| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | Maria |
| Owner: | Various |
| Builder: | Yarmouth |
| Launched: | 1836 |
| Fate: | Wrecked 1851 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Barque |
| Tons burthen: |
|
| Propulsion: | Sail |
The barque Maria was launched at Yarmouth in 1836. Maria was originally used on the England to Bombay run in the 1830s. [1] She sank with the loss of 28 lives on 23 July 1851 near Cape Terawhiti on the North Island of New Zealand. Only two crew members survived.
Maria was a barque built at Yarmouth in 1836 and originally owned by J Somes to 1838, then Gardiner and Co. Her masters were Humble to 1838, Black to 1839, Johnstone to 1845, and Stevenson in 1846. In 1839, 1844 and 1947 she was sheathed with yellow metal. Repairs increased her burthen from 420 to 460 tons when she returned to service in 1849. [2] [3]
Plank was an English sea captain. His earlier vessel was Paragon. In 1844 he was transporting mahogany from Honduras to England. [4] In 1849 he assumed command of Maria.
On 23 March 1849 Maria, under Captain Plank, transported convicts from Dublin to Hobart. She departed Dublin on 5 April 1849 and arrived 23 July. The superintending surgeon was Edward Nollitts. [5] She had embarked 166 female convicts, one of whom died on the voyage. [6]
Maria then sailed via Sydney to Honolulu to California with 170 passengers, arriving at Honolulu on 17 December, The journey having taken 66 days from Sydney. [7] She returned to Sydney from San Francisco via Tahiti. [8]
She made another voyage to California in 1850, returning to Sydney in July after an eventful voyage with 28 passengers and 20 shipwrecked sailors. She had sailed via Tahiti, the Navigators, and Horn Island. Two days after leaving the Navigators, Nortoa, the second mate, had stabbed two men and then jumped overboard. Attempts to rescue him were unsuccessful. [9] In September she again sailed from Sydney to San Francisco, reaching there on 4 January 1851. [10]
Maria had come to Wellington, New Zealand from California in April 1851 with a 260 tons of coal, having sailed on 22 February. [11] While she was there Charles Clifford chartered her to convey livestock to the Canterbury settlement. Two shipments were taken to Lyttelton, the first in May and the second in June. [12] [13]
Captain Plank sailed Maria from Lyttelton for Wellington on 20 July 1851. She had onboard 22 crew and six passengers. At 6am on 24 July, she struck a submerged rock at Ohariu Bay, to the north of Cape Terawhiti. Maria broke in two about 400m from shore. [14] [15]
The passengers and crew attempted to lower the ship's boat but the lowering mechanism broke, killing several people. The survivors then tried to reach shore using salvaged material as a raft. The raft was dashed into the rocks near the shore, killing almost all on it. Only two crewmen survived, a Malay and Stewart, an ordinary seaman who had been at the wheel at the time of the accident; in all 26 lives were lost. [16]
Eleven bodies were recovered, of whom all but one were buried close to the site of the wreck. The body of Captain Plank was taken to Wellington and buried in the city's cemetery. [15]
Among the dead were two Canterbury settlers, G.P. Wallace of Wellington and William Deans of Riccarton. William and his brother, John Deans, had established Homebush, a sheep and cattle station near Darfield. [17]
As a result of this accident there was a strong call upon the government to construct a lighthouse. [14] [18] A public meeting was held calling for action. [19] The Pencarrow Head Lighthouse, the first lighthouse built in New Zealand, commenced operations in 1859.
References
| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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Cape Terawhiti is the southwesternmost point of the North Island of New Zealand.
Duke of Roxburgh was launched in 1828 at Newcastle upon Tyne. Initially she traded with India, but later she often sailed between Great Britain and her Australasian colonies carrying emigrants. She was wrecked in 1864.
Sir George Seymour was built in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in 1844 by Somes Brothers. She made one voyage transporting convicts to Australia and at least one carrying emigrants to Australia and one to New Zealand. A fire at sea in her cargo in December 1867 forced her crew to abandon her.
William Guyton the younger JP (1816–84) was the second Mayor of Wellington, New Zealand in 1843. A position he obtained on the death of George Hunter and held until the Borough was abolished by the British Government.
HMS Acheron was a Hermes-class wooden paddle sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Sheerness in 1838. Between 1848 and 1851 she made a coastal survey of New Zealand, the first such survey since Captain Cook. She was sold at Sydney in 1855.
Edward Brenchley Bishop was the fourth chairman of the Christchurch Town Council, and seven years later the sixth Mayor of Christchurch in 1872–1873. Born in Maidstone, Kent to a wealthy family, his family lived in Belgium during his childhood. He took his father's profession as a distiller and worked in London for 21 years. His sister Susannah emigrated to New Zealand in 1849 and in the following year, many Bishop siblings followed her on the Charlotte Jane, one of the First Four Ships of organised settlement of Canterbury. With his brother Frederick, he had a large farm just south of Christchurch, and the suburb of Somerfield continues to use their farm's name. The brothers were spirit merchants in the city.
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.
Victory was built by Fenwick & Co, Sunderland in 1847 and owned by Willis, Gunn and Co and later owned by Wilson and Cook. She was a 578- or 579-ton barque that brought some of the first immigrants from England to Dunedin in July 1848. She also called at Wellington, New Zealand, in August 1848. There was an advertisement that gave her weight as 700 tons, but, given that her captain in 1851 was Mullens, it was unlikely to be another ship.
Marchioness was a brigantine built at Waterford, Ireland in 1851 and registered at Melbourne that sailed between Nelson, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia in the 1850s. It foundered on rocks off the Taranaki coast in 1864 and was lost with no loss of life, having previously grounded twice, once off the coast of Victoria, Australia, and once in Cook Strait.
Blenheim was built in 1834 at Jarrow, England. She made three voyages transporting convicts to Australia. She also carried emigrants to New Zealand.
William Deans was, together with his brother John, a pioneer farmer in Canterbury, New Zealand. He was born in Kirkstyle, Riccarton, Scotland. Their Riccarton farm in New Zealand was the first permanent settlement by immigrants on the Canterbury Plains. Deans emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand, after buying land order from the New Zealand Company in 1839. He arrived in what was then known as Port Nicholson on 22 January 1840 on the Aurora. Disappointed with what he found at Wellington, he started looking for other land. In Port Levy, he heard in mid 1842 of the large plains to the west of Banks Peninsula and travelling up the Avon River by whaleboat, he could eventually see from atop the shoulders of one of his travelling companions the lowland forest that became known as Riccarton Bush. He exclaimed:
Whitby was a three-masted, square-rigger launched in 1837 and later re-rigged as a barque. She was registered in London, and made voyages to India, British Guiana, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1841 Whitby, Arrow, and Will Watch carried surveyors and labourers for the New Zealand Company to prepare plots for the first settlers. Whitby was wrecked at Kaipara Harbour in April 1853.
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.
The City of Dunedin was a 327-ton side wheel paddle steamer wrecked in Cook Strait near Cape Terawhiti on 20 May 1865 while sailing from Wellington to Hokitika via Nelson with the loss of all on board. Captain James Parker Boyd commanded her.
City of Edinburgh was a merchant ship built at Bengal in 1813. She transferred to British registry and sailed between Britain and India. She made two voyages transporting convicts from Ireland to Australia. Later, she made a whaling voyage to New Zealand. She was wrecked in 1840.
The New Zealand Company was a 19th-century English company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principles of systematic colonisation devised by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of a new-model English society in the southern hemisphere. Under Wakefield's model, the colony would attract capitalists who would then have a ready supply of labour—migrant labourers who could not initially afford to be property owners, but who would have the expectation of one day buying land with their savings.
Lord William Bentink was launched in 1828 at Yarmouth. She made one voyage transporting convicts to Tasmania, and three carrying settlers to New Zealand for the New Zealand Company. She was wrecked between 1858 and 1859.
Lady Nugent was built at Bombay in 1813. She made four voyages under contract to the British East India Company (EIC). She then made two voyages transporting convicts to Australia, one to New South Wales and one to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). She also made several voyages with emigrants to New Zealand under charter to the New Zealand Company. She foundered in May 1854 with the loss of some 400 persons, most of them soldiers that she was carrying from Madras to Rangoon.
Aurora was built at Chittagong in 1816. She made one voyage transporting convicts to New South Wales in 1833, and a second transporting convicts to Tasmania in 1835. In 1839 she carried immigrants to New Zealand for the New Zealand Company. She was wrecked in 1840.
Bombay was launched in 1801 at Daman/Demaun. Her early career is obscure. From 1821 on she assumed Calcutta registry. Between 1832 and 1840 she made three voyages from London as a whaler. In 1842 she carried settlers for the New Zealand Company. She was last listed in 1853.
