About the Lastingham Dive

She is laying in approx 10-20 metres of water on a shell and sandy bottom.

Kelp covered reefs in this area that offers a visibility of several metres.

She is now collapsed and broken apart with her masts laying nearby.

It is possible to swim under the collapsed ships sides that form artificial cave spaces.

In times of poor visibility there is a fascinating area with rocks in a purple haze.

The iron of the hull is thickly covered with weeds, soft corals, anemones, shells, sea urchins and other aquatic plants common to New Zealand.

With careful navigation and a keen eye it is possible to explore her as you would any other wreck dive as all the main parts are still recognizable.

There has been some interesting items were taken off the ship , a small bell and sextant were recovered along with general bits and bottles both full and empty have been found around the general area.

Other points of interest include barrels of cement, grinding wheels and sharpening stones. These have been found over a varied distance from the wreck herself in waters up to a depth of around 25 to 30 odd metre mark.

Plenty of Crayfish are to be found in the area around the wreck.

Fish life that are in abundance here include the following species. Blue-cod, Marble fish, Blue- and Red- Moki, Triple fins, Banded wrasse, Blennies, Scarlet wrasse and Sea perch just to give you an idea of what to expect.

New Zealand Fur Seals can be seen around the rocky shore here along with our dolphins that happily bow ride the boat on the way to and thro of this location. If you have a keen eye you may even see some of our penguins at play.

Do you fancy a bit of treasure hunting? As rumours have it that there still lays over 300 sovereigns within this area to be found.

History in Brief Lastingham Wreck

The vessel Lastingham was built in West Hartlepool, England in 1876. This vessel was used as a general cargo ship between London and Wellington.

Lastingham Specifications

Twin mast iron sailing ship of

1217 net register tons

Length 67.15 metres

Beam 10.7 metres

Depth 6.3 metres

Lastingham Lives Lost

Captain and his wife

11 crew members

5 passengers

Lastingham History Unfolded

Disaster struck on the 1st of September 1884 in a heavy North West Gale at Cape Jackson, at the entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound with the loss of 18 lives.

The Lastingham was nearing the end of this long journey, but the welcome land waited for so long proved her nemesis as the Lastingham could not weather the Cape Jackson point and was gradually driven to the lee shore.

As the vessel struck bow first it immediately broached to in the heavy weather as the deckhouse, boats, deck furniture broke up to be washed away in quick successions.

The ships company broke up into two groups, with the group at the bow self rescuing them by making a dash over the bowsprit onto shore. Sadly due to the noise and commotion they could not alert the others at the stern of the vessel of the safe passage that lay ahead of them at the bow.

It only took around an hour for the metal structure to start breaking apart before the inevitable happened with the Lastingham sliding off the rocks disappearing into a watery grave.

The Captain of the Lastingham was last seen sitting at the table in his cabin with his wife with water around his armpits as death was to be his salvation.

The remainder of the ships passengers and crew including the first and second officers, reached the mainland to be saved after 40 cold and hungry hours by the ketch Agnes. A lot of the rescued were either bruised or cut and in a poor state of health. The Agnes spotted an improvised emergency signal,being a blanket waved by the survivors.

The final resting place for the Lastingham was located in 1966 after an exhausting search off Cape Jackson on the West side laying about 20 metres off shore.

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