was discovered in the Celebes in Indonesia. The third victim was the passenger liner Wimmera sunk off Cape Maria van Diemen on June 26, 1918 with the loss of 26 lives. The official enquiry found that the captain had ignored Admiralty instructions regarding mines in the area.
Once the existence of Wolf's minefields had become apparent, plans were made on both sides of the Tasman to commence sweeping operations. In New Zealand, the trawlers Nora Niven and Simplon were requisitioned together with the whaler Hananui II. The Farewell Spit minefield was swept first with the two trawlers using the elderly cruiser HMS Philomel berthed at Wellington as a minesweeper depot ship. The northern field was then swept by both trawlers with a later sweep also being undertaken by Hananui II. Some mines broke free from their moorings and one of these, from the northern field, washed ashore at Awana beach, Great Barrier Island on March 4, 1918. Other mines washed ashore on the west coast of the North Island and one of these was to result in fatal consequences. At 0800 on Monday April 21, 1919, Tuhura Tuhura, Erua (Edward) Whare and Kanohi Tuhura departed Pukerewa, south of Port Waikato, on horseback for a hui at Karaka, near Raglan. The route taken was southward along the beach. They evidently reached the mouth of the Waikorea Stream around 9.30am. About that time a terrific explosion was heard by Michael Ryan, a local farmer who, upon reaching the beach, found the fragments of three human bodies and three decapitated horses. Constable Taylor of Tuakau was dispatched to the scene to recover the bodies and he found pieces of metal which appeared to have come from a mine. The deceased were subsequently identified by their clothing. An inquest into the incident was convened on April 23 before Mr Dynes Fulton JP and a local jury. From the nature of the injuries it was thought that the horses must have been standing with their heads towards the mine when the explosion took place and in all probability the men were standing at the horse's heads or in front of them. It was thought unlikely that the explosion was caused by a horse stumbling over the mine as it lay buried in the sand, as the usual track was much further above the high water mark. Some markings on the sand seemed to indicate the mine had come ashore too recently to be completely buried. With no survivors, the reason for the explosion can only be speculated. In all likelihood, the mine would have been lying on its side with the detonation horns at one end. If one of the horns had been given a hard kick, this may well have been sufficient to cause the detonation.
At first glance it would appear that the mine originated from the Farewell Spit field and was carried northward by the current that sweeps up the west coast. However, my intuition is that the mine more probably originated from the Gabo Island field and was carried due eastward by the East Australian Current. The 22 months taken to drift from the Australian minefield coincides with the timeframe taken by the mines laid by the German raider Pinguin and minelayer Passat off south east Australia in late October 1940, which subsequently washed ashore on New Zealand's west coast. This incident occurred after the Armistice on November 11, 1918 but before Germany agreed to peace terms and signed the Treaty of Versailles. The three men killed were the only 20th century civilian war deaths on New Zealand soil and in all likelihood were the last New Zealand casualties of World War I.
September/October 2012 Professional Skipper 21
for Frontier, Jubilee & Legacy
VIP.S87
