Thank you for sharing the story about one of New Zealands worse peacetime shipping accidents. Its still talked about every year on the anniversary of her sinking. I would also like to compliment you on not butchering the māori language. You are one of the best ive heard trying to ponounce the language
Thank you so much! This is such a compliment - honestly, typically I have a hard time with pronunciations and I'm so glad I did well this time around! I really appreciate you!!
I was living & working in Wellington on the day this happened, it was an amazing storm. I also travelled back & forth on this ferry & the Maori to visit my parents in Christchurch. They were both lovely vessels.
@@RexyH267 my goodness! Thank you so much for being here. I can only imagine how terrifying that storm was and how beautiful these two ferries were in the flesh!
Thank you for another great video. Very well presented. The details are much as I remember. I was a sixteen year old boy at the time and, with my mother, watched the Wahine sinking from Seatoun beach. We saw one of the lifeboats land. One of the small boats helping was owned and skippered by a friend, Tony Moore. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
Great video. Thank you. I've never seen pictures of her interiors before, very beautiful ship! RIP to those who passed away. That poor woman who lost her three children too.
5:20 I remember fishing as a boy in the 80s off the ferry wharf when the ferry building and ramp were still there. I can't remember when they were finally demolished.
Any loss of life is too many, but given the number of people on board, 53 + 6 missing is minimal. Hindsight is always 20/20, so people can say if the captain would've done this or that differently. My own personal opinion, the captain should've waited it out, knowing how rough the water gets in the cook strait. That's the hindsight is always 20/20 thing!😊 Looking forward to Friday and Sunday Elinor, should be good 😊
@@Chevyman02 it's true about hindsight being 20/20! If we could move forward in life with knowledge of the future all of us would be almost perfect, I'd say. Unfortunately, these negative things are what makes life just that - life! Thank you for being here! ❤️
Just found your channel a couple of days ago. I’m absolutely a fan. New subscriber. 😎👍 Love the format, no fluff, all data and story. Outstanding work. Thanks!
Another amazingly well-done video, miss. This one is tragic as well. There are so many pictures of the ship during her final hours, some of which I’ve never seen before. Thank you so much for sharing😁👍🏼
@@OldShippinglines They are from Emmanuel Makarios’s book The Wahine Disaster - A Tragedy Remembered. Over the years I had two copies, but both disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
That storm is an indelible memory in my mind. I lived 150 miles north from Wellington but there was a lot damage done in my home town of Wanganui. My brother in law was a radio announcer in Wellington at the time and he was doing a live report from a mobile studio, as the tragedy unfolded. The whole family were glued to the radio, while debris was thrown around our property outside. 3 months later I sailed in TEV Maori to the South Island on a school trip and we were all at the rail looking sadly at the wreck of Wahine, as our ship sailed by. I was only 11 at the time of the sinking but I well remember the criticism of the decision to enter the habour under such conditions. Another case of sticking to a schedule being more important than the safety of a ship and it's passengers and crew. I still believe the captain was responsible for the loss of 53 lives and the ship but NZ has this ability to minimise consequences and failures. The same thing happened in the cover up of the Air NZ crash on Mt Erebus. But at least that got exposed later. I've never witnessed a storm like cyclone Giselle before or since and I hope I never do.
@@louisavondart9178 my goodness! I can only imagine how scary that must've been, and how saddening it must've felt to sail past Wahine after her sinking. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I really hope you and your family are doing well! ❤️
Wow how small she was - the last Cook Strait ferry I was on was the Connemara, which at 27,000 tonnes is three times the Wahine's size. Sadly the last victim only died in 1990, 22 years after the wreck, as he had been left with severe brain damage. This video was very well researched. Another thing which killed the overnight ferry between Wellington and Lyttleton was the introduction of the shorter roll on roll off ferry service between Wellington and Picton by the Aramoana For a few years afterwards I think there was an overnight truck only ferry between Wellington and Lyttleton. Thanks fir the video.
@@ianfox6106 thank you so much for adding your experience here! I appreciate it! I noticed that there was only a Wellington to Picton service - so sad they no longer ferry to Lyttelton!
Wahine was not a small ship. In length she was 1 metre short of the Arahura II. 8948 registered tons = 9091,5877 tonnes. Much larger than Connemara. Also I have been on both.
I rode the Wellington/Lyttleton ferry (Rangatira) a couple of times in the mid 70s. I loved it. These days they have only Wellington/Picton ferries- which is a sad loss.
@@MartinCHorowitz very necessary changes. Something all ships should be able to do. Unfortunately Costa Concordia couldn't launch hers while severely listed in 2012, and I think it was poor design.
Interesting video. Aussie here, and I remember as a kid seeing news footage of this tragedy. Other than a 'Reader's Digest' article that I read later, there has never seemed to be much out there about the Wahine. It may be quite a different matter in NZ itself, of course.
I apologize, but I was distracted during the video by the memory of a stunningly beautiful movie about the Maori tribe called Whale Rider. I know you have a lot on your plate, but if you and yours are having a movie night, I definitely recommend Whale Rider. Having a Hawaiian roommate while in the military taught me to appreciate seafaring people.
My parents both have memories of sailing on the Wahine and the news of her sinking - it was like NZ's own version of the Titanic. As a kid I had fond memories of sailing on the Picton ferry (notably the Arahura), and I recall my dad telling me about the Wahine sinking when we were out near the airport when I was around 5. I thought that it was impossible for something as big and stable as ferry could sink like that.
@@offrails I'm so glad your parents were not on board that day. It must've been very harrowing for them to see a ferry they'd been on sink like that. It's undoubtedly one of the most tragic losses of life I've looked into - so much hope that culminated into utter tragedy. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective and taking the time to watch this!
Interesting to note that one of roll - on roll- off Railway ferry Aramoana that tried to rescue passengers from the Wahine was Captain H G Robertson first Roll-on Roll- Off ferry he Captained in 1962 , when the service between Picton and Wellington first started, he was headhunt by the Union Steamship Company for Captain of T .V .Wahine
The Wahine Disaster - A Tragedy Remebered by Emmanuel Makarios has the same photos, plus one colour picture, taken from the Wahine looking toward the stern as they are trying to attach a tow line from the tug.
After Kaga, could you do SS Laurel? Originally known as the West Jessop, she wrecked and sank in the columbia River Passage on June 17th, 1929. With her crew member, Mr Russell Smith, being the only fatality. According to my research it took Laurel roughly 1 hour and 50 minutes to sink. ❤
I think Hicks lost all three originally thought . But the body of one son made it ashore and was revived by a EMT on site. But he lived w brain damage and passed away around 20. Her story broke mt heart.
This ship gives off strong, classic ocean liner vibes. IMHO this type of ship is generally awkwardly shaped and unattractive, but Wahine was easy on the eyes.
Unfortunately the tug boat that went to attempt to put a line to the ship was a harbor tug not a salvage tug and was underpowered for the task the court of inquiry into the sinking recommended that Wellington should invest in a salvage tug the first one entered service in 1971
Forgive me if I'm mistaken because I only know Hawaiian and not Samoan words but Wahine in Hawaiian means woman and is pronounced "Wah-hee-nay." Not "wah-hee-ni." Besides the small nitpick lol great video
Great video, on a side note I heard the Americans offered to blow that reef up for free to let larger ships in the harbour when they occupied New Zealand during ww2.
The water in the harbour entrance is always murky. You'd be lucky to see your hand in front of your face. NZ isn't some tropical paradise as is imagined.
I’m sorry I had to deal with two hurricanes and don’t care about Japanese man made artificial reefs thank to America so I didn’t watch last week… another great documentary!
Thank you for sharing the story about one of New Zealands worse peacetime shipping accidents. Its still talked about every year on the anniversary of her sinking. I would also like to compliment you on not butchering the māori language. You are one of the best ive heard trying to ponounce the language
Thank you so much! This is such a compliment - honestly, typically I have a hard time with pronunciations and I'm so glad I did well this time around! I really appreciate you!!
Not many 'ponounce' anything.😆
@@brucesim2003 this is an unnecessary comment. Typos happen.
@@shipwrecksunday Oh yes. But it's just an humorous reaction.
I was told that the 'R' in Maori had to be rolled to be correct. Any truth to that?
I was living & working in Wellington on the day this happened, it was an amazing storm. I also travelled back & forth on this ferry & the Maori to visit my parents in Christchurch. They were both lovely vessels.
@@RexyH267 my goodness! Thank you so much for being here. I can only imagine how terrifying that storm was and how beautiful these two ferries were in the flesh!
Thank you for another great video. Very well presented. The details are much as I remember. I was a sixteen year old boy at the time and, with my mother, watched the Wahine sinking from Seatoun beach. We saw one of the lifeboats land. One of the small boats helping was owned and skippered by a friend, Tony Moore. All the best from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
@@scottlewisparsons9551 thank you so much for this! I really appreciate you! That must've been quite the thing to see, I can only imagine that.
Great video. Thank you. I've never seen pictures of her interiors before, very beautiful ship! RIP to those who passed away. That poor woman who lost her three children too.
@@missscarling thank you so much for watching! I appreciate you.
Well done, excellent upload. It's good your posting fan requests like this as it's a welcome feeling knowing you listen on our end.
Warm regards.
@@leopardone2386 thanks so much! I love your guys' suggestions - often times it's something I've never heard of! Cheers, my friend!
5:20 I remember fishing as a boy in the 80s off the ferry wharf when the ferry building and ramp were still there. I can't remember when they were finally demolished.
@@BrickNewton it would've been a sight to see for sure! I can only imagine what that looked like. Thank you so much for sharing that!
That was very interesting ! What a shame and loss to the victims.
@@Vet-7174 thank you so much, sir! Great to see you again! It's such a sad story. So much false hope that culminates in a tragic ending.
Any loss of life is too many, but given the number of people on board, 53 + 6 missing is minimal.
Hindsight is always 20/20, so people can say if the captain would've done this or that differently.
My own personal opinion, the captain should've waited it out, knowing how rough the water gets in the cook strait.
That's the hindsight is always 20/20 thing!😊
Looking forward to Friday and Sunday Elinor, should be good 😊
@@Chevyman02 it's true about hindsight being 20/20! If we could move forward in life with knowledge of the future all of us would be almost perfect, I'd say. Unfortunately, these negative things are what makes life just that - life! Thank you for being here! ❤️
Just found your channel a couple of days ago.
I’m absolutely a fan.
New subscriber. 😎👍
Love the format, no fluff, all data and story.
Outstanding work.
Thanks!
@@DeaconBlu thank you so much! I appreciate that so dearly! Welcome to the crew!
Love the narration and all the details. The pictures are the icing on the cake!
@@lumberlikwidator8863 great to see you! Thank you so much!!
Great podcast, production values and narration. Thank you Elinor.
@@notsocapedcrusader6293 thank you so much! ❤️
Well now, fantastic. thank you for creating this.
@@ashman167 thank you so much for watching it!!
Well done Elinor. Goes to show that mother nature don't play. May those who perished rest in peace.
@@shelad she really does not mess around! Thank you for being here for another one, my friend!
Thanks!
@@bazza945 thank you so much! ❤️
A good presentation of a tragic sinking.
@@terrysmith7751 thank you so much!
Another amazingly well-done video, miss. This one is tragic as well. There are so many pictures of the ship during her final hours, some of which I’ve never seen before. Thank you so much for sharing😁👍🏼
@@OldShippinglines thank you so much for watching, my friend!!
@@OldShippinglines They are from Emmanuel Makarios’s book The Wahine Disaster - A Tragedy Remembered. Over the years I had two copies, but both disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
That storm is an indelible memory in my mind. I lived 150 miles north from Wellington but there was a lot damage done in my home town of Wanganui. My brother in law was a radio announcer in Wellington at the time and he was doing a live report from a mobile studio, as the tragedy unfolded. The whole family were glued to the radio, while debris was thrown around our property outside. 3 months later I sailed in TEV Maori to the South Island on a school trip and we were all at the rail looking sadly at the wreck of Wahine, as our ship sailed by. I was only 11 at the time of the sinking but I well remember the criticism of the decision to enter the habour under such conditions. Another case of sticking to a schedule being more important than the safety of a ship and it's passengers and crew. I still believe the captain was responsible for the loss of 53 lives and the ship but NZ has this ability to minimise consequences and failures. The same thing happened in the cover up of the Air NZ crash on Mt Erebus. But at least that got exposed later. I've never witnessed a storm like cyclone Giselle before or since and I hope I never do.
@@louisavondart9178 my goodness! I can only imagine how scary that must've been, and how saddening it must've felt to sail past Wahine after her sinking. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and I really hope you and your family are doing well! ❤️
Wow how small she was - the last Cook Strait ferry I was on was the Connemara, which at 27,000 tonnes is three times the Wahine's size. Sadly the last victim only died in 1990, 22 years after the wreck, as he had been left with severe brain damage. This video was very well researched. Another thing which killed the overnight ferry between Wellington and Lyttleton was the introduction of the shorter roll on roll off ferry service between Wellington and Picton by the Aramoana
For a few years afterwards I think there was an overnight truck only ferry between Wellington and Lyttleton. Thanks fir the video.
@@ianfox6106 thank you so much for adding your experience here! I appreciate it! I noticed that there was only a Wellington to Picton service - so sad they no longer ferry to Lyttelton!
Wahine was not a small ship. In length she was 1 metre short of the Arahura II. 8948 registered tons = 9091,5877 tonnes. Much larger than Connemara. Also I have been on both.
What killed the overnight service was the Boeing 737 and the 1973 oil shock.
Hey shipwreck sunday, for Kaga, I posted a picture of Kaga in my community page on how her wreck looks on the bottom of the seafloor
@@teamtripledent31nextgentls94 amazing! You always have really nice work!
Wonderful presentation, tasteful rendition of an awful tragedy.
@@GordonHouston-Smith thank you so much! Great to see you!! 🍻
I rode the Wellington/Lyttleton ferry (Rangatira) a couple of times in the mid 70s. I loved it. These days they have only Wellington/Picton ferries- which is a sad loss.
@@AlistairKiwi I noticed that when looking online for more about the service! I can only imagine what it must've been like.
The Wahine disaster led to many changes in Maritime Safety rules, including the ability to do a better job launching boats from a listing ship.
@@MartinCHorowitz very necessary changes. Something all ships should be able to do. Unfortunately Costa Concordia couldn't launch hers while severely listed in 2012, and I think it was poor design.
Interesting video. Aussie here, and I remember as a kid seeing news footage of this tragedy. Other than a 'Reader's Digest' article that I read later, there has never seemed to be much out there about the Wahine. It may be quite a different matter in NZ itself, of course.
@@7thsealord888 it was hard finding stuff about it! I'm so glad to have you hear! Thank you so much!!
I apologize, but I was distracted during the video by the memory of a stunningly beautiful movie about the Maori tribe called Whale Rider. I know you have a lot on your plate, but if you and yours are having a movie night, I definitely recommend Whale Rider. Having a Hawaiian roommate while in the military taught me to appreciate seafaring people.
@@The_Dudester oooo! I'll have to check that out! Thank you so much!
I was in Wgtn on that day - it is still a real in my memory as it was on the day.
@@woodliceworm4565 I can only imagine what that must've been like!
A very good looking ship with a nice name. Every episode is something new. Very well done with a lot of research.
@@robinwiddrington5765 thank you so much! I appreciate that!
Great Video may the victims RIP🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏😭
@@steveshattuck8128 thank you so much my friend! ❤️
My parents both have memories of sailing on the Wahine and the news of her sinking - it was like NZ's own version of the Titanic. As a kid I had fond memories of sailing on the Picton ferry (notably the Arahura), and I recall my dad telling me about the Wahine sinking when we were out near the airport when I was around 5. I thought that it was impossible for something as big and stable as ferry could sink like that.
@@offrails I'm so glad your parents were not on board that day. It must've been very harrowing for them to see a ferry they'd been on sink like that. It's undoubtedly one of the most tragic losses of life I've looked into - so much hope that culminated into utter tragedy. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective and taking the time to watch this!
thanks Elinor well done. see ya friday my friend. 😎💚💙👍👍🍺🍺🍻
@@walterathow5988 thank you so much!! Great to see you!
Interesting to note that one of roll - on roll- off Railway ferry Aramoana that tried to rescue passengers from the Wahine was Captain H G Robertson first Roll-on Roll- Off ferry he Captained in 1962 , when the service between Picton and Wellington first started, he was headhunt by the Union Steamship Company for Captain of T .V .Wahine
Interesting!
I first heard avout this at 7-8 when i was looking at shipwreck documentaries on TH-cam.
@@superdisneyturkey06t59 I love documentaries on TH-cam! There are so many good ones and great creators on here.
God bless
God bless, my friend!
Here I is!
Here you is! Welcome!
Nice photos. I wonder where you found them? No credits.
@@KiwiSentinel I found them primarily on Google, a couple on Encyclopedia Britannica, and a couple from multiple research sites like JSTOR!
The Wahine Disaster - A Tragedy Remebered by Emmanuel Makarios has the same photos, plus one colour picture, taken from the Wahine looking toward the stern as they are trying to attach a tow line from the tug.
After Kaga, could you do SS Laurel? Originally known as the West Jessop, she wrecked and sank in the columbia River Passage on June 17th, 1929. With her crew member, Mr Russell Smith, being the only fatality. According to my research it took Laurel roughly 1 hour and 50 minutes to sink. ❤
I can look into her for sure!
Glad to see there was no 8 legged monster surprises this time🤣😂
@@gallofourteen116 LMAO me too 😂😂
I think Hicks lost all three originally thought . But the body of one son made it ashore and was revived by a EMT on site. But he lived w brain damage and passed away around 20. Her story broke mt heart.
@@JeffreyHinton-s7c omg! Thank you for including this. That is so sad!!
This ship gives off strong, classic ocean liner vibes. IMHO this type of ship is generally awkwardly shaped and unattractive, but Wahine was easy on the eyes.
@@Dwilso621 she absolutely does! The sharp bow and look of her coloring is very flattering.
It was one big stuff-up!
@@Mcfreddo it definitely was a fiasco!
My brother had a ticket for the next day on the Wahine. He has always been a tin ass
@@gregnicolle man! He dodged a bullet for that one. Glad he's okay!
Tin ass?
Didn't want to swear, it's really ars
My parents sailed on the Maori about a week after the wreck and sailed past the wreck.
The Andrea Doria sank in 1956 not 53.
@@dr.migilitoloveless2385 thank you for the correction ❤️
Hi Eleanor!
@@ToTheLeftOfBernie hello!! 😁
@@shipwrecksunday for the algo and such. 😁
@@ToTheLeftOfBernie I appreciate you!! 😁😁
My primary school had a section of the chain, tapawera area school in front of reception
That's very interesting! Thank you for sharing this!
Not bad. Fairly good. Perhaps explain RO -RO as people May not know. "Glasgow" pronounced Glass-Go 8/10
@@ohsodexy thank you for your honest assessment!!
i know ive already said this in a prior video but i would love to see a Video about the RMS Megantic because im building it out of wood right now
@@chilionthetxtfile that's awesome! I'll have to look into her!!
@@shipwrecksunday Thank you!
Unfortunately the tug boat that went to attempt to put a line to the ship was a harbor tug not a salvage tug and was underpowered for the task the court of inquiry into the sinking recommended that Wellington should invest in a salvage tug the first one entered service in 1971
@@philpeters7273 thank you for pointing that out! That is good information to have!
Her mast is mounted at Eastbourne
@@jonathanbaron-crangle5093 thank you for including that!
Forgive me if I'm mistaken because I only know Hawaiian and not Samoan words but Wahine in Hawaiian means woman and is pronounced "Wah-hee-nay." Not "wah-hee-ni." Besides the small nitpick lol great video
@@morgan4574 this is Maori! I believe the pronunciation is Wah-hee-nee but I could be wrong!
Great video, on a side note I heard the Americans offered to blow that reef up for free to let larger ships in the harbour when they occupied New Zealand during ww2.
@@rugbynz74 interesting - I'm glad they did not do it! Destroying nature like that is always sad.
👍👍👍
@@AML-FRL 😁😁😁
there's no photos in underwater
@@maratatoko-en2ng nope - I couldn't find any readily available sadly 😔
The water in the harbour entrance is always murky. You'd be lucky to see your hand in front of your face. NZ isn't some tropical paradise as is imagined.
@@louisavondart9178 thank you for including this!
Looks a little like the Andrea Doria.
@@dr.migilitoloveless2385 she does!
I’m sorry I had to deal with two hurricanes and don’t care about Japanese man made artificial reefs thank to America so I didn’t watch last week… another great documentary!
@@nordisk1874 hey, that's fair!! I am glad to see you! 😁 I hope you are doing well after these hurricanes - they have been horrifying.
👍
@@joeanderson9852 😁😁😁