The government schooner Kekeno went ashore practically at the same time as the Maid of Otago. She entered Bluff after a three month cruise the outlaying islands, reaching the lower anchorage shortly before midnight. During the gale the vessel’s cable parted, and she was driven ashore. At high water the Kekeno was standing upright, with the seas washing over her. She was subsequently refloated and repaired at the Bluff.Although the Kekeno was not wrecked, and does not really come under this heading, I thought that it might give more of an idea of what the weather was like on that particular September night in 1886. During March-April 1998, the Bluff Maritime Museum received a letter from a John Collins, who is the nephew of Captain John Bollons, who was the mate on the Kekeno, his letter reads;
When Captain Bollons returned to sea, after the wreck of the “England’s Glory” (around Stirling Point) on which he served as a seaman, he continued working on the sea, later on becoming mate on the “Kekeno”. On 23 September 1886, after three months cruise to outlying islands, this schooner was driven ashore after a cable parted in a gale, the vessel was salvaged and repaired.
More about the Kekeno
When the naval training school at Kohimarama in Auckland closed in 1881 a schooner bearing the school’s name was released and handed over to the Marine Department, who had her fitted out for cruising the southern sealing grounds. The craft which had been built in 1876 had her name changed to Kekeno (seal) and was delivered in February 1882. She was commanded by Captain J.B. Greig, who had instructions to patrol the sailing grounds to check poaching as sealing was a closed season until 1st June 1884, and to visit and replenish all depots that had been established for the relief of shipwrecked seamen.
In the first year four visits were made to the Snares and the Campbell Islands, two visits to the West Coast Sounds, as well as visits to all Stewart Island harbours. The Kekeno replaced the cutter Champion and became the revenue steamer of the Customs Department, the official government ship, as the Captain was also the Resident Magistrate. On 14 December 1883 the Kekeno sailed into Preserverence Harbour on Campbell Island to shelter and came upon six of the crew of the American ship Sarah W. Hunt, who had been castaway since 27 November. Two boats with a crew of six had been poaching seals when a storm blew up and they were lost sight of. After searching for six days Captain Miner and the steward sailed 600 miles to Lyttelton. Captain Greig fed and clothed the survivors until the Stella, under Captain Gray called in. She had been sent by the New Zealand Government to search for survivors. He then sailed the Kekeno around the Campbell and Auckland Islands to look for the missing crew. A gold watch was presented to the Captain by the Invercargill Borough Council on 9 October 1884 from the President of the U.S.A. for his part in the rescue. The inscribed case is in the Stewart Island Museum.
After a voyage lasting three months the Kekeno was moored in Bluff Harbour on 24 September 1886, when a furious storm swept her off onto the rocks, where she was sold “as is” to a company who refloated and relengthened her.
The schooner had a steam engine fitted in 1904 and then skippered by Captain Tom Bragg of Stewart Island was engaged in sealing off the Snares, and was used in salvaging gear off the steamer Waikare wrecked in Dusky Sound in 1910.
Later, now owned by Captain Harry Roderique, a new diesel motor was installed in 1930 and this was replaced by the first post-was diesel motor to come to New Zealand after the war in 1945.
The once proud navy schooner, custom revenuer, sealer, oyster boat, timber ship, mutton birder, ferry, livestock carrier and fishing boat, now lies forlornly on the Bluff Harbour foreshore.
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