Thirteen international seafarers died and remains of 499 Chinese miners, being repatriated to their homeland, were lost when the SS Ventnor went down.
Much controversy was generated when, during a media conference held in Auckland in November last year, the Project Ventnor Group leader John Albert revealed they had found the ship.
They displayed a few artefacts their divers had recovered at the request of government officials, who wanted physical proof that it was indeed the SS Ventnor.
Mr Albert, a Northland film maker, will hold a further news conference later in the year, one which he says will provide major revelations about the ship and its unusual cargo.
With our country's destiny increasingly linked to that of China, and with the Ventnor story being one of the most remarkable chapters in our shared history, what Mr Albert and his group have to say should be enlightening.
The key factor with finding koiwi tangata (human remains) is whether they're in a grave site, or the scene of sudden death.
In the first instance the remains will generally be left alone.
In the second, they'll generally be moved to a more fitting resting place.
Essentially, the root of the "ghost ship" controversy has been just this issue.
Should the remains, if any exist on the ocean floor, be left where they are?
Or should somebody fulfil the wishes of the Chinese miners and their families who commissioned the Ventnor, by taking the men's remains back to China?
Members of the Sew Hoy family and many from the Chinese community are on record as saying that if the remains of the miners were found, they would like them returned to China, so that they and their families could have eternal peace.
I understand many local kaumatua are upset that the site where the Ventnor lies has been deemed by some to be a grave-site.
Maori do not have gravesites at sea, and there are a number of protocols that must be met, before an area becomes a gravesite.
When bones are found
In most circumstances there's a procedure to follow when human bones are found in the wilderness, and it's the same whether they're historical, or modern.
The Ministry of Justice says when bones are first uncovered, you might not be able to tell if they are animal or human, old or recent. As such they need to be investigated with caution. It is best if you can leave the koiwi in place and notify police so an investigation can be done." (www.justice.govt.nz)."
Of course, in the old days Maori interred their dead in caves, and while still teenage a cadet reporter I learned that such urupa are to be respectfully avoided.
During the mid 1970s, while working for the Daily News in Taumarunui, a large previously unknown Maori burial cave was discovered in another part of the King Country.
My chief reporter, legendary Taumarunui journalist Eric Clark, had sobering words on whether we should cover this event.
"Feel free to go and file a story; don't let me stop you," Eric told me.
"But understand that this will lead to the deaths of the three Maori closest to you; probably me, my son and grandson."
Hearing that I quickly lost interest in the project.
But it was a lot different in 1974, when then teen goat hunter Errol Clince discovered the downed RNZAF Airspeed Oxford in the Egmont National Park.
This was a lead story in the Taranaki Daily News.
Young Errol had just pushed through some fern and there was the plane's machinegun turret, pointing right at him.
Without realising it, he'd solved one of the greatest aviation mysteries of the day.
Errol "went crazy", playing with the gun and removing its magazine, pulling apart parachutes and shifting flight controls. But when his dog appeared with a human bone in its mouth, Errol ran for his life.
He'd had no idea that he was the first to find the downed Oxford, but he needn't have worried.
Remains Errol discovered were carried out a couple of days later and grateful families, long mystified over the fate of their loved ones, got to provide decent burials.
Wesleyan Methodist minister Richard Waugh has published histories on most major air crashes in New Zealand. Dr Waugh says are still a substantial number of crash sites out there yet to be found. In one of his books, Dr Waugh described a 'Bermuda Triangle of New Zealand aviation', from Mt Aspiring, to Milford Sound and to Haast. There's five aircraft - with 21 men women and children in them - still missing in this area.
So what should our attitude be to such sites?
"Where anyone has died it is special and describe it as a sort of a sacred place, or tapu as Maori would call it. Especially if somebody's life has come to a tragic end," says the minister.
"Obviously notify the police and don't disturb anything because evidence can be examined even after 20, 30 or 40 years. You could be helping to solve a mystery for family members . . . There's always a wider circle of people surrounding the person who has died, whatever the cause. Each is affected to some degree, no matter how long ago it might seem."
Ventnor Project Group
These sentiments could also be applied to the sinking of the Ventnor.
The first to this site, was neither a wayward teen, nor a journalist looking for a scoop.
It was a voluntary group led by Mr Albert, folk sharing his view that somebody ought to find the Ventnor. They told me they wanted to act to help bring closure to the koiwi on the boat and their families, to provide an ending to one of our countries most bizarre maritime tragedies, and because it is the right thing to do.
The group includes two internationally respected senior members of the dive community, Keith Gordon and Dave Moran; director/producer Eruera Morgan; Hokianga charter boat operators and Hokianga coastguards John and Linda Patterson; local kaumatua John Klaracich CNZM; Whetu Naera JP; Peter Martin; members of the Sew Hoy family and many from both the Chinese community and local Maori.
Right at the outset, Mr Albert briefed and received a blessing to proceed from descendants of Choie Sew Hoy, who was the organiser of the ill fated ship's journey.
(Choie Sew Hoy died just before the SS Ventnor began it's ill-fated journey, and was added to the ship's cargo).
Mr Albert also liaised with staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government officials here and in China.
They concentrated their search off Hokianga, sending a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) down to inspect an object which had for years appeared on fishermen's echo sounders. It was assumed to be a reef.
Respected Kaumātua and minister Selwyn Pryor committed the project to the Almighty, blessing the ship ahead of the ROV's descent.
The film showed a large ship down there and the group assembled a team of elite technical divers to take a closer look.
They braved the enormous depths involved.
Descending 150 metres to survey the ship, the divers had only brief bottom time ahead of hours of decompression on the way up.
Several artefacts were removed and measurements taken - there was now no doubt, it was the Ventnor alright.
Piercing the darkness with their powerful lights, the divers noted that the deck which had contained the coffins has been swept away and the ship had been extensively damaged by trawl nets and boat anchors.
The cargo of coal lay on the bottom alongside the ship but no human remains were sighted.
Mr Albert and his team are hopeful that the remains of the crew who went down with the ship may still lie on the ocean floor nearby.
The Ventnor Project Group's visit to the ship drew the wrath of a rival group which wanted the ship left undisturbed. But the dive group also has many supporters within the Chinese community and business.
Two prominent Chinese living in New Zealand have been in touch with this reporter.
They told me if any hope remains at all of finding the bones of the missing miners, this possibility must be looked into.
Their message was: "let's see what's down there, then let the families of both the miners and crew who perished; local iwi's and the relevant Government officials make the decisions".
