By David Watt    

Te Moana-o-Raukawa, the Cook Strait, has always attracted more than its fair share of treacherous weather, often making for a worrisome ferry journey  from one side to the other. Recent incidents involving the ferries suffering mechanical issues, and a summer of storms and cyclones, may leave some recalling the 10th of April 1968, when the TEV Wahine floundered at the entrance to Wellington harbour, 55 years ago this month. 

The sinking of the Lyttleton-Wellington ferry is Aotearoa New Zealand’s worst modern maritime disaster. Of the 734 people on board being 610 passengers and 124 crew, 51 lost their lives that day due to the atrocious weather conditions and exposure to the elements. Another died some weeks later, and a 53rd victim died in 1990 from injuries sustained in that tragedy. 

In the early hours of the 10th of April, two violent storms merged over Wellington, creating a single extratropical cyclone that, at the time, was the worst recorded in our history. Cyclone Giselle was heading south after causing significant damage further north. It hit Wellington at the same time that another storm, driven up along the West Coast of the South Island from Antarctica, arrived. The winds in Wellington at one point reached 275 kilometres an hour and in one Wellington suburb ripped the roofs off 98 houses.

Earlier that day, when the Wahine had set out from Lyttleton Harbour, there was no indication that the weather would be any worse than that experienced by other vessels crossing the Strait.  

Reporting on the slow sinking of the Wahine caught in the grip of a great storm, captured the attention of the wider world and  marked a coming-of-age for television news broadcasting in New Zealand. 

 Images of the Wahine foundering at the Heads, drifting onto Tangihanga-ō-Kupe Barrett’s Reef, going into a final death roll, and slipping beneath the waves, were graphically beamed into homes and businesses across Aotearoa New Zealand. The whole nation was gripped by the blow-by-blow updates as the disaster unfolded. The day-long disaster  was broadcast by radio and television and screened around the world as international media swung their spotlights onto Wellington. 

Rescue boats were launched from Seatoun and the inner harbour in mountainous seas, all racing to help people who had been thrown into the sea. Many would-be rescuers who stood in the storm on the beach at Seatoun as the Wahine slowly sank, were incredulous that so many lives were be lost despite the ship seeming to be close to the shoreline.    

Incredibly, and in testament to Wellington’s wildly changeable weather, the following day dawned fine and relatively calm, which, while helpful for those still responding to the disaster, would have done little to ease the painful memories of the previous day’s nightmare.   

Ten weeks after the disaster, a court of enquiry found errors of judgement had been made bringing the ship into the harbour, but the conditions were acknowledged as most difficult and dangerous, resulting in the ship’s capsize due to a build-up of water on the vehicle deck. Charges were brought against her officers, but all were subsequently acquitted.   

Over time, many pieces were recovered from the wreck and installed around Wellington’s coastline to create memorial where people can reflect on the tragedy. The Wahine Memorial Park at Seatoun marks the disaster with a bow thruster near where survivors reached the shore. Churchill Park in Seatoun has a memorial plaque, the ship’s anchor and chain, and replica ventilators. A plaque and the foremast are located at the parking area near Burdan’s Gate on the east side of the harbour on the coastline where many survivors and deceased were washed up. The main mast of the Wahine is part of another memorial in Frank Kitts Park on the Wellington City waterfront.