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There were all the sailors who drowned when HMS Orpheus was wrecked while crossing the bar into the Manukau Harbour many many years ago.
Huia.
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Okay Huia you have ESP now... I was going to include them in my post when I get around to it. I took my American friend out to Awhitu light house to show her where it happened when she was over here last year.
Persie
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Following along from Huia.
We have a lot of drownings here in NZ: people go out in dinghies take a couple of kids with them, no thoughts of safety and the next thing the tide turns or a storm starts and the waves roll in, the boat capsizes and what was supposed to be a family out fishing for the day ends in tragedy.
We have a notorious surf beach called Piha, this beach is patrolled by life guards and on a nice sunny day there can be more than four or five rescues of a day. The rips just pop up out of nowhere and the flags are continually being shifted to denote the safe places to swim. One minute you can be waist high in water and think all is okay and the next you are pulled out to sea. We have a television program called Piha Rescue and they don't just show the nice bits. Not everyone survives. It is not at all like Baywatch.
Our ancestors came here in sailing ships and wakas... you would have to wonder how many wakas didn't make it, how many fell out of their canoes and never made it to NZ.
In 1863 The Orpheus left Sydney with 259 men on board bound for NZ, the Tasman Sea was calm and the boat as it came into the Manukau Harbour it hit the sand bar and heeled over. 189 lives were lost... There are plenty of articles on google about it.
From my own ancestry
This one was lucky but the other two not so lucky. Some of my ancestors were one of the first white pioneers to set foot on the Spit at Ahuriri which later became Napier.. In fact one of my greatgrandmother's siblings was the first white baby to be born in Napier, Nov 1851. There were no roads, and at times they were forced to walk along the shingle ridge between the inner harbour and the sea carrying home 50lb bags of flour etc. Their only recreation consisted of walking along the beach where they sank ankle deep in the shingle, or in going out in the boat with their husbands. On one occasion while the boat was crossing the channel, Sarah who was nursing her baby, suddenly missed her 2 1/2 year old (born 1850 in Wellington). On frantically staring around she saw the child's white sun-bonnet bobbing about on the waves and being carried out to sea by the swiftly running current. A Maori boy who was in the boat with them, jumped overboard and swam to the little one and brought her back safely.
Ormond was not so lucky from our papers past. Sept 1882
On Tuesday afternoon, Ormond Joseph Torr oldest son of Thomas Torr was accidentally drowned at Petane. An inquest was held on the body yesterday at Mr Torr's residence, Kaimate, before Dr. Hitchings, Coroner and a jury of which Colonel White was chosen foreman.
The deceased was about 9 and a half years old and had returned home from school at 4 pm on Tuesday afternoon, after which he was sent by his mother to get a load of firewood. He returned and left the wheelbarrow containing the wood at the gate. Mrs Torr saw the barrow but did not see the deceased and beginning to feel uneasy , sent two of the children to look for their brother. They ran back and reported seeing their brothers hat floating on the river. Mrs Torr, assisted by the neighbours, procurred a boat and commenced to dredge the river. Mr Twigg superintending from the bank. After two hours search the body was found in 9 feet of water and brought to the shore
A verdict of " Found drowned ", was returned
In 1884 Ormond's first cousin Claud drowned in the Wairoa River (we played there when I was young, as did my older cousins and my dad before me) he was only a little chap not quite 3 1/2... I don't know the circumstances but like most rivers they ran along the back of the properties and were not fenced off.
Moving forward and on my mother's side of my family. Feb 1975, My cousin aged 29 and pregnant, her husband and young son aged 2 were out in their 28 foot yacht, the youngster toppled over the side. The dad jumped in and my cousin had to turn the yacht around and when she got back both the father and child were in difficulties. She tried to pull them back into the yacht but the combined weight of the two was too much for her. She then clambered into the dinghy that was being towed behind them and again tried to haul them in without success. She then jumped into the water and tried to support them.. her husband was a big guy he was an All Black forward. It was about another hour before they were spotted by the harbour board pilot launch. The little lad had died by then and the husband died on his way to hospital.
Persephone
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