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The Wreck of the Penguin - Page 2

© Philippa Jane Ballantine

It took a long five hours for the boat to find the one sandy part of the beach to wash up, Mrs. Hannam scooped sand out from underneath so that she could poke bits of wood through, and attract the attention of rescuers. The lifeboat was far too heavy to lift.

Some nearby shepherds had come down to the beach to see what they could do, and managed to haul the boat off the two survivors. Mrs. Hannam walked out of the area on the rough bridle track and the next day rode away. Months later she would give birth to a baby boy, who would go onto become a seas captain.

The rest of the survivors were mostly from the rafts, though a few did manage to survive by clinging to wreckage. The lack of communication methods meant that Wellington itself was only alerted to the tragedy, when the survivors were discovered by residents. Constables from Island Bay were dispatched, and as they approached the scene, met a man walking dissolutely in the opposite direction. It was Captain Naylor, who had in fact stayed on board his ship until it went down, but never the less survived by floating to shore on a piece of the bow. The Constables rode on, and found the bodies of the victims. Seventy-five were killed in the wreck of the Penguin, and those that remained unclaimed by family were buried in the Karori cemetery in separate graves.

In the later Court of Inquiry it was decided that the cause of the wreck was an exceptionally strong flood tide, and the captain’s decision not to turn the ship out to sea sooner. The interesting aside was the Mrs. Hannam had a premonition of the disaster, and had in fact tried to convince her husband not to take passage on board the ship. She’d also told her mother that they might not meet again. If they had listened, things might well have been different for the family.

The Penguin was one of the young nations worst maritime disasters, and would remain so until the Cook Strait howled once again, and the Wahine too was ripped apart by the treacherous rocks.

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