Colleen Killeen lost her father and uncle in the sinking of the Ranui - one of Tauranga's worst disasters. Photo / George Novak
Colleen Killeen lost her father and uncle in the sinking of the Ranui - one of Tauranga's worst disasters. Photo / George Novak
Colleen Killeen will never forget December 28, 1950.
It was one of Tauranga's darkest days.
Mrs Killeen's father, Ivan Penwarden, and uncle, Lloyd Penwarden, were among the 22 who died when their fishing charter, the Ranui, sunk at the entrance to Tauranga Harbour.
The sinking will be the subject ofan hour-long episode in the forthcoming documentary series Descent from Disaster.
"We were here on holiday. My dad worked for the Ministry of Works in Mangakino," Mrs Killeen said. "A friend of Dad's came around to see him and Mum said they'd gone out on a fishing trip and they were due back about six o'clock. They said they'd go down there and meet him and when they got there all hell had broken loose. It was one of Tauranga's worst disasters."
DISASTER ZONE: The wreckage of the Ranui photographed by 22-year-old Tauranga man Don Stewart using a box Brownie the morning after it sank.
The 13m Kauri launch was returning to Tauranga with a party of campers and fishermen from Mayor Island when freak waves smashed into the boat, over-turning it near North Rock.
People walking around Mauao's base track ran for help and tried to rescue the passengers but the pounding surf and jagged rocks impeded their rescue attempts.
Nineteen holidaymakers and three crew drowned. The only survivor was 19-year-old Phil 'Bluey' Smith, of Tauranga, who was on board the boat as a deckhand.
Mrs Killeen, who was 11 at the time, recalled her grandmother breaking the news to her and her six siblings.
"I think Mum was in too much of a shock to tell us. I remember my grandmother telling us," she said. "I remember her just saying that Dad wouldn't be coming home and Uncle Lloyd wouldn't be coming home either. It took a while to sink in. I remember going home; it was a bit funny."
Almost 64 years on Mrs Killeen still often thinks about the tragedy.
"Every 28th of December we go and put flowers on the rock that's around there. On the 60th anniversary we had invited people around there and we had a little service. I go around there often," she said. "It was just a freak accident, really."
Don Stewart, 85, awoke on December 29, 1950 to the news of the tragedy on the radio.
Don Stewart's photo of the Ranui wreckage remains one of the most striking images of the disaster. Photo / George Novak
Looking down the length of the Waikareao estuary from his father's 4th Ave house he could see the sea churning and knew it would be a disaster zone.
At 7.30am, the 22-year-old photography enthusiast jumped in his dad's 1939 Ford and made the trek to Mount Maunganui where the wreckage of the Ranui lay.
He jogged halfway around the base of Mauao before he came across the remains of the boat strewn across the rocks.
"It [the bar] was boiling right across at daybreak. Hearing it on the radio I went around and I took the photo just out of interest."
The sinking hit the town hard as most people knew someone on board, he said.
"Everybody knew everybody in Tauranga in those days because Tauranga had a population of about 7000."
Producer Ross Peebles said the Ranui disaster was selected for the series as it was one of the country's lesser known tragedies.
"We're trying to flush out people with memories of it or involved in it," he said. "It happened right on the Christmas-New Year period so there were a lot of people around at the time. There are a lot of people alive who have first-hand memories of that."
Descent from Disaster
• A six episode documentary series. • Set to air on TV One next year. • Series one screened in 2013.
Ranui sinking
• Carrying 23 people when it sunk in the entrance to Tauranga harbour on December 28, 1950.
• Freak waves overturned the boat as it returned from a fishing trip to Mayor Island.
• Deckhand Phil "Bluey'' Smith was the only survivor.
• The 13m boat was built from kauri and had been in service for a few weeks.
