SS Wairarapa
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2017}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2007}}
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{{Infobox Ship Image | Ship image = SS_Wairarapa.jpg | Ship caption = SS Wairarapa }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = New Zealand | Ship flag = 40px | Ship name = Wairarapa | Ship namesake = Wairarapa | Ship owner = Union Steam Ship Company | Ship operator = Union Steam Ship Company | Ship registry = | Ship route = Sydney-Auckland | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = William Denny and Brothers | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = 259 | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 19 May 1882 | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = 3 July 1882 | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = 29 October 1894 | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = Auckland | Ship identification = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = | Ship honours = | Ship honors = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = Wrecked off Miners Head | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox Ship Characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = Luxury steamer | Ship type = Steel screw steamship | Ship tonnage = 1786 gross register tons, 1023 net register tons | Ship length = 285.2 ft | Ship beam = 36.3 ft | Ship height = | Ship draught = 23.7 ft | Ship depth = | Ship hold depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = | Ship sail plan = | Ship speed = ~14 knots | Ship range = | Ship endurance = | Ship boats = | Ship capacity = | Ship troops = | Ship complement = | Ship crew = | Ship notes = }} |
SS Wairarapa was a New Zealand ship of the late 19th century plying the route between Auckland, New Zealand and Australia. It came to tragic fame when it hit a reef at the northern edge of Great Barrier Island, about 100 km out from Auckland, and sank. The death toll of around 130 people remains one of the largest such losses in the country's history.{{Cite book|last=Dodd|first=Andy|url=https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/historic/by-region/auckland/ss-wairarapa-graves/ss-wairarapa-graves-heritage-assessment-full.pdf|title=S.S. Wairarapa Graves, 1894: Heritage Assessment|publisher=Department of Conservation (New Zealand)|year=2007|isbn=978-0-478-14305-8|location=Great Barrier Island, New Zealand|pages=5, 23}}[http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by-region/auckland/hauraki-gulf-islands/ss-wairarapa-graves/ Historic SS Wairarapa Graves] (from the DOC. Accessed 2008-06-04.) The ship was named for the Wairarapa region.
History
File:SS Wairarapa Wreck At Miners Head.jpg
Wairarapa was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1882, for the Union Steam Ship Company. Soon after launch she sailed to New Zealand, to become one of a small number of luxury steamers plying the route across the Tasman Sea to Australia.
Wrecking
File:Miners Head Great Barrier Island SS Wairarapa.jpg
Wairarapa sailed from Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, 24 October 1894. The ship's destination was the rapidly growing New Zealand port city of Auckland, 2,000 miles away. As Wairarapa rounded the top of the North Island of New Zealand four days later, fog and storms set in. However, Captain John S. McIntosh refused to slow the ship from 13 knots, nearly full speed despite the thick fog. Fatally, the ship went off-course, possibly due to a faulty compass bearing. At the subsequent Court of Enquiry into the incident, some even suggested the ship had been steered by dead reckoning rather than using a compass at all. Whatever the cause, the ship skirted to the west of the Poor Knights Islands, not the east. As a consequence she was much closer to the mainland than the ship's crew believed.
At around 8 minutes past midnight on Monday, 29 October 1894, the ship was wrecked on the steep cliffs near Miners Head on the northern tip of Great Barrier Island, off the coast of Auckland."Eight Minutes Past Midnight", Steve Locker-Lampson & Ian Francis, Rowfant Books, Wellington New Zealand, 1981
The hours after the wreck saw great loss of life. Many passengers could not swim and drowned in the rough seas trying to make it to shore. One life raft was seen floating out to sea and was never sighted again. Many men, including a large portion of the crew, took to one of the lifeboats, leaving women and children behind. A number of people took refuge in the ship's rigging.{{Cite web|last=Hunt|first=Tom|date=2016-10-27|title=Flashback: SS Wairarapa goes down at Great Barrier Island|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/85700915/flashback-ss-wairarapa-goes-down-at-great-barrier-island|access-date=2020-08-10|website=Stuff|language=en}} At about 3 am Captain McIntosh jumped into the sea and was presumed drowned. Several other lifeboats which had been safely launched stayed near the stricken ship and picked survivors from the sea where possible.
One lifeboat eventually succeeded in reaching a local community of Ngati Wai Māori based at Katherine Bay, on the western coast of the island. They were able to rescue and provide care for a number of the survivors. Seaman, fisherman and farmer Mariano Vella and his new wife belonged to the survivors of the disaster.{{DNZB|Brodie|James W.|2v2|Mariano Vella|26 June 2015}}
Although Wairarapa was expected in Auckland, there was no way of knowing where she may have come to grief. As the only contact with the island at the time was via weekly trips from a steamer, it was three full days until news of the shipwreck reached Auckland.
The Northern Company's steamer Argyle arrived in Port FitzRoy on Wednesday, 31 October, and took the survivors who had reached Port FitzRoy on board. The steamer then proceeded to the site of the shipwreck, and to Katherine Bay, picking up further survivors and sailing back to arrive in Auckland about 3am Thursday 1 November.{{Cite news|date=1 November 1894|title=Loss of the Wairarapa|volume=XXV|page=4|work=Auckland Star|issue=261|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18941101.2.17.1|access-date=11 August 2020}}
A Court of Inquiry was held after Wairarapa disaster, and found Captain McIntosh's actions were the primary cause of the tragedy.{{Cite news|date=11 December 1894|title=Notes and Comments|volume=XXXI|page=4|work=New Zealand Herald|issue=9691|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18941211.2.24|access-date=11 August 2020}}
Protection
The wreck of Wairarapa is scheduled for preservation in the Auckland Unitary Plan and is also protected under the archaeological provisions of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014.{{Cite web|date=15 November 2016|title=Auckland Unitary Plan: Operational in Part|url=https://unitaryplan.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/pages/plan/Book.aspx?exhibit=AucklandUnitaryPlan_Print|access-date=11 August 2020|website=Auckland Unitary Plan|publisher=Auckland Council}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Wairarapa (ship, 1882)}}
- [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ourstuff/October.htm Ancestry.com: 29 October 1894 - The Tragedy of the SS Wairarapa]
- [http://tvnz.co.nz/descent-from-disaster/s1-ep4-video-5519154 The New Zealand documentary series] 'Descent from disaster' made an episode about this wreck
- [http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TC18941126.2.21.4 WRECK OF S. S. WAIRARAPA]
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{{1894 shipwrecks}}
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Category:Ships built on the River Clyde
Category:History of the Auckland Region
Category:Ships of the Union Steam Ship Company