Photo: Tom Palaskas
Fifty years ago today, the interisland ferryWahine capsized and sank in shallow water after running aground near the mouth of Wellington harbor in New Zealand. The ship had been caught in a storm caused by Tropical Cyclone Giselle. Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger and vehicle ferry owned by the Union Steamship Company which ran between Wellington and Lyttelton. When the ferry sank, 53 of the 743 aboard died, most by drowning.
Recently, photos have emerged of the ship taken by a young art student, Tom Palaskas two days after the ship was wrecked. Click here to see the photos.
Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.
Surprisingly I had forgotten this date. On passing my Second Mate’s Certificate of Competency in England I joined the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand on contract from August 1959 to May 1961. On arrival in Auckland, NZ I was posted to the SS Tamahine, CAPT. Russell, as Third Mate. She was the ferry than ran from Wellington across the Cook Strait to Picton on the South Island. At that time the Maori and Hinemoa operated from Wellington to Lyttelton with Rangitera operating on the Wellington Picton route at weekends. This was my first position as a Certificated Deck Officer on the two year contract. USS of NZ was a very British Colonial style company which was managed in an authoritarian micro-management style with lots of petty rules and reams of paperwork, 75% quite pointless. However this contract did give a basis of standards and record-keeping which stood to me in the 50 year career at sea which followed.
Good Watch