AUCKLAND WRECKS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 337, 19 January 1937, Page 3

AUCKLAND WRECKS

Four Scows Suffered In Past Nine Months.

The tragic wreck of the scow Rangi recalls the fact that she is the fourth scow to be wrecked on the Auckland coast in the last nine months. This unusual sequence of scow wrecks is unaccountable, except perhaps by the fact that all went down in severe storms. The ships were all over 20 years old, although this is not considered old,

scows built up to 30 years ago being still in use. The wreck of the Rangi is the only one which has involved loss of life.

The auxiliary scow Kaiaia, owned by the Aspden Shipping Company was wrecked in the vicinity of Castle Rock, between Tauranga and Mercury Bay, on March 25, 1936, when the master and crew had a desperate fight for their lives. The ship sprang a leak and, water gaining very fast, the crew were forced to put to sea in a 12-foot dinghy. Two Maoris were washed overboard, but were later picked up, and all the crew survived the hazardous journey of five miles through stormy water to the shore. The opinion that she was holed through striking a polo when punching into the heavy seas was expressed at a subsequent

marine inquiry, as it was known that a number of poles, lost from a raft in the February storm of that year, were floating in the Bay of Plenty. The Kaiaia was not salvaged. The second wreck was that of the

Kapua, a vessel of 45 tons gross, owned by McCallum Bros., which struck a reef on the northern side of Whangaparaoa Peninsula when running from Ponui Island to Warkworth on June- 22, 1936. The crew of two and the master managed to row ashore, although they were nearly swamped at the outset through the mainsail enveloping the dinghy and haif filling her with water. Huge broke over the scow and soon she became a total wreck.

The Tamahae, owned by Captain R. H. Jones, was the third case, the vessel springing a leak about a mile and a-half cut from Brown’s Bay on September 26, in a heavy storm. All her crew landed safely and the scow was later refloated. f

A small vessel of 20' tons gross, the Tamahae had a remarkable ' 7 ! career. Earlier in her?history, when known as the Glenae, site was reported to be a total wreck at the entrance to the Puhoi River, between Waiwera and Mahurahgi Heads. She was then under the command of Captain A. H. Mitchell, who, with the crew, abandoned her oh may 25, 1928, when she sprang a leak in a fierce gale. The crew reached the shore safely in the ship’s dinghy, and the Glenae, after drifting estimated distance of 12 miles, came ashore, bottom up, with her masts broken, at the entrance to Puhoi. She wals later refloated.