William Ackers, Barque: While on a voyage to Lyttelton with a cargo of 185,000 ft, of sawn timber, the barque was totally wrecked at Waipapa Point, early on the morning of December12, 1876 with the loss of eight lives. After leaving Bluff the William Ackers encountered a head wind against which she was beating when she was felt to touch on a reef at Waipapa Point. In trying to bring round, she missed stays, and drifted right on to the reef, the sea breaking over her to a height of ten feet.The lifeboat was launched but was no sooner in the water when it was struck by a heavy sea and completely crushed. The barque was heavily laden, and the deck load broke adrift, causing confusion and loss to life and limb. Several members of the crew, seeing the planks floating adrift, straddled them and drifted away to perish. The last seen of the master was about this time. He was believed to have sustained a broken arm.
The barque having drifted to within 200 yards of the shore, three men, the mate, a seaman and a passenger, succeeded in swimming ashore, landing in an exhausted state. The William Ackers broke up very quickly, caused by her pounding on the rocky bottom, and in a short time the seas had completely rendered her, even her yards and masts being smashed to pieces. The second mate, drowned, was a brother to the first mate, one of the three survivors, and was to have been married on his arrival at Lyttelton.
The William Ackers, No 163, was a wooden barque of 299 tons register, and was a very old vessel, having been built at Cumberland as far back as 1836. Her dimensions were: length 101.7 ft, beam 25 ft, depth 17.3 ft. The barque was commanded by Captain D. Lindsay.
