From the window of my flat in Oriental Bay I have a view of Wellington harbour and bay. The late summer weather has been one of exceptional sunshine and the last few weeks provided a respite from the winds that make this the windiest capital city anywhere. Or at least that’s the boast but it certainly sounds true. Two weeks ago, for a couple of days, the water had no chop at all and it must have been as low on the Beaufort scale as possible. Living here has made me more attentive to every change in the wind. Regardless if it’s a northerly or a southerly blow it’s always dramatic with the clouds moving across the sky as if in a fast forwarded film. This is our ten month in New Zealand and we are getting acclimated for the first time to seasons that are turned upside down for us northern hemispherians. My neighbour Michael was right back in November when he said I would love March.
But we are now into the first week of April and the weather has turned dramatically colder and rainy. It could be exactly like this back in New York where winter would still linger awhile and only the budding forsythia gave a hint that the good stuff of spring was to be soon in the offing. But here in the southern latitudes it means the beginning of winter and a return to the weather of the “roaring forties”.
It was forty years ago that New Zealand experienced a mammoth storm that was the worst in recorded history and which caused the sinking of the inter-island ferry, the Wahine. On the morning of April 10, 1968 the Wahine entered the harbour of Wellington after leaving from Lyttelton in the South Island the previous day. During the previous night two storms merged over Wellington and by the morning there were winds with gusts in excess of 150 kilometres per hour. Wellington harbour was a raging sea that threatened to drive the ship onto the rocks of a nearby reef. The captain attempted to reverse course back to the Cook Straits for safety. The ship by this time was almost uncontrollable in the troughs of the massive waves and with her radar damaged and with zero visibility they were unable to steer her out of harms way. The ship was driven fast aground onto the reef. The crew was able to free the ship but it was now taking on water and adrift in the harbour. By late morning the Wahine was seriously listing and with the rough sea making rescue from the shore impossible the Captain gave the orders to abandon ship. The ship’s list made it difficult to ready the life boats and only four were successfully launched. Most passengers were forced into the water and attempted to swim to shore. Many of the 52 who died that day were killed after being hurtled against the rocky beach. Most of the other deaths were from drowning or exposure. It was not the worst loss of life for a New Zealand maritime disaster but that it happened so close to Wellington and that the city residents were unable to come to the direct aid of the stricken passengers has helped make the memory of the Wahine disaster one that Kiwis do not want forgotten.
There’s a maritime museum close to Queens Wharf in Wellington that shows an excellent 20 minute long documentary film about the Wahine disaster. I visited that museum shortly after arriving here last year. Since then there have been days with weather of high winds and rain with a rough chop on the sea but nothing that would make being out on even a small boat an activity of great danger. While looking out on the harbour I try to picture that day forty years ago and I can only imagine how frightening it must have been to see that scene and to be so helpless in the face of nature in her full fury.
