How castaway crew of Anjou shipwreck were saved: Gail Pope

Crew of the French Barque Anjou on the Auckland Islands, taken by Russell Duncan. Photo / MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri

Gail Pope is social history curator at the MTG.

On the morning of Thursday May 4, 1905, Te Matau-a-Māui businessman and keen photographer Russell Duncan, boarded the Hinemoa at Motu-pōhue/Bluff, Te Wai Pounamu/South Island.

The Hinemoa, captained by John Bollons, was embarking on its “periodical journey” to remote subantarctic islands, to check and refurbish government depots.

A New Zealand Government Service steamer, the Hinemoa was specifically designed for servicing lighthouses, patrolling Aotearoa’s coastline, implementing castaway checks, and searching for missing ships.

Hinemoa operated in New Zealand’s territorial waters between 1876 to 1944.

The first stop was Raratoka/Centre Island in Te Ara-a-Kiwa/Foveaux Strait where stores were delivered to the lighthouse keeper.

The following day the Hinemoa arrived at The Snares Islands/Tini Heke, where the food depot was checked and restocked before circling each island sounding its siren to check for castaways.

The steamer ploughed its way into Port Ross Harbour, in Maungahuka/Auckland Islands.

On landing at Erebus Cove, the sailors discovered that the door to the food depot had been left open, encouraging wild goats to make “a dormitory of the building”.

The stores, which had been sealed into packages, were not disturbed but some “relics from old-time castaways” such as “handicraft objects” and a message from the survivors of the Derry Castle had disappeared.

The damage caused by the goats was so great it took all afternoon to tidy the area.

On Sunday, May 7, the Hinemoa began exploring the eastern side of Maungahuka, entering each fiord again sounding the siren to alert castaways, but instead “merely frightened the birds”.

On arrival at Norman’s Inlet, a rowing boat was sent to examine the food depot where it stayed only “a minute or two ashore” before quickly returning.

A message written in charcoal on the depot rafters alerted the crew and Captain Bollons that 22 castaways from the Anjou were camped at Camp Cove, Carnley Harbour.

Battling rain, the Hinemoa made a “record run of one hour 50 minutes” to Camp Cove and detected at the entrance French flags hanging “dejected from a tree”.

After dropping anchor and sounding the siren, a lifeboat containing seven men, including Anjou Captain Le Tallac, rowed out to meet them.

The captain climbed on board and, “too overcome to speak”, was greeted by Bollons with “a hand punch on the back”.

Captain Le Tallac related that the Anjou, bound for Falmouth, had left Sydney on January 22, 1905 with a cargo of wheat.

On reaching the Auckland Islands the vessel was sailing down the “wild and rugged headland known as Cape Bristow” on the inhospitable west coast when disaster struck.

Combined with high seas, strong currents and dense fog, the vessel went off-course.

Sighting land through the fog, Captain Le Tallec tried desperately to “put the ship about” but in vain, as the Anjou collided into towering, rugged cliffs.

Three crew members of the Anjou at a make-shift camp, Camp Cove, Auckland Islands, taken by Russell Duncan. Captain Le Tallec on the right. Image courtesy MTG Hawke's Bay Tai Ahuriri

Within minutes the Anjou had listed onto its port side, as “great waves swept over the deck threatening to engulf the crew”.

Hurriedly, the “largest and best-provisioned” lifeboat was launched but was immediately swept away.

Although the crew wished to leave, “the wisdom of the captain” prevailed as he ordered them to remain on board until dawn.

His decision undoubtedly saved all lives, as it would have been almost impossible to reach land at night under such extreme weather conditions.

Early the following morning the crew clambered into the three remaining lifeboats and, after struggling several hours in “swirling currents and racing tides”, safely landed at Carnley Harbour.

The crew endured a rugged first night sleeping in wet clothes in the bush.

When daylight broke, they found “fingerposts” directing them to the Camp Cove boathouse - this subsequently became the crew’s shelter for nine days, where they survived on albatross, shags, seals, and mussels cooked in “an empty tin found about the place”.

Meanwhile, a group was sent to explore the surrounds and discovered the New Zealand Government provision depot, from which they obtained blankets, clothing, food and matches.

The depot also provided a chart locating the four other depots on the island and a logbook detailing the anticipated date of Hinemoa’s next visit.

Although the depot was just large enough to sleep-in, extra “huts and shelter places” were needed, which the crew built from “timber and scrub that grew very thickly over the island”.

To alert ships of the castaways’ plight, a flagstaff was erected on Adams Island at the entrance to the western arm, on which was hoisted the Anjou’s ensign.

Fearing the depot’s supplies would run out during their enforced sojourn, the crew “contented themselves foraging for food” including wildlife and edible plants.

The day after finding the crew, the Hinemoa overhauled and replenished the five depots, and in the evening visited the scene of the wreck.

The only evidence of the Anjou was the jib-boom found floating at the entrance to Carnley Harbour.

The 22 stranded crew boarded the Hinemoa, which “shaped a course for Campbell Island” when the weather turned “very rough” with “heavy seas”.

Captain Bollons “endeavoured to run the gale” trying to reach Aotearoa as quickly as possible, as there were now “61 souls on board” with only one day’s allocation of water remaining.

The Hinemoa arrived safely at Port Chalmers on May 16, 1905, where the castaways were greeted with open arms by the Shipwreck Relied Society and “the citizens of Dunedin”.

On Friday, May 19, the Anjou castaways left Port Chalmers on board the Waikare, bound for Sydney and from there to France.

The Waikare, seemingly to bid farewell on behalf of the men, sounded the siren and “answering the strain of the winch on her starboard bowline, moved out into the basin”, while the orchestra on the shore rose “to the occasion with a lively tune”.