TEV Wahine was a dual
screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger and vehicle ferry of the
Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. She was started on at the Fairfield
Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Scotland in 1965 and worked the
New Zealand inter-island way between Wellington and Lyttelton from 1966. In an unusual
storm on 10 April 1968 she foundered on Barrett Reef and overturned near
Steeple Rock at the mouth of Wellington Harbor. Of the 610 passengers and 123
crew on board, 53 were dead.
The collapse of
the Wahine is one of the well known maritime tragedies in New Zealand’s
history, though there have been worse, with far greater loss of life.
