Relic rises from a watery grave

By DANIEL JACKSON

DARGAVILLE - Wreckage from a ship that sank 100 years ago has washed up on the shores of the Kaipara Harbour with the vessel's name still visible despite a century beneath the waves.

In October, the Herald plucked the original story of the Lord of the Isles' demise from its files and re-ran it in its 100 Years Ago column.

Within weeks of the article, the transom, or piece of stern, from the lifeboat of the 400-tonne barquentine washed up on the beach of the harbour's North Spit.

Any doubts about the origin of the "driftwood" were quickly erased.

Beneath years of crystalised salt and mineral deposits lay the ship's name in ghostly white lettering.

The transom is now in the hands of volunteers at the Dargaville Maritime Museum, where it is being faithfully restored.

Honorary curator Noel Hilliam said that once the wood was properly dried and preserved it would join other pieces of the ship the museum had collected over the years.

These include the Lord of the Isles' poop deck, figurehead and bow spit.

"Occasionally, bits and pieces come to light when heavy seas wash the sands away," Mr Hilliam said.

The ship was made of Australian hardwood and huon pine and he said it was likely much of it still remained under the sands of the bar off the North Spit.

The build-up of mineral deposits, known as concretion, had preserved the white painted letters of the ship's name and the mostly clean waters and sands of the Kaipara had kept it free from damage by pollutants.

"It's been buried in good, pure sand and, being a hardwood, it's survived."

Mr Hilliam said the find was another addition to the remarkable tale of the Lord of the Isles.

The Australian-owned vessel was bound for the then bustling Port of Kaipara from Sydney with a cargo of bone dust fertiliser.

But she became another victim of the area known as the Kaipara Graveyard - where the wrecks of at least 26 ships lie - when she was caught in a storm and broke up on the bar on October 2, 1900.

Mr Hilliam said the sailors on board the vessel would surely have died on the bar, 4.8km from the shore, if it had not been for a miracle.

"They never had the chance to launch the lifeboat, but the ship broke up and they all rode into shore on the poop deck."