HMS Orpheus 1863
Marker: recorded wreck position (Steam era).
Key facts
| Name | HMS Orpheus | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1863 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | Steam era | derived from year |
| Ship type | corvette | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Nationality / flag | United Kingdom | Wikidata P137 operator → P17 country |
| Operator | Royal Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | Tasman Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | North Island | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 12 km from land |
| Position | -37.0683, 174.4717 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand, on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters.
Diving & visiting
Orpheus left Sydney, Australia, on 31 January 1863. Her approach to Manukau Harbour on 7 February ran near Whatipu beach, through a series of dangerous sand bars. The weather was clear and sunny. Although the bars had been charted twice, in 1836 and 1856, a revised pilotage guide from 1861 was available that indicated that the middle sand bar had moved northwards and grown considerably in the intervening time. Orpheus carried both the out-of-date chart and the updated guide, and the sailing master William Strong originally used the updated instructions for entering the harbour, but he was over-ruled by the commodore and the ship proceeded according to the 1856 chart.
As the ship approached the submerged bar, a navigational signal from nearby Paratutae Island was received instructing her to turn north to avoid a grounding.
The wreck of the Orpheus is scheduled for preservation in the Auckland Regional Plan: Coastal and is also protected under the archaeological provisions of the Historic Places Act 1993.
Location
- Recorded position: -37.0683, 174.4717 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Tasman Sea
- Nearest coast: North Island
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Orpheus (1860) (revision 1374746561), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck”, “Protection”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Buffalo 1840 · 113 km
- MV Rena 181 km
Browse more: Oceania wrecks · wrecks off North Island · Tasman Sea · Steam era