A NEW ZEALAND TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 245, 22 February 1911, Page 2

A NEW ZEALAND TRAGEDY

WRECK OF THE H.M.S. ORPHEUS. Forty-eight years ago on the 11th inst. there occurred one of the greatest disasters in New Zealand history, the wreck of H.M.S. Orpheus on the Manukau bar. The Orpheus, a new steam corvette, commanded by Commodore Burnett, was carrying stores from Sydney to the war vessels lying in Manukau Harbor. She sighted land on the morning of Saturday, February 7, and about 12.30 p.m. proceeded under ordinary steam and canvas to cross the bar. Apparently Commodore Burnett steered by old bearings., which had been altered, and in spite of the efforts of the pilot station to direct him, his vessel grounded on the bar. The propeller being broken, the engines were rendered useless, and the cutter and pinnace were sent ofr in the heavy breakers that were running to seek help. An attempt was made also to send out the launch, but this boat was capsized, and her crew of forty were drowned. The steamer Wonga Wonga, which was on the way to Taranaki, was put back when her master Captain Renner, saw that the wreck had occurred, and, taking the boats of the Orpheus in tow, she approached the wreck about five o'clock in the evening. The breakers were sweeping over the Orpheus, and the officers and crew were all. in the rigging. The boats could not go alongside, but their crews displayed great' courage, in approaching very close to the man-of-war, and a number of men who jumped from the rigging, were rescued by the boats and transferred to the Wonga Won°-a. When darkness fell, however, the majority of the crew of 254 men were still in their precarious positions on the Orpheus, the hull of the doomed vessel being completely under water and rolling heavily. The Wonga Wonga anchored at 7.30 p.m. in the channel, as near as possible to the wreck, and the boats renewed their work of rescue. An hour later, however, the man-o'-war's masts all went overboard, and only a very small number of the men who were thrown into the angry waves were saved. In all 181 lives were lost, including those of Commodore Burnett' Commander Burton, and the majority of the officers. The only bright feature of this appalling disaster was the splendhi courage displayed by the British sash;! ■ and theeager band of rescuers.