The wreck of the Forrest Hall on Ninety Mile Beach. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
The wreck of the Forrest Hall on Ninety Mile Beach. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library
While much of the talk about shipwrecks in Northland continues to focus on the “environmental ticking time bomb” that is the RMS Niagara, we are reminded about the other ghosts beneath our waters.
Forrest Hall
The Forrest Hall was bound for Chile with 3000 tonnes of coal aboard when her voyage came to an abrupt end on 90 Mile Beach on February 27, 1909.
All hands were safely ashore by the following morning, but the Forrest Hall lay in the surf, her back broken.
The 84-metre, iron-clad, three-masted ship had run aground on a weather shore, in calm conditions and in broad daylight, a scenario that was viewed then, and still is, as not easily achieved. Research by the Far North Regional Museum suggested that the calamity was not unrelated to the ship’s rum barrel, and shipboard disagreements that were fuelled by the same.
The ship’s chief officer drew the attention of Captain JF Collins to the fact the ship was heading for the beach but the captain insisted the course be held.
A court of inquiry in Auckland heard Captain Collins’ claim that his ship had been on course to sail through Cook Strait, or possibly Foveaux Strait. His miscalculations were deemed to be linked to “ill health” and his master’s certificate was suspended for two years.
L’Alcmene
L’Alcméne was a three-masted corvette that left Tasmania in May 1851 with 230 people on board sailing toward Whangaroa to load kauri spars bound for Tahiti.
On June 3, the L’Alcmene was unable to move because of a lack of wind and drifted for four days. On the fourth day, the wind whipped up and drove her towards the shore of Baylys Beach.
The beaching of the French corvette L’Alcmene near Kaipara. Photo / Charles Clarke - Alexander Turnbull Library
With the west coast waves pounding, the captain decided to beach her and in the doing 12 lives were lost.
Sophia Pate
Twenty-one people died when the brig Sophia Pate was wrecked on a sandbar at the entrance to Kaipara Harbour on August 31, 1841. The vessel had been chartered to ferry 23 Irish settlers from Sydney to Kaipara to establish a settlement in the Kaihu Valley.
Sophia Pate ran aground at 4pm and by 10pm had been broken apart by the strong swells. Everyone except for a settler and the captain’s wife went overboard.
In the early hours of the morning, the ship’s captain reached shore in a jolly boat filled with his son, crew members and one passenger. He was later detained in Auckland on a charge of manslaughter following claims he had stopped his wife and some of the passengers from boarding the jolly boat.
A lack of evidence meant the case was dismissed.
SS Ventnor
In 1902, the SS Ventnor was carrying the remains of 499 Chinese gold miners back to their village in southern China for burial when it sank off the Hokianga Harbour. The ship had struck a rock off Cape Egmont.
For more than a century, no one knew where the ship lay. It was eventually discovered in 2013, and in 2021 the bones of the lost miners were found entombed in the wreck.
The Ventnor struck a reef south of Cape Egmont. Photo / Charles Peet Dawes - Alexander Turnbull Library
Ship expert Keith Gordon explores in his book, SS Ventnor - Ghost Ship of the Hokianga Harbour, how the findings sparked conflicting cultural beliefs and sensitivities. He said artefacts recovered from the shipwreck created bureaucratic indecisions.
Karina Cooper is deputy news director and covers breaking and general news for the Advocate. She also has a special interest in investigating what is behind the headlines and getting to heart of a story.
