SS Penguin
{{short description|19th and 20th-century New Zealand ferry}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= SS Penguin 16271 pm01.jpg |Ship caption= SS Penguin at Port Chalmers. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country= New Zealand |Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|UK|civil}} |Ship name= SS Penguin |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=* G. & J. Burns, Glasgow, Scotland (1864–1879)
|Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= Tod and Macgregor, Glasgow |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= 128 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=21 January 1864 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification=Official number: 47849 |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship fate=Sank on 12 February 1909 after colliding with rocks near Wellington. 75 people killed in what is classed as New Zealand's deadliest maritime disaster. |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption={{cite web |url= http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=14352 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20040903181336/http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=14352 |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 3 September 2004 |title=SS Penguin |work= Clyde-built Ship Database |year=2013 |access-date=31 January 2013}} |Ship class= |Ship type=Passenger/cargo steamship |Ship tonnage=* As built
|Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{Convert|220|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship beam= {{Convert|28|ft|6|in|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship depth= {{Convert|14|ft|4|in|abbr=on}} |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion=* As built
|Ship sail plan= |Ship speed=* As built
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
SS Penguin was a New Zealand inter-island ferry steamer that sank off the southwest coast of Wellington after striking a rock near Sinclair Head in poor weather on 12 February 1909. Penguin{{'}}s sinking caused the deaths of 75 people, leaving only 30 survivors. This was New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.The 1863 sinking of {{HMS|Orpheus|1860|6}} remains New Zealand's deadliest maritime disaster.
Ship history
Penguin was built by Tod & McGregor of Glasgow, Scotland, for G. & J. Burns of Glasgow, and launched on 21 January 1864. Registered in Glasgow on 4 April 1864, she was finally sold to the Union Steamship Company in 1879, and was extensively refitted in 1882.
In 1904, a passenger aboard the SS Penguin tried to shoot a dolphin named Pelorus Jack with a rifle, leading to Jack becoming the first individual sea creature protected by law in any country.[http://www.museumofwellington.co.nz/fact_sheets/pelorus_jack.pdf Pelorus Jack fact sheet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521224248/http://www.museumofwellington.co.nz/fact_sheets/pelorus_jack.pdf |date=21 May 2010 }} at the Museum of Wellington
=Sinking=
Penguin departed Picton on 12 February 1909 en route to Wellington in good conditions. However, the weather conditions changed by 8 pm, with very strong winds and bad visibility. At 10 pm, Captain Francis Naylor headed farther out to sea to wait for a break in the weather, but the ship smashed into Thoms Rock while making the turn, and water started to pour in. Women and children were loaded into the lifeboats, but the rough seas dragged the lifeboats underwater; only one woman survived, and all the children were killed. Other survivors drifted for hours on rafts before reaching safety. As the Penguin sank, seawater flooded the engine room. The cold water reached the boilers, and a massive steam explosion violently fractured the ship.{{cite web |url= http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/NZDisasters/SSPenguin.asp |title=SS Penguin – New Zealand Disasters |work=Christchurch City Libraries |year=2013 |access-date=31 January 2013}}
Following the disaster, a half-day holiday was declared in Wellington to allow the many funerals to be held,{{cite web |url= http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/ss-em-penguin-em-wrecked-in-cook-strait |title=SS Penguin wrecked in Cook Strait |work=nzhistory.net.nz |year=2013 |access-date=31 January 2013}} as some 40 people were laid to rest in Karori Cemetery.
A court of inquiry found that the ship struck Thoms Rock near the mouth to Karori Stream in Cook Strait. The captain maintained that it had struck the submerged hull of the Rio Loge, lost the month before.{{cite news |title=Search for wreck of Penguin |url= http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/archive/national-news/1397733/Search-for-wreck-of-Penguin |access-date=11 May 2012 |newspaper=The Dominion Post |date=11 February 2009 |first1=Stacey |last1=Wood |first2=Greer |last2=McDonald}} On the 100th anniversary of the sinking, Wellington's mayor unveiled a plaque at Tongue Point, near the site of the wreck.[https://web.archive.org/web/20130210122245/http://wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=3453 SS Penguin Sinking to be Remembered on South Coast], Wellington City Council, 9 February 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Bruce |year=2000 |title=The Wreck of the Penguin |url= http://steeleroberts.co.nz/books/isbn/1-877228-28-1 |publisher=Steele Roberts Limited |location=Wellington |isbn=1-877228-28-1}}
External links
{{Commons category|Penguin (ship, 1864)}}
- {{cite web |url= http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/penguin.html |title=The Sinking of the SS Penguin: Passenger and Crew Lists |work=freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com}}
{{New Zealand inter-island ferries}}
{{1909 shipwrecks}}
{{coord|-41.35|174.66|display=title}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penguin}}
Category:Ships built on the River Clyde
Category:History of the Wellington Region
Category:Maritime incidents in 1909
Category:Ships of the Union Steam Ship Company