10 th April 1968

1. The Sinking of the Wahine 10th April 1968

2. The Wahine • Built in 1966 in Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand • One of the largest ferries in the world • Made 67 voyages from Lyttleton to Wellington

3. The Fateful Journey • On April 9th 1968, the Wahine left Lyttleton Harbour at 8.40pm with 610 passengers and 125 crew • Storm warnings had been issued, but rough seas were nothing new in Cook Strait. As it turned out, the Wahine was about to sail into one of the worst storms ever recorded in New Zealand.

4. The Storm • Cyclone Giselle was moving down the length of the North Island leaving much damage, flooding, injury and even deaths in its wake • Wellington was hit especially hard as Cyclone Giselle was met at the same time by another storm driven up the west coast from Antartica • As the combined storms were gathering force, the Wahine was making its way into Wellington Harbour - wind gusts were in excess of 160kmph - NIWA estimates waves reached a peak of 14m in Cook Strait

5. Timeline to events • 5.50 am-Captain Hector Robertson decided to enter Wellington Harbour. • 6.10 am- radar system failed and a huge wave pushed the ship off course and side on to the towering waves. • 6.40 am- the Wahine is driven onto Barrett Reef and the starboard propeller is knocked off "Ladies and gentlemen, we are aground on Barrett's Reef.  There is no immediate danger.  Please proceed to your cabins, collect your life jackets, and report to your muster stations."

6. The signal station at Beacon Hill is notified, the anchors are dropped and the Wahine drifts to near Steeple Rock • 11 am- the tugboat Tapuhi reaches the Wahine and attempts to tow it to safety but the line breaks • 1.15 pm- the Wahine begins to list heavily to starboard • 1.30 pm- the order is given to abandon ship

7. Passengers, who had been unaware of just how serious the situation was, were now confused and frightened. • People slid across the sloping deck, trying to make their way to the lifeboats. • Others did not know which side was starboard and instead made their way to the high side of the ship, from which it was impossible to launch the lifeboats.

8. Only the four starboard lifeboats could be launched, and crewmen tried to get as many people as possible onto them. One lifeboat was swamped when it hit the water and people were lost into the sea. • A number of passengers were forced to jump into the cold, churning sea, and other passengers reached inflatable life-rafts that had been thrown overboard. Some of these were punctured by the wreckage or flipped over by the heavy seas.

9. At 2.30pm the Wahine finally sunk just as the first survivors were reaching the western shore at Seatoun

10. The Rescue Effort • Emergency services in Wellington were already fully stretched dealing with damage caused by the storm in the city • Only 8 police officers were initially able to get past the debris-blocked road to the barren and jagged Eastbourne shore, they were confronted by what looked like a battle field as around 200 survivors straggled through the surf • It was mainly those carried to the surf-pounding eastern shore, who lost their lives. Some were drowned or died of exposure. Others reached the coast only to be dashed against the rocks.

11. Those who owned small vessels that had not been damaged by the storm risked taking them out to pick up survivors. Many plunged into the surf themselves to help drag them to safety. • Others provided comfort and medical attention when the survivors arrived ashore

12. Separate points in the city were established to deal with inquiries about the passengers and crew while a survivor assembly station was set up at Wellington railway station.

13. Fatalities • Fifty-one people lost their lives that day, another died several weeks later and a 53rd victim died in 1990 from injuries sustained in the wreck

14. The Inquiry • The court of inquiry that met 10 weeks after the sinking pinpointed the build-up of water in the vehicle deck as the reason the ferry finally capsized.

15. One question focused on the timing of the decision to abandon ship, the inquiry concluded that more lives would almost certainly have been lost if this order had been given earlier when the storm was at its peak. • Captain Robertson was criticised for failing to report to those on shore that the vehicle deck was taking on water and that the ship's draught had increased to 6.7 metres after striking the reef. • No official ruling was made. The court of inquiry wrapped up after only 4months concluding that the cause of the disaster lay in the extreme nature of the storm

16. Significance for New Zealand • Today we take a different view on the tragedy and criticise the indifference of the official response- authorities wanted to deal with it quickly and then forget “The ship’s sinking was the last disaster before the public started challenging authorities” 1 • The story of the Johnson family- no apology from United Steam Ship Company besides a single wreath

17. Parts of the Wahine that were retrieved have been used as a memorial on Wellington’s water front • The Wahine’s demise also marked a coming of age for television news broadcasting in New Zealand as images of the disaster were beamed into the nation's living rooms.

18. References • http://www.nzhistory.net.nz • http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/wahine.htm • http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~glaive/nz/pages/wahine.htm • The Listener March 29 2008 pp. 16-21 • TVNZ Documentary Inside Story: The Wahine Disaster, directed by David Lomas