Wahine sinking, 50 years ago today
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There's been some really good articles in the papers leading up to today. The weather has been suitably appalling to mark the day.
Wahine – 50 Years of Pain
April 10 marks the 50th anniversary of the Wahine tragedy which claimed the lives of 53 people
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Small link to our family, one of my uncles was supposed to be travelling on the Wahine but he slept in and missed his ride to board.
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@virgil said in Wahine sinking, 50 years ago today:
Small link to our family, one of my uncles was supposed to be travelling on the Wahine but he slept in and missed his ride to board.
Was he hungover and thats why he slept in? If so we have conclusive proof of the health benefits of alcohol.
I've mentioned before my father was on it, one thing he mentioned a lot and comes through in the stories about the sinking was the bravery and professionalism of the crew. They only had half the lifeboats available to them and they weren't trained in how to inflate and launch the liferafts which must have been near impossible in the winds. its a miracle they were able to keep the toll to 53 out of the 700 or so passengers.
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Yeah the old man was a copper back then and was around Pencarrow, was a pretty tough day.
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As jegga said Wellington is doing it's own tribute with easily the most freezing, shitty day of the year.
A friend of my Mums was on there and thankfully survived.
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I guess it's not too hard to be linked to someone involved given the size of our population back then.
Grandad was on the scene as a rescuer
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My high school Geography teacher was on it and swam to shore safely. Edit: One of the men in the "team that never played" article below.
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Heard this interview in the car on Tuesday. Desperate times called for desperate measure when you’re having to throw the baby twice with no margin for error...!
My Wahine story
After a long walk around the deck of the sinking Wahine 50 years ago, Sharon Major realised she would have to throw her 6-month old daughter, Sarah, into the arms of a stranger in a life raft below.
Also a condensed version at https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102934393/fifty-years-on-wahine-survivors-hunt-for-their-babys-saviours
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I always found this story interesting - the Otago uni cricket team that never played a game.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12027137
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@donsteppa said in Wahine sinking, 50 years ago today:
Heard this interview in the car on Tuesday. Desperate times called for desperate measure when you’re having to throw the baby twice with no margin for error...!
My Wahine story
After a long walk around the deck of the sinking Wahine 50 years ago, Sharon Major realised she would have to throw her 6-month old daughter, Sarah, into the arms of a stranger in a life raft below.
Also a condensed version at https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102934393/fifty-years-on-wahine-survivors-hunt-for-their-babys-saviours
I re read dads story on Tuesday, when they were evacuating the ship some stewards asked him and a varsity student for a hand because they were by themselves . They found a kid of about 8 and another of about 12 trapped under debris in the bar . They threw them both to stewards the 8 year old got thrown first and landed in a lifeboat, the steward who threw the second kid slipped and the kid landed between the ship and the lifeboat . The lifeboat got tossed against the ship and killed him , the same thing happened to the varsity student. Dad was going to jump but there was a woman who wouldn’t leave the ship and a stwerard told dad to grab her and jump. He did , it was about an 8 foot drop to the water and when they landed one of the rafts came back and slammed them into the hull , killed her and knocked the wind out of him so he almost couldn’t get away from the suction of the water running under the hull.
Poor bugger understandably struggled with that for the rest of his life . -
@jegga It'd be a hell of a thing to have to go through and remember. Whenever I fly into Wellington on a calm day the sinking site looks just so tragic for being so close yet so far away in those sea conditions.
