Online find window into maritime past

A chance find while surfing Trade Me has led to a Dargaville resident becoming the proud owner of a porthole from what is believed to be a 19th-century French whaling ship.

Sue Taylor is passionate about the district she lives in and says she likes to sift through the internet looking for objects that may have some local history.

Early last month she saw the porthole being offered by a private collector in Wanganui. It had reportedly come from the the French man o' war L'Alcemene, wrecked off Ripiro Beach on Kaipara's west coast, in 1851.

Mrs Taylor immediately pressed the "buy now" button and was delighted when the vintage brass porthole, which cost her $75, arrived at her home.

She and her husband, Rick, operate the Information Centre alongside Rick's woodturning gallery and they thought the find would be a good talking point with visitors to the centre.

She was surprised to be told by local shipwreck explorer Noel Hilliam he believed the porthole was not from the L'Alcemene, but the French whaler Brilliante, which was wrecked off Ripiro in 1834. There are 110 officially recorded shipwrecks on the Kaipara coast, but Mr Hilliam says he has discovered an extra 57 wreck sites.

After many years of searching he had located the L'Alcemene wreck in January 1977. Several relics salvaged from it are on display in the Dargaville Museum. The portholes, he says, are much larger than the one Mrs Taylor owns and bear special stamps.

"The parts of all Admiralty ships are officially stamped. L'Alcemene - a three-masted, 36-gun corvette - was a French flagship. It's portholes have distinctive marking," said Mr Hilliam.

He said he had, in 2002, located the Brilliante near where L'Alcemene sank and already had an authenticated porthole in his own private collection - it matches Mrs Taylor's.

"According to Maori Land Court minute books the Brilliante wrecked in April 1834. All of the 18 crew members perished," said Mr Hilliam.

"Whalers were common in the waters at this time and I know of two other whaling wrecks - that of the American whaler Union wrecked in July 1834 near the entrance to the Baylys Beach settlement and the Dragon south of Glinks Gully."

The three ships were covered in deep sand, but could occasionally be seen during or following big storms.

The notorious Kaipara Harbour bar showed no mercy to captains unable to find their bearings on North Head or ships being pounded by vicious storms coming over what is locally referred to as the "Graveyard".