White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900
The Assaye
The Assaye.
Craft that went Missing.
the Assaye At Gravesend.
the Assaye does not appear to have entered upon further passages to the Dominion until 1890. She sailed from London on the 19th February of that year, bound for Wellington. She was spoken on the Equator on the 16th March, and was never afterwards heard of. She was posted at Lloyd's some months later as missing. About six months after she left London some wreckage marked with the name Assaye was found on the Chatham Islands, also portions of cargo known to have been aboard. None of the articles picked up appeared to have been in the water any length of time, so hopes were entertained that some of her crew might have escaped in the boats, but nothing further was ever discovered.
Among the things lost in the wreck of the Assaye was a part of the valuaable library of Sir Walter Buller, also a number of his curios. Some of the latter, however, were recovered, not much damaged by water.