Photo by Mrs Edith Beck
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 Seldom if ever before has the moment been captured on photograph when a ship's captain steps ashore just after his ship has been wrecked or sunk. This photo, taken by a newspaper camera-man, shows 57 year old Captain Gordon Robertson, Master of TEV Wahine, on Seatoun Wharf after having been pulled from the sea by a rescue vessel. Shock and hypothermia are plain on his face. Captain Robertson is in his master's uniform; below the left shoulder of his jacket are the rows of campaign ribbons from his Merchant Navy service during World War Two. |
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My name is Murray Robinson and I am the godson of Captain Gordon Robertson, the man who was in command of the Wahine on 10th of April 1968. This website is dedicated to the Wahine and Captain Robertson. It provides detailed information about both, and answers many of the questions that still surround the Wahine's tragic loss and the role Captain Robertson played.
A very great amount has been written, filmed and spoken about the Wahine Disaster in the many years since 10th April 1968. Much of it rightly focuses on the memories of survivors from that day and those who rescued them from the sea. But there is another side to the Wahine: the story of the ship herself and of her master, officers, engineers and crew who fought so courageously to save her. Theirs is a truly marvelous seafaring epic of devotion to duty combined with very great tragedy. Despite the frenzy of the storm - the worst ever recorded in Wellington - and the terrible damage done to the ship, the Wahine all that morning refused to concede. Astonishingly she stayed upright, intact and afloat. But then, as the storm died away in the early afternoon and with her battle almost won, the Wahine quietly rolled over and sank. Her loss, with so many lives taken, was the most colossal shock. The Wahine was a big, modern, powerful, fine-looking ship less than two years old. Captain Robertson and his senior officers, all of them highly experienced mariners, had believed she would come through the storm. Afterwards Captain Robertson tried to get on with his life, returning to sea, but privately he never got over the Wahine. Who could have? Worse was to follow. The myths and misinformation began soon after the Wahine's loss, and have persisted down through the years. It was said that Captain Robertson did not get to the Wahine's bridge on time that morning, having slept in. Heedless of the raging storm, he decided to carry on with entry into Wellington harbour because he did not want the Wahine to be late. Speed was foolishly reduced for the comfort of passengers. Captain Robertson then became disorientated and inadvertently backed the Wahine over Barrett Reef. Reports given to him about the water on the vehicle deck were ignored, the passengers were lied to, and Captain Robertson stood around on the bridge all morning doing nothing. He was late in giving the order to abandon ship, resulting in more deaths. Another myth has it that after the sinking he was banned from ever bringing a ship into Wellington harbour again. When he died, Captain Robertson took his secrets about what actually took place aboard the Wahine, with him to the grave. Then there is the notion, just as false, that the Wahine was a bad-luck ship, poorly constructed and prone to accident. All this is baseless, contemptible and wrong. The aim of this website is to put the record straight for Captain Robertson and the Wahine. Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure the content of this website is accurate. Copyright: The contents of this website are copyright and may not be reproduced or published The picture at the top of this page shows the Wahine berthed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Wellington on Sunday afternoon 24 July 1966, the day she arrived from her builders in Scotland at the conclusion of her delivery voyage to New Zealand. Updated 25 January 2010 Wahine News WAHINE'S FOREMAST RAISED
On Thursday afternoon 21 January 2010, some 41 years and seven months after it was cut from the wreck, the steel foremast from in front of the Wahine's bridge was raised at Korohiwa Bay, Eastbourne as a memorial to the ship and those who died. This photo shows the mast being lifted into position by crane. In the middle distance immediately to the right of the mast is the red roof of the old house at Burdan's Gate. This marks the start of the long, winding dirt road that follows the shoreline round to Pencarrow Light and beyond. Hundreds of survivors walked or were carried along this road after landing on 10th April 1968, many having been pulled from the raging surf by rescuer Jim Mason, who took the above photo. Forty seven people died in these same waters or on the Pencarrow beaches that day. Out in the harbour entrance is the Cook Strait rail ferry Aratere, arriving from Picton. The foremast can be seen just below the surface of the sea in the picture on this page showing the Wahine lying on her side. It was one of the first large items removed from the wreck when salvage work commenced in August 1968. Divers severed the base of the foremast with cutting torches, allowing it to fall to the seafloor. It was then lifted by the floating crane Hikitea and taken ashore, whereupon it was dumped on waste land at Te Aro near the Overseas Passenger Terminal. The bent rails on the radar platform halfway up the mast testify to the damage done during the mast's recovery. For the next four decades it languished in various council yards, corroding away and pasted with graffiti. The work of restoring the mast and erecting it at Korohiwa Bay was undertaken by the Hutt City Council. The radar with its scanner has long gone, as has the navigation light on the mast's lower, smaller platform.
This photo was taken late on the afternoon of 10 April 1968 in Korohiwa Bay. Rescuers scramble to pull ashore one of the Wahine's battered liferafts and check its interior for any survivors. The house at Burdan's Gate can again be seen in the middle distance. The foremast stands where the white shed is, above the heads of onlookers farthest from the camera. KEN MACLEOD, THE WAHINE'S HELMSMAN, HAS DIED Quartermaster Ken MacLeod, who was helmsman on the bridge of the Wahine on 10th of April 1968, passed away at Te Omanga Hospice in Lower Hutt, New Zealand at 8 a.m. on Friday 25 September 2009. Aged 75, he had been afflicted with cancer and in declining health for some time. His funeral was held on 30 September 2009. Kenneth MacLeod was born in Back on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland on 29 January 1934. Youngest of three children, he was the son of an infantry sergeant serving in the Seaforth Highlanders, a distinguished regiment of the British Army. Sergeant MacLeod was stationed in Hong Kong with his family in the late 1930s, then went to France with the British Expeditionary Force when World War Two began. He was a survivor of the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940. Ken's father was, however, tragically killed at Inverness shortly afterwards in 1940, where his regiment was based at the time, when accidentally run down by a bus during the wartime black-out. Ken's mother, whose name was Mary Ann, took her family home to Back where Ken grew up and where his grandfather taught him to speak Gaelic. Then in 1951, at the age of 17, Ken went to London to follow his older brother Donald to sea. He became a qualified able seaman and joined the New Zealand Shipping Company, serving aboard their ships Rangitata, Ruahine and Rangitoto. The Ruahine was Ken's favourite ship; he worked as a saloon deckhand aboard this liner. His job was to maintain the promenade decks, setting out deck chairs for passengers and then re-stowing them when not in use. Emigrating to New Zealand in 1963, Ken worked on many ships belonging to the Union Steam Ship Company. In 1968, aged 34, he was one of two seaman quartermasters aboard the Wahine. The other was Tommy Dartford. Their job was to steer the ship in response to helm orders from the Master when the Wahine was manoeuvred into and out of her berth at the interisland terminals each morning and evening. Going astern into the berth required particular skill; Ken would be steering the ship from the port wing control console using her bow rudder, with Captain Robertson beside him at the rear-facing bridge windows. Ken had been selected by the Master for this task because of his abilities as a helmsman; it was a job where he was known as "the mud pilot." On 10th April 1968 Quartermaster Ken MacLeod was on duty from 4 a.m., and steering the Wahine from just before 5 a.m. He was at the wheel when the ship came in through the harbour entrance, as the storm hit her just north of Pencarrow head and control of the ship was lost, throughout the battle to restore control and get her back out to sea, and as the Wahine went aground on Barrett Reef. Ken remained on the bridge throughout the morning, standing-by. He was a member of the party of seamen who manhandled the tug Tapuhi's towing wire onto the Wahine's stern. When the abandon ship order was given, Ken got away as a member of the boat crew for the starboard number one accident boat, which was under the command of Third Officer Grahame Noblet. Thrown into the sea when this lifeboat was overturned, Ken was rescued by Captain Newey and the Arahina, and was landed at Seatoun Wharf. Ken went back to sea six days after the disaster, as a seaman aboard the cement carrier Ligar Bay. His last ship was the Cook Strait rail ferry Arahura. Retiring from the sea in 1990 at the age of 56, Ken worked as a house painter and lived with his wife Shirley at Otaki Beach until shortly before his death. They were married in September 1967 and had two daughters. Kindly and soft-spoken, Ken was a gentleman and a highly respected seafarer of the old school. He held strong views about how and why the Wahine was lost and was very disappointed that his account of what happened prior to the ship's grounding was never given official recognition. © Murray Robinson 26 September 2009 NEW BOOK AVAILABLE FROM SHIPS IN FOCUS PUBLICATIONS, ENGLAND. Recalling the great days of ocean liner travel between Australia and New Zealand aboard the Wanganella, Awatea and the Monowai. Hardback, 104 pages, 189 photos plus maps, paintings and deck plans. $NZ50.00 Order your copy by emailing shipsinfocus@btinternet.com
NEWS OF LIMITED DVD RELEASE $29.95 This hour-long documentary premiered on Maori Television on 9th April 2008 and was shown to survivors of the tragedy on the 40th anniversary. The film has already won international acclaim. It’s been nominated as Best Documentary or is the "Official Selection" of at least 5 major international film festivals this year. It’s in the pipeline for broadcast on the BBC and the UK’s Royal Television Society is planning a special screening in a major IMAX cinema. "Wahine is an intensely moving story" REEL EARTH 2008 FESTIVAL SEASON – Official Selection "Gripping" **** Tom Goulter for FLICKS.CO.NZ "Highly recommended" - Murray Robinson www.thewahine.co.nz |
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Wellington Heads: Photo © M Robinson 2008
Contents of this site © Murray Robinson 2008
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