Wahine Disaster

Tomorrow, April 10th is the 50th anniversary of the Wahine disaster. This is New Zealand’s worst disaster at sea and it happened very close to shore in Wellington Harbour.

The Wahine was a ship which carried passengers across Cook Strait from Lyttelton to Wellington. On the evening of April 9th 1968, the ship left Lyttelton with 734 passengers and crew, and 200 cars on two decks. It was a very rough sea. However, early next morning, the ship entered Wellington harbour but struck even worst weather. In fact, it was one of the worst storms ever experienced. At 6.40am the ship hit Barrett’s Reef. The captain at first thought it was safest to keep the passengers on board instead of putting them into lifeboats during this terrible storm. However, water had got into the vehicle decks and the ship started to sink. By early afternoon, the captain decided everyone had to abandon the ship.

Only 4 of the 8 lifeboats could be launched as the ship was so high on one side. Inflatable lifeboats were thrown into the sea but most of those overturned. Small boats in Wellington could not reach the Wahine because of the storm. Although the Wahine was close to Seatoun, the wind pushed the lifeboats the other direction to Eastbourne where there were rocks.

Many local people and police were heroes, wading into the sea to rescue survivors. 51 people, some of them children, did not survive.

Tomorrow, there will be a dawn ceremony, at 6.30am, and at midday, 50 boats will sail past the Wahine memorial in Frank Kitts Park in Wellington. Many of the survivors and families of those who did not survive will be in Wellington to remember that terrible day.

Vocabulary

• Cook Strait – the sea between the North and South Islands
• struck – past tense of strike meaning to hit
• reef – rocks under the sea
• abandon – leave
• inflatable – rubber boats filled with air
• wading – walking into the water
• survive (v) – to live; survivors – people who did not die
• memorial – a mast from the Wahine ship