“WAHINE DAY” — 10th April

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Wahine Day remembered

The Wellingtonian | 5:00AM - Thursday, 08 April 2010



SURVIVORS (left): Two Wahine passengers happy to make landfall at Pencarrow.

DISASTER (right): The abandoned Wahine after it had foundered.

To commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the sinking of the Wahine on Saturday, the Museum of Wellington City and Sea will be hosting a day of events.

On April 10, 1968, the interisland ferry sailed into a savage storm and sank at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. Fifty-one people died on the day and a further two people died from injuries sustained during the sinking.

More than 40 years on this is still one of the most significant events in Wellington's recent history.

The museum's Wellington director, Brett Mason, said being the home of the Wahine story is important to the museum.

"We take our responsibility for telling the story of this disaster and a place to remember it as a vital part of our role as Wellington's city museum."

On Saturday, the museum is the departure point for two buses provided by Hutt City Council, leaving at 9.30am for the public opening of the new Wahine mast memorial at Korohiwa Bay, Eastbourne.

There will be speeches by Ken Scadden, maritime historian, and Frank Hitchens, a Wahine crew member.

Buses will return to the museum at 12.30pm and while there is no charge for this service, there is a first in-first reserved policy. Bookings are essential and can be made by contacting the museum.

The award-winning documentary, The Wahine Disaster, by Sharon Barbour, will screen in the museum's historic boardroom on the hour from 11am, with the last screening at 4pm.

This feature-length documentary details the tragic events of April 10, 1968, and includes moving accounts from both survivors and their rescuers, some of whom had never been interviewed before.

It also features animation which illustrates, for the first time, how the Wahine came to be one of New Zealand's worst sea tragedies.

The museum will also showcase a survivor art show in its new gallery space.

This features works by survivors Kay McCormick and David Hick, photographs featuring Shirley Hick by Helen Mitchell and a painting by TW Parata, a police officer who was on board that day.

The original Wahine bell, located in the museum's permanent Wahine exhibition space, will be rung every half-hour from 10am till 5pm, marking the passage of time at sea.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/the-wellingtonian/3555059/Wahine-Day-remembered

[Dave Homewood]

Funnily enough I met a survivor of the sinking of the inter-island ferry Wahine today, which sunk with 570 soldiers aboard and tons of equipment that were heading up to Korea in 1951, and struck rocks near Indonesia. But this was the first ferry Wahine. After the second one sunk they decided the name was jinxed and there won't be a third.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I can still vividly remember the Wahine storm. I was 14 years old at the time and living in Hastings. Hawke's Bay copped it pretty bad from that storm. Quite a lot of roofs were ripped off houses around my neighbourhood, although we came out of it unscathed.

We lost an elderly family friend in the Wahine disaster. Cecil Doig was a Gallipoli veteran who was returning from the South Island with his wife. The crew told them to climb into one of the lifeboats, but Mr Doig refused and stayed on the ferry to help other people. His body was washed up on the Pencarrow coast. Mrs Doig survived, but was never the same afterwards and she suffered from poor health until she died a few years later.

[FlyingKiwi]

My Mum was supposed to be on it, but was delayed and ended up missing the sailing - lucky for her!

[andym]

I can just remember the day, I was very young.
My father worked at the airport and told me stories of trying to secure a Bristol Freighter and an Electra that both threatened to get airborne.
Also had the pleasure of meeting and briefly talking to Ken MacLeod the helmsman of the Wahine on that fateful morning.

[kiwitone]

I was 9 at Mastertons landsdowne school, the palms were all horizontal and we were sent home.
Years later our union delegate at the works told how he came out of the sea at East bourne and their was a lady waiting with a blanket on arm and balancing tea in the other! He went on to say that the womans husband had passed away the year before and his clothes were a good fit, so off he went to Masterton. only later he realised that he was posted as missing.

[lumpy]

Strangely , by all acounts , it was a reasonably pleasant day here in Blenheim ( I was only 4 , so dont really remember ) . A little overcast , and not much wind at all . Having said that , southerly winds tend to blow right past cape Campbell , and not hit Blenheim , so Im picking it was a huge Southerly that did the damage .

[efliernz]

This is noted in our family as the day my (at the time) 40 yo mum was told she was having twins... and then the Wahine went down I am one of the twins ;D

A close family friend recalls trying to walk the small distance from her work to home along the waterfront in Wellington and wrapping her arms around a lightpost during a big gust. Her feet lifted up like you see in the cartoons.

It is "thanks" to events like this witnessed by great aero-pioneers like Peter Button that started heli-rescue ops in NZ.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Button

[kiwithrottlejockey]

Disaster day became defining moment

By BRITTON BROUN - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Saturday, 10 April 2010


THE LUCKY ONES: Wahine survivor Sue Willoughby carries Ian Johnson, 5, to shore.
More than 700 people had to abandon ship, and 51 of them died.

Forty-two on from the Wahine disaster, Sue Willoughby still sees that fateful day as the defining moment of her life.

On the morning of April 10, 1968, the 18-year-old air force recruit was about to arrive in Wellington for a holiday with some girlfriends.

Instead she found herself in the freezing water of Wellington Harbour, being pounded by massive waves and desperately trying to keep a young boy afloat.

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the ferry sinking that claimed the lives of 51 people.

The Wahine ran aground on Barrett Reef at 6.40am, forcing more than 700 people to abandon ship before it keeled over hours later.

Ms Willoughby, 60, who moved to Wellington from Hawke's Bay in February, remembers lining up in a long corridor with other passengers for several hours before the order to abandon ship.

Rushing to the badly listing deck, she saw the Johnson family with three small boys, and offered to take Ian, 5, before jumping over the side.

"They didn't have children's lifejackets, they only had adult ones. I knew I couldn't manage him and me in his lifejacket so I took his off and held on to him.

"But his mother jumped in with his younger brother and he just sank straight through the lifejacket ... she was devastated." The child died.

Although the water was freezing, Ms Willoughby said she talked to Ian to keep him conscious.

Before they were picked up by a liferaft, the Wahine went over.

"Watching the Wahine turn over on its side with the waves breaking over it was like watching a movie. It wasn't till I got to the shore and was carrying the boy up on to the beach that I started crying. But it was more from relief."

Remarkably, Ms Willoughby says the experience had a positive effect on her life.

After a few years in the air force, she became a psychiatric nurse, often working with children.

"It made me very aware of people's vulnerability, the importance of people over objects. It's made me so much more content with life. You have to live your life the best you can because you never know what's going to happen."

To mark the anniversary of the disaster, the Museum of Wellington City & Sea will open an exhibition of art by Wahine survivors today. A memorial featuring one of the masts from the ferry will be officially opened in Eastborne at 10am.

PERMANENT SCAR

Shirley Hick has an image of the Wahine tattooed on her back so she will never forget the "nightmare".

The disaster claimed the life of her little girl, Alma, 3, and left her son Gordon, 1, severely brain-damaged.

The Shannon woman, 70, is in Wellington today to open the new Wahine memorial mast in Eastbourne. Three months' pregnant when the ferry ran aground, she had to give her three children to strangers just to make it safely off the boat. She was picked up by a boat, which was swamped by waves, and then saved by a fishing boat.

Her son David made it to shore, clinging to a piece of wood, but Alma did not. "I just said she was a naughty little girl and to go with the man. I've had to live with that."

Gordon was picked out of the water not moving. He died aged 22.

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/3568130/Disaster-became-defining-moment

[Dave.K]

This day is a judge of age like the moon landing, it was my last year of primary school, we went on train trip to wellington in November, train to lyttleton and the overnight boat ride on the Maori to Wellington. We got into Wellington harbour and sailed past the Wahine lying there. a day in town, went to parliment, the old building, the zoo, general motors,kalbern cable car, then back to the boat and home.

[alanw]

Apr 10, 2010 13:35:18 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

Disaster day became defining moment

By BRITTON BROUN - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Saturday, 10 April 2010


THE LUCKY ONES: Wahine survivor Sue Willoughby carries Ian Johnson, 5, to shore.
More than 700 people had to abandon ship, and 51 of them died.

Forty-two on from the Wahine disaster, Sue Willoughby still sees that fateful day as the defining moment of her life.

On the morning of April 10, 1968, the 18-year-old air force recruit was about to arrive in Wellington for a holiday with some girlfriends.

Instead she found herself in the freezing water of Wellington Harbour, being pounded by massive waves and desperately trying to keep a young boy afloat.

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That picture of Sue Willoughby a recruit - wonder if
she is related? She's not a member of my immediate family (that I know of), but could have been a 1st/2nd cousin to my late father.

Interestingly enough they were both in the RNZAF at the
same time-she obviously at Blenheim and my dad at Whenuapai
with 5 Squadron.

Strange world!!! ;D ;D ;D

[b10m]

I suspect I have posted this up before, but I worked for a Refrigerated trucking firm in Levin (Modern Freighters) who regularly sent unaccompanied trucks from the North Is to the South Is or reverse.
I went down as a passenger to meet the Wahine and take a truck off and drive through to Levin. I remember the trip down to Wellington that morning was scary and on arriving at the terminal to be told that the Wahine had hit Barretts Reef and would be delayed. Long story short, That afternoon we actually went round and had a look at the Wahine still afloat at that time but obviously in trouble, and listing quite badly.
The truck was eventually lifted out of the hull when they removed all the cars, and the boss bought it back at the auction, and we towed it back to Levin in 2 halves. they cut it in 2 pieces just behind the cab to ease getting it out.
About 1 year later the chassis had been rejoined and the cab had been cleaned out and rebuilt, and I was given the truck on its inaugural trip back on to the rail ferry to Picton and to Nelson. The fuel tank was still fill of fuel, the injector pump was replaced as a precaution only and they replaced the valves in the tyres as they all started to rust and the tyres went flat. and that was all they did to the motor.
How did she go, great as I remember, I only wish now that I had gotten some photos of the rebuild. and of her first trip after the build.

[14liney]

"the 18-year-old air force recruit was about to arrive in Wellington for a holiday with some girlfriends."

I was on Easter Duty Crew at Ohakea at the time. There were a number of WAAFs on board this sailing, one of them was the fiance of the duty S and S guy. We watched the whole thing on TV in the Airman's Club and saw his fiance on the news much to his relief. By the way you have seen this guy many times in RNZAF TV ads over the years.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

[planecrazy]

I grew up in Christchurch and both mum and dad's parents lived in Wellington,
we used to go up there for family Christmas. I remember passing the Wahine on
her side in the harbour a few times. My memory is vague but I am sure people
used to tie their boats onto her and fish over her side? Was she on her side in the
harbour for a few years or is this just my mind failing me? I also remember on a
few occasions seeing rusty cars on the wharf at Wellington that had been pulled
out of her hold.

[camtech]

I too can remember the day well - I was on duty crew at Whenuapai straight after and we had aircraft going in all directions.

One of the waafs was an ex girlfriend, and I too was relieved to hear that she was unhurt, even though she spent time helping a lot of the elderly and children.

[starr]

Still have vivid recollections of that day. I had taken a container of aircraft parts to Tauranga the day before and was worried that the container did not blow off the truck which was parked up at the Tauranga Airport overnight. On the 10th after delivering the container to the wharf,I took a trailer load of 100 octane fuel to Whakatane and listened to the radio re the Wahine all the way. My wife and I were married in July of the same year, and at Christmas 1970 we crossed the Straits in one of the ferries and the Wahine was still there.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

I always remember Wahine Day.

An elderly friend of the family called Cecil Doig (a Galipoli veteran) lost his life when the Wahine foundered. His wife survived the disaster.

[shorty]

I was at 4TTS at the time on my Airframe Mechs course and we were sitting one of our phase exams at the time and trying to listen to the news as well. Geoff Cooper was on our course and remarked on the radio being on during the test. Rex Kenny was also on our course.

[johnnyfalcon]

My third birthday and one of my earliest memories was of that storm that blew our door in at home (Ohakea) and then some days later Dad flying Gardan Horizon GY-80 ZK-BXM of the Palmerston North Flying School down to Wellington, joining the circuit and flying around the wreck. Recently I was able to retrieve about 10 seconds worth of aerial footage taken on his 8mm movie camera(transferred to DVD) looking down the wing at the wreck lying on her side