A SIXTY-YEAR-OLD WRECK.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9441, 11 May 1909, Page 6

A SIXTY-YEAR-OLD WRECK.

Mr W. Beckett, the well-known diver, returned to Melbourne on 31st April from the scene of the wreckof the Falls of Halladale, near Gape Otway. He reported having made a most interesting discovery daring a journey on the sea bottom in the vicinity. Having occasion to enter a small bay near the remains of the ill-fated barque to ascertain whether any of her cargo had bean distributed on the sea floor, he found right in the mouth of the inlet -which is about one hundred yards long and fifty yards wide—the remains of a wooden vessel of about five hundred tons burden. “She was lying with her head pointing to the sea,” saidMr Beckett, “and there was only the bottom of her left. I should say that she would have been between one hundred and fifty and one hundred and sixty feet in length. A few of nor ribs were sticking up, but I saw at once that it was many years since she had sunk, for therooks had closed in on both sides of her, and there was a thick growth of seaweed fully seven feet long all over her. I walked right from bow to stern ovqr the ship, mowing the weed down, but could not find anything to identify her by. On returning to the shore I mentioned the matter to some of the local residents, and one of the oldest of them told me that In the year 1840 a vessel, of which he had forgotten the name, was wrecked in the bay. Ail her passengers and crew were landed in safety, and were met by a tribe of blacks, who were at first friendly, but the shipwrecked people asking them where some fresh water could be found, the blacks led them some distance inland to a small lake, and there murdered them. The small hay has since then been called Massacre Bay. .There Is about seventeen feet of' water over the ancient wreck, and had the Falls of Halladale not caught on the reef she would have been wrecked right on top of her. * ’