Wahine
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Wahine | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | Grounding or wreck on rocks | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | New Zealand | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Sea / ocean | Cook Strait | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | North Island | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 7 km from land |
| Position | -41.3472, 174.8389 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.
The Wahine began transporting passengers on day and overnight trips on New Zealand's inter-island route between the ports of Wellington and Lyttelton in 1966. The Wahine was permitted to carry a maximum of 1,100 passengers on day trips, or 927 berthed passengers on overnight trips.
On 10 April 1968, near the end of a routine northbound overnight crossing from Lyttelton, Wahine was caught in a fierce storm stirred by tropical cyclone Giselle. She ran aground on Barrett Reef, then drifted and capsized and sank in the shallow waters near Steeple Rock at the mouth of Wellington Harbour. Of the 734 people on board, 51 people died from drowning, exposure to the elements, or from injuries sustained in the hurried evacuation and abandonment of the stricken vessel.
Diving & visiting
Wahine Memorial Park marks the disaster with a bow thruster, near where the survivors reached the shore at Seatoun. J. G. Churchill Park in Seatoun has a memorial plaque, the ship's anchor and chain, and replica ventilators. A plaque and the foremast are at the parking area near Burdans Gate on the eastern side of the harbour, on the coast where many of the survivors and dead washed up. The main mast forms another memorial in Frank Kitts Park in central Wellington. The Wellington Museum has a permanent commemorative exhibition on its maritime floor that includes artifacts and a film about the storm and the sinking.
Location
- Recorded position: -41.3472, 174.8389 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Cook Strait
- 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 TEV Wahine (revision 1363923757), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Memorials”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMNZS Wellington 2005 · 5 km
- HMS Sparrow 75 km
- Hydrabad 1878 · 92 km
Browse more: Oceania wrecks · wrecks off North Island