6: Events leading to abandonment

The Wreck of Hydrabad as it appeared in April 1884 — a water colour by J. T. Stewart (Wanganui Regional Museum).

Following the failure of Ross's attempt to refloat the Hydrabad the Adelaide cargo underwriters withdrew the Glenelg. Captain Gibbon, their representative, claimed the use of the Glenelg had cost them $2,400 for which they had received nothing. Ross had only taken out about a third of the rolling stock and Captain Gibbon thought he would have successfully refloated the ship had he removed another hundred tons. The underwriters now concentrated on recovering the cargo for the South Australian Railways. Glenelg sailed from Wellington on 25 February 1879 with a full load and arrived at Adelaide on 2 March. More than eight months had passed since the cargo left Lyttelton. The 231-ton brig Greyhound, which arrived at Wellington on 19 February, was chartered for a second consignment. She loaded at Wellington breastwork from 7 March and sailed for Adelaide three weeks later.

The position of the Hydrabad had been favourably reassessed and there were still hopes that she could be refloated. But first she had to be pumped out so that the remaining rolling stock could be removed.

Captain Gibbon sent up a pump and donkey engine on the Jane Douglas on 4 March. The cumbersome two and a half ton load was carted to the ship on one of Bowe, page 66

Bow view about the turn of the century — (Courtesy "The Chronicle", Levin).

page 67 Birchley and Company's wagons. Within two days the pump was throwing out a large stream of water but when the level dropped to eight feet six inches the accumulation of debris blocked the pump. The leak in the stern was discovered and it was proposed to seal it with clay and cement. The work of unloading the cargo was then taken over by Thomas Bowe and Joseph Birchley. However, Bethune and Hunter, required Captain Gibbon to put up a bond before this work continued. Captain Holmwood allowed the contractors to use the ship's gear and to cut away part of the bulwarks to help the discharging.

Following the official inquiry into the stranding of the ship, held at Wellington on 14 March, a new survey was carried out by Captains Bendall and Frazer at the beginning of April. As a result they advised Captain Holmwood to sell the ship but he refused to consider this step until all the cargo was discharged. However after April he no longer remained by the ship.

As the cargo was unloaded it was stockpiled at Foxton and to take it to Wellington the 78-ton brigantine Laurel was chartered. She loaded at Hartley's wharf on the bend of the Manawatu River south of Foxton from 14 March to 1 April. To carry the ten-ton locomotive boilers along the beach a special wagon was built at Foxton by Thomas Easton. Its body and axles were made of solid rata, the axles being eighteen inches square. The wheels were eighteen inches wide and four feet in diameter and contained a hundred weight of iron each. Drawn by twenty-four bullocks it was busily employed from 9 May removing the rolling stock to Foxton. On 21 June 1879, fully a year after it was loaded at Lyttelton, the last of the cargo was discharged.

That same month, on 27 June, Chief Officer List page 68

Backdrop for a display of contemporary fashion (G. L. Adkin).

brought an action in the District Court before Judge Mansford and a jury of four to recover $365.30 from the owners for his services in supervising the pumping and sending down the sails and spars. Captain Holmwood had discharged him about the end of March because he found his performance unsatisfactory. He had offered him $192.86 and had paid that sum into the court, but List claimed he was owed overtime. He said he had stayed by the ship because there were 'slight probabilities' of its being relaunched, particularly towards the end of January 1879. Captain Holmwood gave evidence that List would have been paid by Ross had the ship been refloated and then no action would have been brought. His lawyer page 69 claimed no contract existed between List and Captain Holmwood but the jury rejected this defence and awarded List $318.42 and costs.

While this was going on Captain Gibbon was searching for a suitable ship to take the remaining rolling stock on to Adelaide. The Lyttelton shipping agents, Cuff and Graham, recommended the American ship Matilda which had arrived at their port from Bunbury in Western Australia with a cargo of jarrah timber and piles. Described as a 'fine looking and comfortable vessel' of 850 tons she was commanded by Captain Carver. Her original destination was Callao, the historic Peruvian port, but she sailed instead on 11 July 1879 for Kapiti Island. In the lee of the island she trans-shipped rolling stock taken out from Foxton on the paddle steamer Samson. This 180-ton steamer was chartered from the West Wanganui Coal Company which had just previously ceased operations. Samson sailed from Wellington on 19 July and was alongside the Matilda three days later. Bad weather still plagued the operation and she was forced to anchor for two days before she could return to Foxton.

Samson loaded the last locomotive at Foxton on 9 September; a week later she had cleared all the salvaged rolling stock. Captain Gibbon offered a reward of $2 to anyone pointing out any wagons from Hydrabad buried in the sand. Matilda and Samson arrived off Wellington on 21 September, and Matilda anchored in Fitzroy Bay. When a south-westerly gale arose Captain Bascand of the Samson took her in tow but could make no headway and she was re-anchored.

The gale moved round to south-south-east, making Matilda's position very unsafe. The following day heavy seas prevented Samson getting alongside and towards page 70 midday Matilda began to drag towards Barrett's Reef. Two hours later she was perilously close and Captain Carver displayed poor seamanship by not making an attempt to weigh his anchor and run for harbour. In the afternoon the Wellington pilot, Lancelot Holmes, managed to get on board and by dusk the ship had dragged clear of the dangerous reef. Samson had stood by until she damaged her steering gear which forced her to shelter in Worser Bay to make repairs. By midnight the wind lulled and Matilda could ride out in comparative safety. Hydrabad's cargo had had its second reprieve.

The Jane Douglas took down the final cargo from Hartley's Bend on 27 September. From Wellington breastwork Samson trans-shipped the rolling stock to the Matilda which was anchored in the harbour. On 7 October she sailed for Adelaide which was reached a month later. It had taken fifteen months to complete the salvage of Hydrabad's cargo and the effort had cost almost the whole $50,000 it was insured for. Since for many weeks much of it had been immersed in sea water when the Hydrabad was purposely flooded it is not surprising that the South Australian authorities were reluctant to accept it. This was the subject of court action in Adelaide in August 1880 when the government sued the cargo insurers.

Meanwhile, with the cargo fully cleared, Hydrabad was put up for sale 'as she now lies stranded on the beach at Foxton'. The auction encompassed her spare sails and spars, two lifeboats, surfboat, cutter, portable fire engine, chronometer, barometer, compass, dessert service and plated dish covers. There was a good attendance at Bethune and Hunter's Wellington, on 22 August 1879 but few buyers. The hull and appliances were bought by Mr Bernard Holmwood and a partner for $100. The ship's page 71

View from the stern in the 1960s (P. J. Leahy).

chronometer was purchased by Mr Paul Coffey, of the Te Aro slipway, for $36 and the other items fetched $17.75. The four boats were not sold as they had deteriorated through lying exposed on the beach. It was a disappointing sale for Lloyd's agents who had hoped for a better realisation.

Mr Bernard Holmwood and his partner could not agree on whether to try to refloat the Hydrabad or dismantle her and consequently she was again offered at auction by J. H. Wallace, of Wellington, on 18 September. She was put up in seven lots: the hull and fittings, donkey engine, two fire engines, seven water tanks, two galley stoves, the medicine page 72

The cavernous, uncluttered tween deck is shown in this early photograph (R. Bowater).

chest and the topmast and rough spar, 75 feet long, which was lying on the beach. This time there were no bidders but on 24 September the wreck was purchased by Mr W. Kelty, of Tokomairiro, Otago, for $220.

Kelty employed John P. Ella, one of Hydrabad's able seamen, to take charge of the ship and prepare for a further attempt at refloating. A new pump was sent up from Dunedin and landed at Foxton by the Jane Douglas on 14 January 1880. Kelty supervised the pumping out and by the end of February he was reported ready to begin winching the ship off the beach. However she remained page 73 deeply embedded in the sand and the work was temporarily suspended.

It was not until mid-December 1880 that Kelty returned and set the pumps going once again. No doubt the salvage workers enjoyed the Christmas Day race meeting which the Horowhenua Maoris held on the beach alongside the ship. Some 300 spectators were present and the scratch races provided 'some good fun if not much sport'.

By 31 December Hydrabad had been turned nearly half-way round and her head was lying in a north-westerly direction. The steamer Stormbird put down a 35-cwt anchor on 11 January with 240 fathoms of steel hawser linking it to the ship. Captain Dawson of the Stormbird reported that Hydrabad was in five feet of water at low tide. Kelty hoped to refloat her on the approaching spring tides and have her towed out to Kapiti Island by one of the coastal steamers and thence to Wellington. He left Dunedin on 18 February to supervise the operation and in the meantime his men were working to replace the lower six feet of the rudder which had been carried away when the ship grounded.

But the vicissitudes of the Hydrabad had not yet ended. On 21 February John P. Ella and four others — Hutchison, Maine, Murray and Spruce — were on board. They spent the day in the 'tween decks using the circular saw driven by the steam engine to cut up light driftwood as fuel. At 4 p.m. they knocked off for the day and the engine's fire was extinguished. All appeared well when the hold was checked at 9 p.m. and the men retired for the night, some to the forecastle and the others to the cabin at the stern. But an unnoticed spark was smouldering among the heaped up firewood and at 2 a.m. the men in the fo'c'sle page 75

An object of never failing interest (Frank O'Leary).

were roused by the smell of smoke. A red glow from the hatchway told its story. Futile efforts were made with buckets and with the force pump to extinguish the flames. The men were forced to retreat over the side, wading shorewards through only a foot of water. Helplessly they stood by as the deck burst into flames and the fierce heat melted the metal masts and buckled the hull plates. At 6 a.m. the main mast toppled over the side followed by the mizzen mast an hour later.

The ship was gutted by the fire and prophetically the Manawatu Herald commented: 'the only thing that can be done with her will be to take her to pieces and cart the iron to Hartley's for shipment. If it will not pay to do that we may expect that for many generations the hull of the grand old ship will lie in the sand on the Horowhenua Beach.'

For five months the ship was left — until on 3 August 1881 Kelty offered her hull for sale without reserve at J. H. Bethune's auction in Wellington. Included in this sale were any remaining railway items (though none had been left), a large portable engine by Marshall Sons and Co., a centrifugal pump, donkey boiler and engine, steam winch, large bower anchor with two steel hawsers, spars and sundries. Evidently the fire had not swept through the entire hull.

Joseph Birchley purchased the wreck for the nominal sum of $10 and proceeded to strip it of every thing salvageable. Some of the cabin fittings and furniture had escaped destruction and these remain today in private hands. The ship's figurehead, three cannon and other page 76 fittings were bought by Andrew Jonson, a Swedish shipwright who was one of Foxton's pioneer businessmen. For years the figurehead stood in the front garden of his Avenue Road home, scaring generations of youngsters who ran past it. The navy tried to acquire it for the Devonport Naval Base in 1929 but transport arrangements fell through. In March 1933 it came to an ignominious and undeserved end when it was chopped up for firewood. Jonson kept two of the cannon and the third was mounted in Foxton's Ihakara Gardens but all three were dumped at some time. Members of the Holmwood family retain Hydrabad's barometer, a cabin desk and items of glassware and cutlery. The Bowe family also had linen and crockery from the ship but these were lost in a fire.

The hull was not suffered to remain at rest. An Auckland firm sent down a gang of men to dismantle it but their attempts to blow the plates off with dynamite only succeeded in blowing holes in the sides: the firm gave up. Pounding seas caused further hull damage, especially in 1905, but it was not until the late 1930s that the lower foremast finally fell.

Over the years the wreck became the district's major beach attraction, particularly after Waitarere was opened up, and local residents took a proprietary interest in it. When two young men from Palmerston North claimed the right to demolish the hull and sell the iron in 1937 protests came from all over the Horowhenua area. Nor were residents mollified by the promise of $4,000 for the Waitarere Domain. Though the Marine Department said page break

The figurehead at Foxton (Alexander Turnbull Library).

page 78

Cabin candle lamp in gimbles (Courtesy S. Jonson, Stoke).

page 79

Carved panels from the captain's cabin (Courtesy "The Chronicle", Levin).

page 80 the wreck belonged to no one, local opposition forced the abandonment of the scheme.

Similarly during the Second World War when rumour went abroad that pilots from Ohakea were to use the hull for bombing practice a public outcry prevented the ship's destruction. Commercial pilots had a better use for the Hydrabad as she was an important visual stage in the approach to Milson Airport in the days before radar.

Why has the Hydrabad lasted so long while most other wrecks on the New Zealand coast have long since disappeared? One reason must be the strength of her construction and the fact that her wrought iron resists electrolytic corrosion much better than would mild steel. The other reason is the build-up of sand along the Horowhenua coast which has saved her from too much pounding by heavy seas. However, she cannot last forever and in the 1970s her deterioration has markedly increased. Dangerous pieces have been removed to reduce the risks for young adventurers. Now it is only a matter of time before she breaks up entirely or is buried beneath the encroaching sand.