Geography | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 47°45′05″S179°01′25″E / 47.75139°S 179.02361°E |
Archipelago | Bounty Islands |
Area | 0.1 km2 (0.039 sq mi) |
Length | 0.4 km (0.25 mi) |
Width | 0.3 km (0.19 mi) |
Highest elevation | 50 m (160 ft) |
Administration | |
New Zealand | |
Demographics | |
Population | 0 |
Depot Island is the largest island in the Bounty Islands, a chain of uninhabited subantarctic islands 800 kilometres off the southeast coast of New Zealand's South Island. The island is an important bird nesting site, and is located within the Bounty Islands/Moutere Hauriri Marine Reserve. [1]
Depot Island lies at the centre of the Bounties' main group, in the northwest of the chain. It is surrounded by numerous smaller islands, notably Proclamation, Ruatara, Spider, Penguin, Tunnel, and Ranfurly Islands. It is a roughly triangular slab of bare igneous rock, some 400 metres in length and covering an area of 10 hectares (25 acres). It is separated from its nearest neighbours (Tunnel and Ranfurly Islands) by a narrow straight channel which delineates the island's northeastern side. The island has only one inlet, in the southwest, but, like the rest of the chain, this is unsuitable for anchorage owing to a reef which protects much of the island's coast. Depot Island rises to an unnamed peak near its centre at 50 metres (160 ft) above sea level.
The island, along with the others in the chain, was discovered by Captain William Bligh in 1788, and named them after his ship, just months before the famous mutiny on the ship which gave the islands their name. [1]
Depot Island's name reflects the location of a castaway depot on the island, set up in 1886 by the crew from the Hinemoa. Captain Fairchild noted that there was no fresh water available on these islands. [2] The depot had been destroyed by the sea by the time the Stella visited the island in 1887, [3] but was later replenished. Depot provisioning is no longer present on the island, and little remains of the depot. [1]
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.
The Bounty Islands are a small group of uninhabited granite islets and numerous rocks, with a combined area of circa 50 ha in the South Pacific Ocean. Territorially part of New Zealand, they lie about 670 km (420 mi) east-south-east of New Zealand's South Island, 530 km (330 mi) south-west of the Chatham Islands, and 215 km (134 mi) north of the Antipodes Islands. The group is a World Heritage Site.
The Snares Islands, known colloquially as The Snares, is a group of uninhabited islands lying about 200 km (120 mi) south of New Zealand's South Island and to the south-southwest of Stewart Island / Rakiura. The Snares consist of the main North East Island and the smaller Broughton Island and Alert Stack, as well as the Western Chain Islands some 5 km (3.1 mi) to the west-southwest. Collectively, the Snares have a total land area of 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi).
The Antipodes Islands are inhospitable and uninhabited volcanic islands in subantarctic waters to the south of – and territorially part of – New Zealand. The 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi) archipelago lies 860 km (530 mi) to the southeast of Stewart Island/Rakiura, and 730 km (450 mi) to the northeast of Campbell Island. They are very close to being the antipodal point to Normandy in France, meaning that the city farthest away is Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France.
Point Cloates, formerly known as Cloate's Island, is a peninsula approximately 100 kilometres south south-west of North West Cape, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It features Point Cloates Lighthouse and the ruins of a previous lighthouse ; both buildings are on Cloates Hill, which rises 41 metres above sea level.
Cloates Island, or Cloates Doubtful Island...to sailors in olden days...was an island of mystery; and for ... sea captains who made it their duty to fall in with New Holland it possessed a peculiar attraction. They looked for it and wrote about it in their log-books more than any other part of the continent because for years people were wont to disbelieve in its existence too. Owing to the hidden trendings in the coast and the elbow that is formed in its outline where they first sighted land a difficult problem was presented to one sailor after another which none could solve.
Early explorers had passed along this portion of the coast, though none had named the point until in 1719 it was suddenly christened Cloates Island, and Cloates Island it remained until a hundred years later, when King proved it to be a peninsula. This supposed island was discovered by Captain Nash, in command of a Flemish ship, the "House of Austria," bound from Ostend to China. On seeing it he wrote in his journal: 'Being clear weather brought to, sounded, and had no ground with 100 fms. though not above four miles offshore. The day before and several days after observed an incredible quantity of seaweed like that from the Gulf of Florida and small birds like lapwings both in size and flight. This island cannot be seen far even in clear weather and lies N.E. by E. and S.W. by S. about 32 leagues in length with terrible breakers from each end running about three miles into the sea.' He gave the lat. as 22° S. and from it made 7°26' westing to Java Head. As he could find no account of this land in any of his books or charts Captain Nash named it Cloates or Cloot's Island in honour of a Flemish Baron, one of the owners of the ship.
There is a new sealing rush to the Bounty and Auckland Islands. Sealing also continues at Bass Strait and the Antipodes Islands. Foveaux Strait is a frequent stop for these sealing ships. Whaling continues off the east coast of the North Island. Ships are now visiting the Bay of Islands on a reasonably regular basis. The first reports about the poor behaviour of visiting ship's crew are sent to the Church Missionary Society in London.
Dundonald was a British four-masted steel barque measuring 2,205 gross register tons launched in Belfast in 1891. It was involved in a wreck in 1907 in the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands. Only 15 of its 28 crew survived; they were rescued seven months later by a scientific expedition.
Whangaroa Harbour, previously spelled Wangaroa Harbour, is an inlet on the northern coast of Northland, New Zealand. Whangaroa Bay and the Pacific Ocean are to the north. The small settlements of Totara North and Saies are on the west side of the harbour, Waitaruke on the south side, and Whangaroa on the east. State Highway 10 runs through Waitaruke. The name comes from the lament "Whaingaroa" or "what a long wait" of a woman whose warrior husband had left for a foray to the south. The harbour was formed when rising sea levels drowned a river valley about 6,000 years ago. Steep outcrops remain from ancient volcanic rocks.
A range of naval vessels were used in New Zealand from its early settlement years to the formation of the New Zealand Naval Forces in 1913. In the mid-19th century, these vessels included frigates, sloops, schooners, and steam-driven paddlewheel boats. In 1846, five years after New Zealand was first proclaimed a colony, it bought its first gunboat. In the 1840s and 1850s, steam boats were used to survey the ports and the coastline. In the 1860s, New Zealand established the Waikato flotilla, its first de facto navy.
A castaway depot is a store or hut placed on an isolated island to provide emergency supplies and relief for castaways and victims of shipwrecks.
NZGSS Hinemoa was a 542-ton New Zealand Government Service Steamer designed specifically for lighthouse support and servicing, and also for patrolling New Zealand's coastline and carrying out castaway checks and searching for missing ships. It operated in New Zealand's territorial waters from 1876 to 1944.
John Peter Bollons was a New Zealand marine captain, naturalist and ethnographer. For many years he captained New Zealand government steamers, including the NZGSS Hinemoa, which undertook lighthouse work and patrols through New Zealand's subantarctic islands. Bollons Island, in the Antipodes Islands, is named after him. In 1928 he was appointed a Companion of the Imperial Service Order.
Anjou was a 1,642 gross register tons (GRT), French steel barque built in 1899. It was wrecked in the Auckland Islands in 1905.
Compadre was an iron barque of 800 tons that was wrecked in the Auckland Islands in 1891.
TSS Arahura was a twin screw steam passenger/cargo ship built for the Union Steam Ship Company. It was launched on the Clyde on 25 March 1905 and built by William Denny and Brothers Dumbarton at a cost of £52,000. It had a gross weight of 1,607 tons. The ship had accommodation for 201 passengers.
Matoaka was a 1092-ton wooden New Brunswick full-rigged ship built in 1853 for Willis, Gunn, & Co. She was sold to Shaw, Savill, & Albion by 1859. Between 1859 and 1869 she made eight voyages to New Zealand. Her fastest run from Bristol to Lyttelton, New Zealand was 82 days in 1862. On 13 May 1869 she left Lyttelton for London under Captain Alfred Stevens with 45 passengers and 32 crew but was never seen again. In 1865 she was classed as 1322 tons.
Assaye was a barque that was lost with all 25 hands on a voyage from London to Wellington, New Zealand in 1890.
The Koranui Incline was an inclined tramway on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand that, for four years from late 1882 to the end of 1886, brought coal from a mine high on Mt Frederick down to a railway line near sea level.
Donald Sutherland was a Scottish-born New Zealand explorer, active in the late 19th century. Born in Wick, he served as a soldier in the Expedition of the Thousand, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the Italian unification wars. Soon afterwards he travelled to New Zealand where he prospected for gold in Otago. He later joined the New Zealand military and fought in a number of engagements of the New Zealand Wars. In 1877, he settled in Milford Sound and lived as a hermit for a number of years, exploring the region. He later married and, with his wife, ran an accommodation facility for the increasing number of tourists visiting Milford Sound until his death in October 1919. The Sutherland Falls, located near Milford Sound and the highest waterfall in New Zealand, is named for him.