Wild, deadly night Penguin was lost
When the ship named Penguin sank into the waters of Cook Strait 110 years ago, survivors heard a “tremendous explosion”.
It was one of the steamer’s boilers being flooded with cold water. Soon the ship broke nearly in half and went down nose first.
The disaster, off Wellington’s rocky southwest coast, was our deadliest maritime tragedy last century, with just 30 survivors. Varying accounts put the death toll at 72 or 75 — far more than the 53 who died when the Wahine sank at the entrance to Wellington Harbour on April 10, 1968.
Penguin was on the Nelson-Picton-Wellington run.
It left Picton at 6.20pm on Friday, February 12, 1909, and the weather was fairly clear as it entered Cook Strait from Tory Channel shortly before 8pm. The weather deteriorated into a strong southerly with heavy seas, rain and poor visibility.
The Penguin was steaming at full speed within 6.4km of what a later inquiry called the “coastal danger” of southwestern Wellington province. The master, Captain Francis Naylor, couldn’t see the shore. A tide stronger than he realised was thought to have pushed it into unrecognised danger.
Naylor was trying to head out to sea when the ship struck an object which tore a fatal hole in its hull about 10pm. Some thought the ship hit a drifting wreck, but the inquiry agreed with Naylor that it smashed into Thoms Rock, about 1.5km off the outfall of Karori Stream and about 9km southeast of Cape Terawhiti.
Even today it is an isolated spot on a dangerous, craggy coastline studded by rocky reefs and cliffs.
Preparations were made to get the women and children into the five lifeboats, but some boats were smashed or swamped as they were launched in the rough seas, others capsized; they floated ashore, damaged and mostly empty.
All 10 children who were on the ship died in the sea. Only one woman survived. She lost her husband and four children, including a baby.
Two rafts were launched, one with 10 men, the other with 12 people on board, mainly crew. Those on the rafts, which overturned several times, got ashore, but only six people in lifeboats survived the night.
“For eight miles the beach is strewn with wreckage,” the Herald reported. “Most of the bodies of [those] drowned so far recovered came ashore in a little bay near a [sheep station] homestead occupied by a Mr McManemin, who rendered splendid aid to the survivors.
“The survivors had a hard time of it. Thrown ashore, with what little clothing they had on soaked through, they huddled together in some scrub till daylight, when clothes and food were provided by Mr McManemin.
Penguin sailor Charles Jackson told a reporter: “When the vessel struck, there was a sound like the rending of a gigantic piece of calico. I knew at once that the steamer had struck, but we kept going for a while.”
Seawater was found flooding into front parts of the ship and preparations were made to get off.
“In a short space of time No. 1 and No. 2 lifeboats were ready for launching with the women and children. The sea was running mountains high, and the task was a difficult one.
“Great waves thundered against the sides of the ship. One boat after it was launched was smashed to pieces. No. 1 lifeboat, however, got clear of the ship, but owing to the cruel buffeting it was subjected to by the waves she started leaking.”
Jackson was helping the second officer to launch another boat.
“We had got the boat out of the davits when a tremendous sea struck under the bottom, and she capsized.”
After all the female passengers had left, men “huddled about on deck”, said Jackson, who got on a raft.
“We had our full complement aboard, and were just drifting away from the ship when the boiler burst with a tremendous explosion, and the ship slipped out of sight . . . We were a sufficient distance from the vessel to prevent us being sucked under.
“We overturned on three occasions . . . men struggling in the water, and it was magnificent to see them helping each other to a place of safety.”
In an inquiry by a Nautical Court, Captain Naylor was found guilty of “wrongful default” by not putting out to sea sooner. His master’s certificate was suspended for a year.
His appeal in the Supreme Court failed, the Evening Post said. The appeal judge, Justice Cooper, faulted Naylor for continuing at full speed when the ship’s water-speed instrument had failed and the weather was so “thick” he couldn’t see land which he must have known was near.