At 6.40am on the 10th of April in 1968, Captain H.G Robertson made a fatal mistake as he reversed the floundering Wahine backwards onto the Barret reef. The Lyttleton to Wellington ferry had just entered Wellington Harbour in a gusty 50 knot cold southerly wind. At exactly the same time the northerly tropical Cyclone Giselle smashed into the cold southerly front and the winds suddenly changed to 100 knots. It turned the ocean to wild high seas and gale force winds that slammed into the ship carrying 734 passengers and crew pushing the ship towards Barret’s reef. As Captain Robertson tried to correct the direction of the ship he accidentally reversed the ship. The ship crashed into the reefs rocks which ripped off the propeller and tore open the hull. A tug was called and unsuccessful attempts were made to move the ship of the reef.
It wasn’t until 1.15pm when the ship suddenly listed sharply that the Captain made the call to abandon ship. The crew and passengers could only reach four life rafts. One was swamped by heavy seas and capsized, two landed safely in Seatoun beach and one landed in Eastbourne. Two hundred and fifty passengers and crew were thrown into the wild cold sea and swept by heavy winds towards Eastbourne or out to the heads. Two hundred survived the freezing seas in their heavy bulky lifejackets and made it onto the sharp rocky shores of Eastbourne. Fifty one people drowned or died of hyperthermia or were fatally injured on the sharp rocks of Eastbourne.
When my father heard about the disaster he contacted his fishermen friends in the Island Bay fishing fleet. Dad went with the fishermen in their boats to help. They were all very experienced sea farers who knew the seas and had a very good local knowledge of Wellington coast. Many had been involved in the in 1933 fishing boat disaster of the “Sanita” which was caught in a storm.
The Island Bay fishermen saved a lot of the people from the Wahine disaster. They pulled exhausted survivors from the Eastbourne seas and the fleet of small boats ferried survivors to land. As one man said “back and forth like Dunkirk”. My Dad was on the fishing boats helping. He was quite fit and after the war had worked on container ships. They all worked at rescuing people alive but later went by picking up the bodies. Many had died from exposure. When it got too dark to work they were forced to stop. The fishing fleet made its way back to Island bay through the storm and very rough seas.
Dad arrived home late that evening. He opened the front door and just stood in our hall way in his black oilskin, sodden clothes and woollen hat in huge puddle of sea water. He was dripping wet, looked very pale and grey and was shaking with cold. His hands were white with marks of red from rope burns. Mum ordered me to run a hot bath while my sister and brother got towels then told us all to go to bed as she would look after him. She stripped dad down in the hallway and gave him a hot bath. He didn’t say much and looked exhausted. After a day of recovering I overheard him tell mum about saving woman and children who were being pulled under the water because they were wearing heavy winter coats. He talked about how bad the life jackets were as they got waterlogged and were very heavy and how later he pulled out dead bodies from the sea.
Dad was one of 150 civilians who helped the police and maritime crew rescue people. The Island Bay fishing fleet and other owners of small boats who went to help and save people from the Wahine disaster never got any formal recognition for their brave contribution. There certainly would have been more deaths if they had not been there. Even the police said if it wasn’t for the small fleet of fishing boats rescuing people from the harbour there would have been twice as more deaths. Today the Italian fishing fleet in Island bay have an annual “Blessing of the boats” ceremony. A priest blesses each boat and crew and prays for protection and safety at sea.
My dad never talked about what he did, just like what he did in the war. But the pictures in the paper and on TV spoke for themselves. It was a terrible disaster and there was a lot of what if’s about the accident such as that the ship should have been abandoned earlier. The loss of life certainly could have been avoided. The good part is it resulted in better safety procedures and marine weather forecasting. I will always have this picture of my pale shaking father standing in a puddle in our hall way. I was eleven at the time and fully understood what was going on. I wanted to run up and cuddle him. I was so pleased he came back alive.