed, but it was then too late. Many women and children declined to get into the boats owing to the heavy seas that were running. When last seen Captain Garrard was clinging to the rigging, with a child in his arms.

One witness, who gave evidence at the inquiry into the wreck, stated dramatically that ** if all the steamers in England had been at the wreck rot a single life could have been saved after midday.” In its finding the Court stated that the wreck was primarily caused through the failure of the master to ascertain his correct position an hour before the vessel struck the reef. The Court recommended that a light should be placed on Waipapa Point, as a number of other wrecks had occurred there. Subsequently a light was placed on the point, and it has been a great aid to mariners ever since. The wreck of the Wairarapa on October 29, 1894, with the loss of 135 lives, was the greatest of all New Zealand sea tragedies.

On October 30 it was reported that some anxiety was being felt for the late arrival of the ship from Sydney, but it was. not until the morning of November 1, when the Northern Company’s steamer Argylc arrived from the Great Barrier with the survivors, that the dreadful news became known. The Wairarapa crashed into the precipitous cliffs at Miner’s Head shortly after midnight, when steaming at full speed. The ship had encountered thick fog all the way down the coast, and it was not until some hours after the vessel had struck that the survivors knew where they were. It was stated that the calamity was due to failure to pick up Makohinau light, the ship’s officers having no idea that the Aessel was so near the land. As soon as the steamer struck, she rebounded from the cliffs and heeled sharply to port, throwing many people into the sea. A number of horses that were being carried as deck cargo broke loose, and added to the horror of the situation. Several lifeboats were smashed up, and. although a line was got ashore, extreme difficulty was experienced in landing. The Marine Court of Inquiry found that the master, who never left the bridge ail the way down the coast, was alone to blame for the catastrophe, and stated that no doubt his certificate would have been cancelled if he had survived. The Court

welded an opinion that in foggy weather all lifeboats should be swung outward in readiness for instant launching. Penguin Sank Quickly.

Disaster came to the Penguin when she was forty-five years old. It is believed that on the morning of February 12, 1909, she struck Tom’s Rock, near Cape Terawhiti, but the exact locality of the wreck has never been definitely established. The steamer, which was bound from Picton to Wellington, was being headed for the open sea in the interests of safety when she struck. A heavy sea was running, and the ship sank within a few minutes. As was the case in the other two tragedies, extreme difficulty was experienced in landing on the rocky coast. Between seventy and eighty lives were lost in the disaster, which was attributed by the master. Captain Naylor, to abnormal currents. The master was on deck when the ship took her final plunge, but eventually he was picked up off a raft. The Court, which stated that it was not definitely of the opinion that it was Tom’s Rock which the vessel struck, suspended the master’s certificate for twelve months. One of the assessors dissented in the finding, holding that, under the circumstances, Captain Naylor was justified in not altering his course.

The most severe losses suffered by the company in recent years were those of the Royal mail steamer Tahiti, which foundered between Wellington and Rarotonga, and the Manuka, which came to grief on the Nuggets. Neither casualty resulted in any loss of life.