Desperately, some losing hope, some putting up a fight for all their spirits could muster, they clung to the flotsam – the debris from the remaining bits and pieces that would stay afloat. Many had already perished horrifically in the brutality of the sea.
“Women and children first!” was the cry during maritime emergencies but this time that noble sentiment had proven disastrous as the swelling waters consumed the lifeboats leaving but one woman alive.
As horrified men watched their families vanish beneath the tempestuous waves, cool seawater flooded the boiler room. The boiler exploded in a violence which tore the ship apart.
Alas! Today in History, 12 February, 1909 the SS Penguin bound for safe harbour in Wellington, New Zealand had become closed in by poor weather losing all visual contact with landmarks, and the reassuring beam of the Pencarrow Lighthouse. She had run afoul of an unseen rock, leaving a cruel tear in her hull. The angry waters were to consume her and all but thirty of the one hundred and five souls aboard.
Captain Naylor survived the ordeal. He believed he had struck the wreck of a ship previously sunk in the area. The board of inquiry stated he did all he could during the disaster but found him culpable of the disaster itself stating they believed he had struck Thom’s Rock off Cape Terawhiti. His captaincy certificate was revoked for 12 months.
ALAS! Today in History! 12February1909
