1910: Steamer sinks at Dusky Sound

A fortunate ending to shipwreck: some of the passengers and crew of the Waikare on Stop Island,...
A fortunate ending to shipwreck: some of the passengers and crew of the Waikare on Stop Island, Dusky Sound, shortly after the vessel was beached. Photo by Otago Witness.
JAN 5: The Union Steam Ship Company received word last evening that the S.S. Waikare had struck a rock in Dusky Sound at noon.

The vessel is reported to be badly damaged, and the engine room and stoke-hold are full to the water level.

The vessel was beached on Stop Island, the passengers and crew being safely landed on the beach of the mainland.

Arrangements are being made to despatch the Moura as early as possible this morning for the purpose of bringing the passengers back to Dunedin.

The Union Company lost no time in communicating with the Prime Minister, now in Invercargill, and as a result H.M. Pioneer, lying at the Bluff, was coaling last night, and her commander hoped to get away to the scene of the wreck by daylight this morning.

He hopes to reach Dusky at noon and be back again at the Bluff with the passengers by 7 o'clock in the evening.

An ample stock of supplies will be put on board the Moura. All branches have been advised that everybody is safe, and Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart have been cabled to the same effect.

January 7: The particulars that are now available confirm the impression which was formed, when the news of the mishap first arrived, by those who were able to read between the lines of the guarded statements that were made public, that the damage sustained by the steamer Waikare at Dusky Sound is so grave as to banish the hope that the vessel may be saved.

There is, however, much for which there is every reason to be thankful in our contemplation of the facts with reference to the loss of the steamer.

The precise circumstances surrounding the accident will be the subject of a judicial inquiry by a tribunal, of which it will be the duty to ascertain whether the responsibility for the loss of the vessel may fairly be fastened upon any individual, and it would be irregular and improper on our part to attempt to anticipate the result of that inquiry.

January 8: Bluff: Shortly after 10 o'clock on Wednesday night the Waikare turned over to port and sank, her bow resting on the rail opposite Stop Island, and her stern being out of sight in deep water.

As she heeled over before finally sinking and partly disappearing, water was seen to be pouring from a great hole in her bottom near amidships, and if no other evidence was available this was sufficient to show the great gash that had been made by the rock.

When the Moura arrived in Dusky Sound, at half-past 9 on Thursday morning, all that was to be seen of the ill-fated Waikare was a small longitudinal slice of deck showing above the water as she lay on her side.

A few men could be seen scrambling about the rough bare rocks at the water's edge, or sitting on their haunches at the fringe of the dense vegetation that covers Stop Island, staring desolately at all that remained of their late home.

The Waikare had come through Archeron passage from Break Sea Sound, and was heading down Dusky Sound for the open sea en route for Dunedin. She was travelling at the usual rate of speed over the usual course. The weather was fine, the time was noon, and the tide was low.

Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, the ship struck, and bump, bump, bumped over some obstruction. The crash alarmed everyone, and there was a simultaneous rush on deck.

The ship appeared to everyone to be sinking rapidly, and the captain determined to beach her.

Her helm was put to port, and the stricken Waikare, rolling heavily, and going slower and slower, struggled like a wounded bird to the little cove at Stop Island, a mile and a half away.

Those who know the Sound declare that the captain could not have made a wiser choice. He wanted shallow water and the most suitable camping-ground possible, and he got the best of both.

He might have done better had he gone further, but the fact that the ship had nearly lost way when she got into shallow water at Stop Island, and that Mr McArthur (engineer) was up to his waist in water when he turned off steam, shows how extremely delicate was the calculation made by the skipper.

The Waikare touched the rock at 25 minutes past 12, and in 35 minutes she was beached, all the passengers and nearly all the crew were ashore, and most of the former's baggage was safe.

January 9: The ferocity of the sandflies which infest the Sounds country and the virulence of their bites added much to the discomforts experienced by the Waikare's people in Dusky Sound last week. The insects were present in countless thousands, and so long as daylight or artificial light enabled them to locate their victims their attacks never ceased. The wholesale murder of the pest afforded no relief.

As one man expressed it: "If I squash one of 'em about 50 others come to his funeral." More troublesome than the bite itself was the poison that was injected by the insect. This slowly raised large red lumps on the skin, which after two or three days became very sore and irritable. The hands of some of the men on the Moura last week were puffed up and swollen as if blood poisoning had set in, while the appearance of their faces suggested that they were suffering from a rash.

On Sunday a party on the S.S. Invercargill visited the scene of the Waikare wreck. One of the party writes: "Here were found the half-dozen men who are standing by the wreck under the second officer (Mr Appleyard) and Mr McIntyre.

"The beach was piled with miscellaneous salvage, and the Waikare herself lay on her port side with her starboard bow heaving up out of the water and a large part of her forecastle deck high and dry. Like most of the islands in the Sounds, Stop Island is precipitous, and in proportion to her length it is only a small part of the steamer that has a resting-place on the solid land." The visitors pulled over the submerged afterpart of the Waikare in a boat. Down in the clear depths of the sound the foremast and funnel could be seen, but the stern lay at too great a depth to be visible to a non-expert. The ship's position appears to be extremely precarious, but she is regarded as quite secure as long as fine weather lasts.

January 20: Mr A. McIntyre (superintendent of repairs for the Union Steam Ship Company) returned to Dunedin on Tuesday evening from the scene of the wreck of the Waikare at Stop Island, West Coast Sounds, where he has been for the last 10 days in charge of a salvage party of seven.

He reports there is not the slightest hope of refloating the ill-fated steamer, which is now apparently held fast on the rocks, some of which, it is thought, have pierced her hull.

 

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