The Wreck of the "Star of Canada"

In our mail the other day we received a bundle of photographs from a retired sea captain who has long since come ashore for good and lives at 11, Dixon Street Flats, Wellington. He is Captain C. Vanden Bergh, and he has a particular link with Gisborne, for he was second officer on the "Star of Canada", the ship which came ashore for good on the Kaiti rocks on the stormy night of June 23, 1912.

From Captain Vanden Bergh's pictures we have selected eight taken at intervals between her grounding and eventual abandonment months later.

All Gisborne braved the biting southerly to view the 12,000-ton ship ashore. This was the sight they saw at daylight.

In the following week, thousands of tons of water were pumped out of the ship, but it was a losing battle.

Lighters alongside removed cargo to lighten ship, but after 10 days she was abandoned to the underwriters.

The "Star of Canada" was only 30 months old and was one of the latest types of refrigerated ships when she called to complete loading in the Gisborne roadstead. While lying at anchor she was struck by a 60 m.p.h. squall, which broke her bow anchor cable. In a few minutes she was on the rocks. All efforts at salvage were fruitless. Her deckhouse, now converted into an unusual dwelling, stands in Childers Road.

As bow settled, stern rose high in air

Thousands of people came down to the Kaiti rocks to see the wreck

The inexorable destructive power of the sea was ever at work.....

Stripped and abandoned, the ship settled lower and lower in the water. Eventually she disappeared completely.

Previous article Issue contents Next article

The Gisborne Photo News

No 72 : June 16, 1960

The Wreck of the "Star of Canada"