NEW ZEALAND WRECKS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 168, 15 October 1941, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND WRECKS

THE BLACK RECORD

ACCURATE DATA MAPPED

The rocky coasts and treacherous harbour bars of some 1 of the New Zealand ports have claimed many a proud ship, and many less proud as Avell. What is believed to be the most complete record of ship wreck} 4 in this country has been compiled by Mr Donald Climino, of the Marine Department AAdio has been able to use material that has not previously been Available- to chroniclers of disaster.

Mr Climino's records is in the form of nine maps, Avith insets for the Kermadec, Chatham, Macquarie, Auckland, Campbell and Enares Islands, and contains not only th<* names of the ships lost, but, posible, the exact location of the wreck. The period claimed to be covered is from 1788 to the present day (including victims of this Avar), but one of the ships lost, the Mohoyc) Buk, Avas a victim long before the eighteenth century.

The Mohoyd Buk is the-most fascinating wreck ever to puzzle the. brains of the museum and maritime authorities. It was discovered in the sands on the coast 18 miles from Raglan in 1893, and was in a fair state of preservation. From its curious construction it was obviously not of European design, and a bell bearing the name of Mohoyd Buk, in

Eastern script, was salvaged fron

the vessel. Also salvaged was a brass plate bearing strange inscriptions, but this priceless relic, which tnight have given the final, clue to identity, was stolen or mislaid when being sent to the museum authorities through the post.' Unfortunately, nobody had troubled to take a Copy of the inscriptions before despatching it. Once again, it is understood, investigations are going- ahead, and a party of museum experts is making a determined effort' to clear iuvay the sand from the old vessel and discover her secrets.

Mr Climino's next recorded victim is charted as the Boussole or Astralobe, the Avreckage of which was found at the Macquarie Islands in 1788. There Avas: enough Avreckage, fairly recent too, for only one vessel, but traces of both names were found.

In northern waters the Three Kings did not have so many victims as is generally supposed, but they Included the Elligamite, the loss of which w r as one of New Zealand's well-known disasters. The Wimmera, a war victim, mined in 1918 off Spirits Bay, also figures in neat ink. So' on the total mounts, and includes the proud Niagara.

The river bars show some of the worst records in New Zealand, Wanganui, Patea and others having taken a steady toll of shipping since lhe earliest days. The West Coast of the South Island has a frightful record in this respect. From the CJno, in 1865, down to the Abel Tasman in 1936, the Grey River bar has claimed, according to the chronicler 13 victims, and Hokitika 41, while on the adjacent coast many more ships have run ashore and been lost. Chatham Islands has also about the £ame number of victims. Other danger spots in the south are off Cape Campbell and Farewell Spit, and the southernmost coast round Bluff and Stewart Island.

Around Wellington, including the nearby coastline of Cook Strait and Palliser Bay, has such a string of names that it was hard to find room to print them all.. Ninety-seven names figure in the list of ships that found their last resting place within a few miles of Wellington.

Mr Climino's work, painstakingly accurate, assembles for the first time, all the local information that is contained in thousands of documents.