the only survivor Phil Smith confirms that this wave was so tall and steep the boat basically stood on her end and then fell over. There was utter chaos with passengers in foaming water and their boat upside down with its prop still going around for quite some time, according to Phil Smith. Bystanders from the Mount Maunganui Surf Life Saving Club understood that Ranui was heading for trouble, and had begun making their way around the Mountain's crude track, a shadow of the nice paved path there today. On arrival these life savers could see Ranui being smashed up by heavy waves pounding on the jagged rocks. Some say that the boat was smashed up totally in about 30 minutes. By this time bodies were coming ashore and being pounded just like their boat. Sixteen year old Phil Smith was the only lucky one. He survived because he was picked up by a huge wave and washed over the jagged rocks to a small sandy patch, and managed to crawl to higher ground before he got smashed up. Phil did not realize how much of a disaster it was until the next day, when he was informed that his father had been drowned, along with the rest of the crew and passengers. Members of the surf life saving club, police, and volunteers worked through the night recovering bodies, carrying them to the club house for identification. From what I understand, all the bodies were eventually recovered. To aid the rescue Faulkners had sent one of their own ferries to steam down to the harbour entrance to see if they could pick up survivors. But the seas were so steep it was impossible. From reading accounts from various sources, it looks like the incident was managed as well as it could have been, with the resources available at the time, including a light aircraft doing scans over the area soon afterwards.
Captain Harnett's act was a very daring one that did not pay off.
In March 1951 a Magisterial Inquiry was held at Tauranga District Court. Without going into this too much, the boat was found to be in safe working order and complied with the survey standards of the day. No fault was found with the skipper's decision to navigate the entrance. But looking back after what has been learned about crossing bars on outgoing tides, and opposing winds and seas, Captain Harnett's act was a very daring one that did not pay off. I am sure if he knew what has been taught to later skippers, he may have not taken this huge risk. After all, this entrance was then considered to be a bar crossing, and was later dredged to allow shipping with greater draft to make passage at this location. Some of the locals who worked commercial boats out of Tauranga at the time, and the experienced surf life savers, stated that the conditions were the worst they had ever seen.
Looking back, old salts in the Bay of Plenty talk about the event like it was about 10 years ago. It was in fact 62 years ago, "a long time ago" to today's generation. It's a good example of how an exciting adventure can be one's last adventure, even when you have the most up to date technology. Just thought I'd mention that the crew of the Rena found this out not far from where this happened. While researching this story I found this reflection at the bottom of one of the pages:
Thought for The Day:
The sea has been called deceitful and treacherous, but there lies in this trait only the character of a great natural power, which renews it's strength and, without reference to joy or sorrow, follows eternal laws which are imposed by a higher power. W. Humboldt
July/August 2012 Professional Skipper 27 for Frontier, Jubilee & Legacy
VIP.S87
