Month: May 2026

TEV Wahine: When Safe Harbor Wasn’t Safe

I’ve been posting about the Titanic for the past few weeks. With my obsessive mind, I started to look at other shipwrecks like the Lusitania, Britannic, and other wrecks. Obbverse (who rode on this ship the year before) mentioned this ship when I started the Titanic series. It was a terrible, tragic event that happened in New Zealand.

The passenger ferry TEV Wahine (Turbine-Electric Vessel) left Lyttelton for Wellington on April 9, 1968, on what should have been a normal overnight crossing. The Wahine was one of New Zealand’s best-known ships. It was a state-of-the-art turbo-electric roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry built in Scotland for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. Entering service in 1966, she operated the overnight route between Lyttelton and Wellington.Modern for the time, steady in rough seas, and trusted by passengers who made the trip regularly across Cook Strait. But as the ship approached Wellington Harbor the next morning on the 10th, one of the worst storms (Cyclone Giselle) in New Zealand history hit hard.

Winds were over 100 miles per hour in places. Waves smashed into the ship, and visibility disappeared in rain and spray. Captain Hector Robertson tried to guide the ferry through the harbor entrance, but the storm pushed the Wahine onto Barrett Reef around 5 a.m. The impact tore open the hull and started the chain of events that doomed the ship.

The Wahine had survived rough weather before. But the storm kept hammering the ship. Water flooded in and the engines eventually failed. Lifeboats became dangerous in the huge seas. Some were smashed against the ship while others overturned in the surf. Rescue efforts were difficult because helicopters and small boats were fighting hurricane-force winds themselves. Some passengers survived by floating for hours in the freezing water while local fishermen and rescuers pulled people from the harbor. Others never made it. There were 734 passengers and crew on board. Fifty-one people lost their lives that day, another died several weeks later, and a 53rd victim died in 1990 from injuries sustained in the wreck, making it one of New Zealand’s deadliest maritime tragedies.

The sinking of the Wahine shocked New Zealand much like the Titanic disaster shocked an earlier generation. It became one of those moments people remembered for the rest of their lives. Today, the Wahine disaster is still remembered in New Zealand as both a tragedy and a story of courage from passengers, rescuers, and crew. All were caught in a storm that few ships could have survived.

Before I end this, here is where a community came together. Quartermaster Tom Dartford commanded a lifeboat through 20-foot (6 meters) swells, rescuing over 100 people. Constables John Bowman & Paul Dogget: Members of the Police Dive Squad who rushed to the harbor and pulled over 100 freezing, heavily clothed passengers out of the freezing sea and into their small boat. Local Residents fought the storm and ran to the surf and pulled in strangers and carried them to their homes.

I have included two documentaries. The bottom video is just a quick 5-6 minute video, and the top one is an in-depth documentary. (Pictures at bottom)

The Three Sisters

Welcome to the introductory post of this site! I run a pop culture site called powerpop.blog. I didn’t feel like what I’m going to be talking about really belonged there. I have a huge passion for these ships and would love to learn and grow more in this area. I want to start out with the big 3 Olympic-class ships of the White Star Line in the early 20th Century. That is not to say we won’t be talking about other non-steam ships like the Edmund Fitzgerald and bounce between the two like the RMS Empress of Ireland (often called Canada’s Titanic). There is room for all, but I would like to center it around the old steam ships. This won’t be a blog where I post every day. At first, I will try to make it consistent but not overbearing because I don’t have that kind of time.

My love of old steam ships started with the Titanic when I was a kid in the seventies and eighties. I would also read about the Olympic and Britannic, and how luxurious they were. They were not a huge party boat on water like modern cruise ships. They were refined and a way to get to the New World in style. They were elegant, beautiful, and regal. White Star Line didn’t make most of its money from the rich; it made it with 3rd-class passengers traveling to different countries. It was said that the Titanic’s third class were widely considered to be the equivalent of, or even superior to, second class other ships, it’s second class was like first class on other ships, and its 1st class was magnificent.

We will dive into all three ships, The White Star Line, The Cunard Line, and other ships at that time. What made me love these ships was the classic look that never gets old to me. Also, the interior that they used. Below I’ll drop some pics of the interior the Olympic. When you see the main grand staircase, yes, it’s the Olympic. No known picture exists of Titanic’s grand staircase, but it was said to be nearly identical. There were differences, though, in the ships, and we will get into that as well.

See you on the next post!

Here is something that The White Star Line would have LOVED to have seen but sadly it never happened. Of course this picture is not real.