Victory Wreck
The steamship SS Victory departed Port Chalmers bound for Melbourne at 4:30 pm on 3 July 1861, carrying passengers, mail and cargo. It ran aground at the southern end of the beach (45°50′33″S 170°43′56″E / 45.8425°S 170.7321°E / -45.8425; 170.7321) at about 6 pm, seven minutes after chief mate George Hand took charge of the ship. Captain James Toogood ran the engines full astern for around 90 minutes, but the ship was embedded in 6–7 feet of sand, so the passengers and mail were unloaded. Hand was found guilty of being intoxicated and in neglect of duty, and sentenced to serve three months hard labour on 20 July; the court also criticised the captain. On 24 July and the following day the ship's cargo, equipment and hull were auctioned off on the beach, recovering around £1,900 from an estimated value of £25,000.
Read more about this topic: Victory Beach
Famous quotes containing the words victory and/or wreck:
“In social halls a favored guest
In years that follow victory won,
How sweet to feel your festal fame
In woman’s glance instinctive thrown:
Repose is yours—your deed is known,”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Perchance the time will come when we shall not be content to go back and forth upon a raft to some huge Homeric or Shakespearean Indiaman that lies upon the reef, but build a bark out of that wreck and others that are buried in the sands of this desolate island, and such new timber as may be required, in which to sail away to whole new worlds of light and life, where our friends are.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)