The abandoned Capitaine Bougainville on fire. Photo / Warren Spiers
The abandoned Capitaine Bougainville on fire. Photo / Warren Spiers
A special memorial service is being held in Northland today to commemorate 50 years since a tragic fire claimed the Capitaine Bougainville, widely regarded as the region’s worst maritime disaster.
Guests will gather this morning on a headland near Whananaki, where a monument bears the names of the 12crew and four passengers who died.
In attendance is the ship’s captain, Frenchman Jean-Raymond Thomas. The names of his wife, baby daughter and two stepchildren are among those listed on the memorial.
It was September 3, 1975, when the freighter met her perilous end.
The Capitaine Bougainville had left Auckland a day earlier and was destined for Sydney with a supply of meat and dairy products to deliver.
A crew of 29 and eight passengers were onboard when a fire broke out in the engine room, directly below the lifeboats.
The freighter was already being battered by an easterly storm and a 12m swell.
Captain Thomas beelined for safety, anchoring 3.2km off Whananaki. However, the smoke was so dense the ship had to be abandoned. He made that call at 3.40am.
In time-honoured tradition, Captain Thomas was the last person off the stricken ship.
The lifeboats were cast into mountainous seas with a strong current amid a 70km/h wind.
Some people drowned when their lifeboats capsized, others died from the cold. Among them were people from Fiji, France, Britain, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Locals in the coastal community were said to have risked their own lives to save survivors and recover bodies.
The police search and rescue (SAR) team mobilised early that morning after getting a call that a vessel was on fire off Sandy Bay, and those onboard had abandoned ship.
The Capitaine Bougainville memorial in Whananaki.
The SAR team arrived by police car at the southern end of Sandy Bay. From a high point they saw the burning ship drift despite being anchored.
Survivors came ashore at three points. Some had been in the water for hours as most were tipped from the two lifeboats and single raft.
Two days later and still ablaze, the ship was towed to Marsden Point wharf by a harbour board tug.
Holes were cut into its sides so firefighting machinery could extinguish the fire. It was then towed to Whangārei Port.
An oil on canvas artwork by John Speedy realistically portrays the blazing wreck of the 'Capitaine Bougainville' in tow behind the Whangārei-based tugboat 'Waitangi'.
Insurers assessed the wreck as a “constructive total loss” and it was scrapped.
A trace of the Capitaine Bougainville can be found far from the memorial, in the theatre of the same name in Forum North, Whangārei.
The ship’s electric bell, a life ring and oars sit on the wall of the 350-seat theatre built with the ill-fated ship’s salvage fees, donated to the Forum North Trust Board by the Northland Harbour Board.
Whananaki School will carry out the karanga and waiata as part of today’s commemorations. A roll call of remembrance will follow before a wreath is laid and a minute’s silence.
