Highland Lassie, brig: When bound from Otago to Invercargill with a cargo of timber, fencing wire, and liquor, the brig was wrecked in the New River on September 19, 1863. The Highland Lassie arrived off the New River Heads on the afternoon of September 9, and anchored for the night above the pilot station. She was proceeding up the river the next day when she began to drift in the direction of the sandspit on the east side of the river, a few yards below the wreck of the Guiding Star. The brig’s boat was manned and attempts made to tow her head round to the channel, but to no purpose, as she continued to drift until she reached the bank between the sandspit and the Maori Kaik, and became firmly embedded in the sand. After strenuous pumping operations it was found that water in the hold was making too great headway to leave any doubt as to the fate of the vessel. For a few days the brig was to be seen almost high and dry at low water, but with a shift in the wind she speedily drifted into deep water and disappeared. Her mainmast and deck beams drifted ashore and the vessel broke up. The weather was perfectly calm at the time of the casualty.The Highland Lassie was probably the vessel of that name, No. 31,919, of 179 tons, and registered at Melbourne.
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