52 Ancestors - Week 16 - Storm - The Wreck of the Queen Bee

New Zealand's coast is littered with shipwrecks, some caused by the weather and some by poor seamanship. The wreck of the Queen Bee on Farewell Spit in 1877 was caused by the latter, but finding her 30 passengers and crew was made more difficult by a storm. The tenacity of mariners like Olaf Sven Nilsson aka William Johnson meant that all but one were rescued. Nilsson/Johnson must have experienced many storms at sea as he had arrived in Nelson, New Zealand from Sweden as ship's crew in the early 1860s.

The Queen Bee should have arrived in Nelson from London early in August 1877 and she was slightly overdue. About 8:30pm on Monday 6 August she sighted the lighthouse at Farewell Spit right at the very top of the South Island, but by midnight she had run aground about 6 miles from shore. As the ship was taking on water, and gunshots, flares and burning blue light had failed to attract attention of anyone on shore, the captain sent the second officer and some crew in a dingy for help. It took them about 16 hours to reach Motueka where they telegraphed for help from the Nelson Harbour Master.

Meanwhile, the captain, crew and passengers had abandoned ship in three separate vessels. A damaged lifeboat with four women including widow, Mary Gibbs and four of her children, and four crew headed for Awaroa where they were eventually picked up by a coastal steamer thirty six hours after they had abandoned ship. They arrived in Nelson on Wednesday 8 August. A cutter, with 21 on board, including another five Gibbs children, also headed towards Awaroa but was separated from the lifeboat. The only other boat on hand was the captain's gig, which left the ship last with the 15 remaining passengers and crew, some of whom were initially on a small raft that was being towed.

Because the wind had got up, the cutter and the gig were blown across Tasman Bay. The gig was wrecked at Nile Bay on the northern tip of D'Urville Island about 5pm on Wednesday 8th August with the loss of the ship's carpenter. The crew finally managed to attract the attention of a passing ship on the afternoon of Friday 10th August when most were taken to Nelson. (Two other crew members who had gone for help overland were finally picked up on Sunday.)

But what had happened to the cutter? William Johnson, would have been one of the first people to find out. He was the coxswain on the Nelson Naval Brigade pinnace Aurora. This vessel had rowed and sailed through the night from Nelson looking for survivors. When it pulled in at Te Puna Bay on the southern end of D'Urville Island, there was good news. The cutter too had beached there and crew members had gone over the hill to a local Maori settlement for help. Later in life, Sidney Gibbs recalled what had happened. "Suddenly we heard shouting and looking up the bracken-clothed hillside saw a horde of Maoris racing toward us...However our fears were soon put to flight - the worst we had to experience was an energetic rubbing of noses. Thereafter it was a picnic. The Maoris took us over the hill to their pah, even carrying some of the younger ones, and treated us royally, refusing any remuneration." The following morning they had been taken by Maori boat (canoe?) through French Pass, a notoriously dangerous channel, to Mr. Emslie's.

When the Aurora and the Maori boat arrived from French Pass with the cutter passengers in Nelson late on Saturday afternoon, 11 August, there was a crowd of about 4,000 people including the Bishop and a band to celebrate their arrival. Mrs. Gibbs and her nine children were finally re-united and could begin their new life in New Zealand.

Full Account of the Wreck of the Queen Bee
Queen Bee (ship)
Wreck of the Queen Bee
Mary Elizabeth Gibbs


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