Painful memories of Ranui disaster

By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE

Allan Greig's memories are still sharp of Mt Maunganui's worst sea disaster - the loss of 22 lives in the Ranui shipwreck 50 years ago today.

He helped to recover bodies from the base of the Mount after the new 45ft kauri launch foundered in high seas at the entrance to Tauranga Harbour.

On her maiden voyage, she was returning from a day-trip to Mayor Island, 21 nautical miles north, when she was hurled against rocks and dashed to pieces.

Some days after the disaster, Mr Greig was on patrol at Mt Maunganui beach, still looking for missing passengers, when the body of his good friend Snowy Carlsen washed up at his feet.

"The waves rolled it [the body] over and I looked down into my old cobber's face. It was a shocking thing," 79-year-old Mr Greig said yesterday.

"What a strange coincidence it came up where it did, with all those miles of beach at Mt Maunganui and Matakana."

Mr Greig had not long moved from Auckland, where he had worked with Mr Carlsen at a Penrose cardboard box company.

Mr Greig had no idea Mr Carlsen was in the area on holiday, let alone aboard the ill-fated Ranui.

There was one survivor, 19-year-old Phillip "Bluey" Smith, whose father was one of three crewmen.

Now nearly 70 years old and in poor health, Mr Smith, who later became a commercial fisherman, lives in Australia.

He was in the wheelhouse when the 6-ton Ranui was lifted by the stern and turned end-over-end by a freak wave about 5 pm. Mr Greig, who rushed to the scene after hearing a radio report, said Mr Smith was incredibly lucky to be tossed up onto a small area of sand among the rocks.

He was able to struggle to higher ground as the maelstrom scattered people and wreckage.

The sea was rough when the Ranui left Tauranga to take a party of campers to Mayor Island three days after Christmas, 1950. Conditions worsened as the charter boat made its way home through the storm-driven swell late in the afternoon. The rest is history.

Onlookers raced to the Mt Maunganui surf club to sound the alarm. One of those who responded was the club president of the day, Graham Clarke.

"Conditions were atrocious and there was a great deal of confusion," Mr Clarke said.

"There was little we could do to actually save anyone ... The waves were so horrendous that several of our guys were washed out and could easily have drowned themselves if they hadn't been thrown back onto the rocks."

The dead - some drowned and others killed when the breakers slammed them into rocks - were mostly holidaymakers from around the North Island.

The surf club became a temporary morgue. As bodies were recovered, they were laid to rest there and the young surf lifesavers had the harrowing job of taking relatives in to identify their loved ones.

The corroded remains of the vessel's engine are still wedged between rocks on the seaward edge of the Mt Maunganui base track, above North West Rock. Nearby is a brass plaque dedicated to those who died.

A public memorial service will be held there at 4 pm today.