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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

The Josephine Willis

page 345

The Josephine Willis.

Collision in the Channel—Run Down by Steamer—Seventy Lives Lost.

A ship by which many prominent early settlers came out to New Zealand was the Josephine Willis, a brand new vessel of 1000 tons, that afterwards met with a tragic end in the English Channel. She sailed under the flag of Willis, Gann and Co. On October 23, 1854, she left Plymouth, with 135 passengers on board, for New Plymouth and Auckland. New Plymouth was reached on January 26, 1855, after a voyage that was somewhat eventful owing to the fact that a portion of the crew was decidedly mutinous and opposed all authority on board. While the ship was at New Plymouth roadstead she was in some danger for a while owing to the springing up of a northerly gale, and the position was accentuated by five of the crew refusing duty. The loyal part of the crew, however, with the willing assistance of the passengers, worked splendidly, and got the ship under way. She then sailed for Auckland, where she arrived on February 5.

the Josephine Willis had among her passengers for Auckland Dr. Kenderdine, who became one of Auckland's best-known medical men, and will long be remembered for his splendid work on behalf of the poor and needy. Several of Dr. Kenderdine's family occupy prominent positions in Auckland, including Messrs. John Kenderdine, manufacturing chemist, Auckland; Frederic James Kenderdine, with Messrs. Champtaloup and Edmiston; William Thomas Kenderdine, who is now with Messrs. Buddle and Richmond, solicitors; Arthur George Kenderdine, chemist at Taumarunui; and two other sons, sheep farmers.

Another well-known early Aucklander that came out in the Josephine Willis was Mr. Joseph Brown, who brought his family of nine children. Mr. Brown for many years was organist and choirmaster at St. Matthew's, and was conductor of the Auckland Choral Society. Three of the family are Mr. G. J. Brown (of Onehunga), Mrs. Vincent E. Rice (widow of a former secretary of the Auckland Education Board), and Mr. J. Oberlin Brown, of Mount Eden.

Looking over the passenger list, one is struck by the number of names of other people who became very well-known in Auckland. There are, for instance, Mr. and Mrs. Glenny, Mr. D. Cruickshank, Mr. and Mrs. Bycroft, Mr. and Mrs. Maclean, Mr. and Mrs. Holland and three children, Mr. and Mrs. Buller and Misses Buller (2), John Dingwall, and Messrs. Henry Holdship and George Holdship.

the Josephine Willis made a smart passage Home, and was again put on the berth for Auckland, sailing from the St. Katherine docks, London, on February 3, 1856, but she never got further than off Folkestone, where during the night she was run into by a powerful iron steamer called the Mangerton, bound for the Thames from Limerick. the Josephine Willis, which was still in command of Captain Canney, who had brought her out to New Zealand the previous year, carried a valuable cargo, and there were on board upwards of a hundred souls, including seventy passengers. The ship was doing about six knots on the port tack at the time, and both vessels saw one another before the accident happened, but there was apparently some mistake as to the courses, and before the steamer could reverse her engines she had run into and cut the ship to the water's edge.

Scene of Horror.

A terrible scene followed, and out of 105 people aboard only 35 were saved. Unfortunately the steamer backed away from the sinking ship, or more would have been saved. As it was, a few of the ship's people managed to clamber on to the steamer. When the collision occurred, Captain Canney was below, marking off the course, and most of the passengers were below, suffering from seasickness. It was soon seen that there was no possible hope for the ship, and Captain Canney ordered every hencoop and anything else that would float to be thrown over in order to give a chance of escape to anyone that might pick them up when the ship went down. There seems to have been a good deal of confusion, as the ship's boats, that could easily have held everyone, left the ship half-empty. The scene on the ship was heartrending, as it was at once obvious that nothing short of a miracle could save the doomed souls on board. Captain Canney acted heroically, and did all he could to pacify the terrified creatures. The ship was doomed, and very soon she heeled over, with thepage 346 ends of her yards in the water; and soon she sank, only the tops of her masts appearing above water.

The Mangerton does not seem to have made any attempt to search the locality, but she picked up a boat with several people in it. The steamer had her bows crushed by the impact, and she made for Ramsgate, where she landed about twenty-nine of the Josephine Willis' people. Another of the ship's boats reached Folkestone the night of the collision, and the following morning seven people were found clinging to a floating spar, one of whom was the late Mr. W. H. Ripley, who went back to London, and came out on the Lord Burleigh in 1856 to Auckland, where he died in 1923.

An Awful Ordeal.

A thrilling experience befel Mr. George Andrews, of St. Austel, Cornwall, who was one of seven rescued from a floating spar some hours after the disaster. "In about ten minutes after the ship had been struck," he said, in describing the calamity, "she turned over on her beam-ends on the port side, and the passengers clung to the rigging." He had taken charge of a Miss Logan, a young lady 18 years of age, who rushed out of her cabin, attired only in her nightdress. He took off his greatcoat and put it on her, and when the ship heeled over he caught her around the waist and got into the mizzen rigging. A passenger named Golding, who had a little child in his arms, was near him. In this position they remained upwards of an hour. The passengers that kept clinging to the rigging shouted to the steamer to save them. About a quarter of an hour after the ship was thrown on her beam-ends, Captain Canney, who was on the side of the wreck, was swept overboard by a sea and disappeared.

Perceiving that the ship was fast sinking, Andrews proposed to Golding to crawl along the mizzenmast, which was resting on the water, as the vessel, in going down, would be likely to right. The unfortunate fellow replied that he thought it would be better to remain where he was. Mr. Andrews, with Miss Logan in his arms, then made an effort to get along the mast. The poor girl, however, if not dead, was completely exhausted, and in getting her up on the mast he was several times nearly overcome himself. On reaching the crosstrees, a sea caught them both, took the girl from his arms, and she was swept away. He believed, however, that she had before expired. The sea even caused him to lose his hold, and it was only through a desperate effort that he succeeded in regaining his grasp. He saw poor Golding and the child he was so anxious to save swept into the deep. The hull of the ship then gradually went down, and he saw forty or fifty men, women, and children struggling in the waves, screaming for aid. Their cries were heard a few minutes, and all was over. He then made his way up to the mizzenmast head, and a little boy named Sutton (whose parents and brother and sister perished), a passenger, and the chief steward, managed to hold on the rigging of the yard near him. Three others got up to the maintopmast head. About half-past eleven o'clock their cries were heard by a Deal lugger, and, benumbed and almost half dead, they were taken off.

Survivors and the Lost.

The following were among those saved from the wreck: Henry G. Ray and Mrs. Ray, Misses May, Walter Wright, William Ripley, George Horner, W. W. Wallis, W. Ford, J. S. Scott, G. Sutton, C. Fleming, George Andrews, David Garside, and eight of the ship's company.

Among the missing were: Captain Canney, Frederick Golding, Stanhope Vickers, Herbert G. Ray, Miss Emma J. Logan, Master Andrew H. Logan, Mr. and Mrs. John Hamilton and two children, Samuel Hamilton (schoolmaster), Mrs. Hamilton, and four children, Miss Susan Nicholls, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Stuart, Mr. Sidney William Beck, Henry Davis, Hannah Davis, and family (3), Sarah Lamb, Elizabethe Lamb, William Lloyd, Margaret Egan, Arthur Lawler, Catherine Gibbons, Catherine Burke, Sarah Walters, Margaret Sharp, Caroline Gore, John O'Neil, Jane O'Neil, Ann O'Neil, James Sutton, Harriet Sutton and three children, Elizabeth Austin, John George Austin, Henry Gutterson, Margaret Gutterson, Mary de Kruger, and family of five.

Bodies found included those of Mrs. Harriet Sutton, Miss M. Parkhouse, Miss Agnes Davis, and Master Asher Davis.

Mr. T. J. McIvor, of Karangahape Road, Auckland, informs me that one of the Misses May came out to Auckland in a ship called the Sandford, and Mr. Sutton, another of the survivors, was also a passenger by the Sandford. Mr. McIvor's parents had intended to come out to Auckland by the Josephine Willis on this fatal trip, but owing to some delay in getting up to London they missed the ship.