New Zealand's myriad decaying shipwrecks hold many secrets. Bruce Munro asks whether our neglected and potentially history-making maritime heritage needs to be better researched and protected.
It is mid-afternoon when the captain decides to wreck his ship.
For days, he and his crew have been battling the elements with a leaking vessel, and losing.
Foveaux Strait only adds to their troubles.
The ocean swells churning through this comparatively narrow and shallow stretch of water are challenge enough.
But when your men are exhausted from continual pumping and the water level in the hold is, alarmingly, still rising, it is hard not to think the worst is yet to come.
Then a vicious squall hits. Wind and waves surge.
The vessel heels over almost on her beam ends, damaging masts and sails and taking even more water over the lee rail.
The captain concludes he will not find safe harbour; that the only chance of saving lives is to beach his beloved vessel.
He lets her turn and run before the wind, heading straight for the northwest corner of Stewart Island.
Within half an hour, a small beach is sighted through the driving rain.
Minutes later comes the sickening scream of beams twisting and planks splintering as the ship hits rock and sand, grinds forward, slows and gives a final groan as she lists heavily to port.
So ended the life of the brig Workington which, carrying cargo and passengers from Melbourne to Bluff, was wrecked at Smoky Beach, Stewart Island, on February 1, 1857.
Or was it?
Certainly, there is a wreck on that isolated sandy beach.
Broken in two, one section lies in a creek bed.
What remains of the rest is buried by sand.
Occasionally revealed, its splayed timber ribs are soon reinterred by the next storm.
But the wreck has never been visited by maritime archaeologists.
Never been examined and properly documented.
Never been proven to be the Workington.
In fact, the man who has shown it the most attention, the late Doug Griffiths, who was a Stewart Island fisherman, believed it was a much, much older ship - a 16th-century Spanish caravel.
New Zealand is a maritime nation.
Polynesian settlers, then European explorers, whalers, traders, missionaries and colonists all came by sea.
The arrival and departure of ships is the history of our country.
Even in the jet age, it is still how we earn a crust. Fishing and aquaculture employ about 7000 people.
Up to 87% of our imports and 76% of exports travel by sea.
And, with the return of cruise ships, it is how more than 270,000 tourists are choosing to visit these islands every year.
Inevitably, so many ship movements mean there are accidents, disasters and tragedies.
Dotted along New Zealand's 14,000km coastline, the 10th-longest of any nation, are many hundreds of wreck sites.
The exact number is not known.
Estimates vary between 1600 and 2400.
They range from a recently discovered section of a 600-year-old East Polynesian voyaging canoe found on the northwest coast of the South Island and the Dusky Sound site of New Zealand's first confirmed European wreck, the Endeavour (not Captain Cook's ship), which sank in 1795, to the remains of the container ship MV Rena which struck Astrolabe Reef, near Tauranga, on October 5, 2011; and the wreck of the fishing boat Easy Rider, which, on March 15, 2012, capsized and sank off the northwest coast of Stewart Island with the loss of eight lives.
Otago has its share of wrecks.
Victory, Pride of the Yarra, Surat and Tyrone are among ruined vessels' names that still resonate in our collective memory.
Once again the numbers vary, from 124 to upwards of 170 wrecks between the Waitaki and Catlins rivers.
In all, they are thought to have resulted in about 40 deaths.
Dr Matthew Schmidt believes New Zealand's shipwrecks are more important than many of us realise.
The southern region archaeologist for Heritage New Zealand says most of the country's efforts to research and conserve our heritage have been focused on land.
''But, of course, everything was shipped by boat,'' Dr Schmidt (45) says''They [wrecks] tell us exactly who was doing what, how they were doing it, and where they were going.''
In contrast to Europe, where the earliest settlement sites are the remains of land-based migration, New Zealand's first settlers had to cross water to get here, making wrecks the material evidence of our origins.
''So, it is a really key piece of our heritage, which I don't think is yet fully understood,'' Dr Schmidt says.
There is even the strong possibility that shipwrecks, properly investigated, could rewrite our history.
Claims of visitors to these islands before Maori, or before Abel Tasman or James Cook, bubble continuously just below the surface of official, accepted history.
Robust evidence, however, is their persistent Achilles heel.
But a wreck buried in the sand of Kaipara Harbour, north of Auckland, might be the exception.
It was discovered by a fisherman in 1982, lying in 5m of water.
He contacted diver and Dargaville Museum founder Noel Hilliam, who salvaged two pieces of wood from the wreck in 1983.
During the past three decades, shifting sands have buried the Kaipara wreck deep.
Now a maritime archaeologist, with authority from Heritage New Zealand, is attempting to find it again.
In the meantime, a paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science last year, has identified the recovered timbers as two tropical hardwoods.
After radio carbon dating the wood, the authors have estimated the ship was constructed in the early 18th century, after Tasman's visit in 1642 but before Cook first sighted New Zealand in 1769.
Mr Hilliam, based on his own research and oral traditions of local Maori, believes the wreck pre-dates Tasman.
He thinks it is the wreck of a 16th-century Spanish or Portuguese ship the Cecillia Maria.
Mr Hilliam says he was told by a Maori elder that a marauding war party encountered the crew of the wrecked ship.
The warriors killed all of the sailors except the captain who, because he was wearing armour and a helmet, was taken for a god.
The captain was taken north of the Kaipara where he settled and had children, he was told.
Either way, it is clearly a significant piece of New Zealand's heritage.
If refound and researched, it is likely to insert an exciting new chapter in the story of how we came to be New Zealanders.
To do that well and in a timely way requires skills, people and, of course, money.
The same applies to investigating all of the country's disintegrating shipwrecks and the knowledge they can provide.
• Heritage New Zealand (formerly Historic Places Trust) has the legislated mandate to identify, protect and promote heritage.
Under the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 it is illegal to destroy or modify pre-1900 sites without a permit from Heritage New Zealand.
That includes shipwrecks.
The Crown entity is doing some maritime heritage work.
In Southland, Heritage NZ has been working since 2003 on an inventory of the region's shipwrecks and other marine heritage sites. One wreck that has received extra attention is the 1853 American whaler Othello, in Prices Inlet, Stewart Island.
After working as a whaler, grain transporter and coal barge, the ship ended its journey in 1926, becoming a floating jetty at the Norwegian whaling base.
''It's amazing,'' Dr Schmidt, who has dived on the wreck, says.
''The ship's copper sheeting is still there. The deck has fallen in, but a lot of it is still there.''
In 2013, the whalers' base was surveyed by Heritage NZ.
It has since been declared a post-1900 archaeological site, giving it extra legal protection.
In Otago, key known wrecks have been identified so they can be protected under the Otago Regional Council's regional plan, Mr Schmidt says.
He is also talking to territorial authorities, the Department of Conservation and local iwi representatives about setting up an Otago coastal heritage inventory.
Nationally, the focus is on getting wrecks listed on the Australian National Shipwreck Database.
Pam Bain, Heritage NZ's senior archaeologist, says it makes good historical and financial sense to use the Australian database.
''Because much of New Zealand maritime history is linked to that of Australia, the Australian Government agreed to New Zealand joining this database rather than having to create our own,'' she says.
''We currently have over 1600 shell entries for shipwrecks in New Zealand and are continuing to add them as resources allow.''
To make the dollars and skills go further, Heritage NZ works with the Wellington-based Maritime Archaeology Association of New Zealand on some marine projects, sharing expertise and resources.
There are also some experienced individual maritime enthusiasts, such as Mr Hilliam, who take an active interest in wrecks.
But their hands are largely tied by the legislation, Mr Hilliam says.
Legislation which, intended to protect the sites, puts the wrecks in the hands of an organisation that does little more than make sure they are not disturbed as they decay, he says.
Maritime sites do need more research, Mr Schmidt says.
''But I don't think that is for want of effort by a lot of people. I think it's because of resources,'' he says.
''In an ideal world we would do a lot of maritime research, but in reality it is expensive ... It has to be prioritised according to where it is needed. If the site is safe and secure we probably wouldn't prioritise that. We would prioritise research that is going to be of benefit to people more directly.''
The late Mr Griffiths believed that lying in the sand at Smoky Beach were the remains of the San Lesmes, a Spanish caravel lost during a journey from the Strait of Magellan to the Moluccas in 1526.
Others have also claimed to have found the wreck of the San Lesmes elsewhere in the Pacific.
Mr Griffiths was probably incorrect.
But without the money to make sure, the Smoky Beach wreck and its role in our history remains a silent question mark.
The answer, from that and other wrecks, is unlikely to be heard soon, if at all.
Maggie Barry, who is Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, foresees no change to the status quo.
''There are a wide range of competing demands for heritage resources and funding,'' Ms Barry says.
''Successive governments have assessed those priorities and allocated limited resources appropriately.
''As with much of the heritage sector, efforts to identify, protect and educate about maritime heritage rely on local community involvement and voluntary effort.''
And so, the opportunity for a fuller knowledge and understanding of our heritage continues to slowly but certainly disintegrate, one wave at a time.
SOME EARLY OTAGO WRECKS
• Victory: A steamer which ran ashore in Wickliffe Bay, Otago Peninsula, on July 3, 1861, and was almost refloated seven months later until a wind change drove her back on to the sand.
• Pride of the Yarra: A steamer which, on the night of July 6, 1863, was struck by another ferry and sank off Sawyers Bay, Otago Harbour, killing 12 passengers including the newly appointed rector of Otago Boys' High School, Rev M. Campbell, his wife, five children and two maids.
• Surat: A sailing ship which, under the command of a drunk gun-toting ship's master, struck rocks near Chaslands Mistake before being beached at the entrance to the Catlins River on New Year's Day 1874.
• Tyrone: A steamer which on September 27, 1913, became the largest vessel to be wrecked on the coast of the South Island when it struck rocks just south of Taiaroa Head.
SOME EARLY NEW ZEALAND WRECKS
• Endeavour: Eventually proven not to be James Cook's ship, this Endeavour still has the distinction of being the earliest verified shipwreck in New Zealand waters. It was holed by a rock in Facile Harbour, Dusky Sound, on October 27, 1795.
• HMS Orpheus: The Wahine sinking, in which 53 people died, is often mistakenly called New Zealand's worst maritime disaster. In fact, that ignominious title goes to the Jason-class Royal Navy corvette Orpheus, flagship of the Australian squadron, which sank off the west coast of Auckland on February 7, 1863. Of the ship's 259 crew and passengers, 189 died in the disaster.
• General Grant: The full-rigged ship sank on May 14, 1866, after being becalmed and washed into cliffs of Auckland Island, 300km south of New Zealand. The General Grant was carrying 2576 ounces of gold as well as miners believed to be taking their fortunes home to England. Sixty-eight people drowned, one died on the island, four died trying to leave in a small boat, and 10 were rescued 18 months later.
• Ventnor: Chartered to take the coffins of 499 Chinese who had died in New Zealand back to China, the steamer struck a reef off the coast of Taranaki and sank almost two days later, on October 28, 1902, with the loss of the cargo and 13 to 16 lives. In 2012, the wreck of the Ventnor was discovered in 150m of water, 21km off the Hokianga coast.
