New Zealand’s Castaway Depots For Shipwrecked Sailors

Before the Suez and Panama Canals opened, ships traveling from Australia and New Zealand to England and back had to make a treacherous journey through the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean, battling fierce winds, huge waves and potentially dangerous icebergs. This route was known as the Clipper Route – so called because they were usually carried by clippers, a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century.

Clipper ships sailing from England to Australia and New Zealand would fall south below the equator and into the Roaring Forties, located between the latitudes of 40 and 50 degrees, where strong westerly winds prevail. These winds carried ships across the Antarctic Ocean to their western destination in the fastest time possible. The return route from Australia continued eastwards through the same Roaring Forties, taking advantage of the same fierce winds, and as the ships approached Cape Horn they had to make a dangerous crossing through the Drake Passage around the Horn. Leaned towards the south. If all went well, the ships would emerge safely and make a successful passage back to the Atlantic and England.

However, things were not always good. Many foolish captains continued south to brave the strong winds and short routes and eventually collided with one of the many sub-Antarctic islands south of New Zealand. Incorrect charts were also responsible for many of these accidents. For example, Amherst's captain noted that the 1851-maps the ships were using included the uninhabited Auckland Islands, which lay directly within the standard route, a full 35 miles south of their actual location.

In 1864, an Australian schooner named the Grafton ran aground in Carnley Harbor during a summer storm. The five survivors remained on the island for 19 months, before three of them managed to travel to Stewart Island in a repaired boat and arranged for the rescue of the rest. The same year, a clipper named Invercauld, en route to Chile, wrecked on the northwestern tip of the island. Of the 19 survivors, only three survived the cold. Neither the crew of the Grafton nor the crew of the Invercauld were aware of each other, even though both crews were stranded on the same island.

Two years later, in 1866, the American ship General Grant crashed off the west coast of the Auckland Islands. Of the 83 people on board, only 15 survived the wreck. When they were rescued 18 months later, only ten people remained.

When the stories of these exiles reached land, the New Zealand government began a program to establish provision depots on several sub-Antarctic islands to give the exiles a better chance of survival. Small shelters were built and stocked with provisions including canned food, biscuits, clothing, blankets, fishing equipment, medicine, tools, weapons and ammunition. Sign posts were set up on the island to direct the exiles to the huts. Boats were made available to some islands so that survivors could reach other lands or evacuate survivors to depots. The government also released land animals such as goats, pigs, and rabbits on the islands for breeding purposes and to provide food for the exiles.

When the Derry Castle was wrecked on Enderby Island in 1887, its eight survivors built a boat from the wreck and sailed to the Auckland Islands, where they obtained supplies from a government depot. Four years later, Compadre was driven onto the rocks of the North Cape of the Auckland Islands. The crew obtained relief and sustenance from two nearby depots, as well as fresh meat from animals left on the island. They survived in relatively good health until rescued 122 days later. There are many other examples of shipwreck victims saved by well-intentioned government planning.

For fifty years, a government steamer checked all the depots every six months and filled them with provisions. But by 1927, with the availability of modern ships and the opening of new routes, the clipper route was no longer popular and the New Zealand government subsequently ceased maintaining the depot.

Many of these depots are in ruins today. Some were looted while they were being stocked. To prevent theft, clothing was often made from fabric with a distinctive pattern that officials could quickly identify.

The ruined depot and boatshed at Erebus Cove, Port Ross on the Auckland Islands, a 1908 hut on Antipodes Island, the 1880 Stella Hut on Enderby Island and the boatshed at Enderby are some of the surviving depots now managed by the department. Protection.

The Castaway Depot on Curtis Island was photographed in 1917, when German naval captain Count Felix von Luckner and his crew of escaped prisoners of war ransacked and took over the stores.

The remains of one of five provision depots established on the Auckland Islands in the 1880s and 1890s. It is located at Camp Cove on Carnley Harbor in the south of the islands.