At 10.30 pm on the night of Monday 24 June 1878, the Hydrabad, a Scottish-built ship of 1,360 tonnes, crashed aground in a violent storm less than 3 kilometres from Horowhenua Creek on the West Coast of the North Island.

Battered by violent seas for over a hundred years, the Wreck of the Hydrabad lies today in the sand of Waitarere Beach — a reminder of that treacherous coastline and the many ships that went aground there.

This is the story of the Hydrabad, from her beginnings in Scotland to her eventual wrecking on the New Zealand coast. Ian Church writes dramatically of the people involved and the desperate efforts to refloat the ship, ending in failure.

Cover Photo: The Hydrabad on her sea trials off Glasccow, 1865. From a painting by William Clark (National Library of Australia).