Kate, ketch; The vessel left the Catlins River on September 14, with a fair wind, which showed every indication of increasing, but just as the vessel was on the bar the wind dropped to almost a dead calm. The Kate lost steerageway, and an anchor was dropped, but would not hold, and the vessel drifted onto the breakers and stranded. She began to make water very fast, and in 20 minuets the water was as high inside as it was outside. At low water assistance was obtained from timber mill employees, and all that possibly could be was saved, but it was found impossible to save the ketch, as the tide ebbed and flowed inside the vessel, which was subjected to a constantly breaking sea. The wreck lay about a furlong north of the bar, with her hidden ends, butts and deck all started, but it was feared that as soon as the wind set in from the south-west she would go to pieces in one tide.The Kate, No. 31,749, was a wooden schooner of 46 tons, built at Melbourne, Victoria, in 1850. She was commanded by Captain F. Keenan, and her dimensions were, length 62ft, beam 15.5ft, depth 6.2ft. Earlier in the year, on March 27, she was stranded in almost the same place where, on September 14, she became a total wreck. On August 4, 1865, the Kate was wrecked on the Riverton Beach, but was recovered and deregistered
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