File:Letter from ledger of the Southland Provincial Government re Wreck of General Grant, 1868 (11841050653).jpg

On January 13 1868, survivors of the wreck of the General Grant landed at Bluff. The General Grant was a ship carrying passengers from Melbourne to London. On 13 May 1866 the ship drifted into Auckland Island and sank on the 14th. Auckland Island is the main island of the Auckland Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to New Zealand. It is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. After the sinking of the ship and the capsizing of the long boat, the remaining two quarter boats decided to row for Disappointment Island. They reached there at dark and then the next day made for Port Ross. They arrived there after three days and two nights. After exploring, the group found two huts at Port Ross and, on 13 July 1866 Musgrave's hut. The group split in two in order to keep watch for passing ships. After nine months ashore, four of the crew decided to attempt to sail to New Zealand in one of the quarter boats. They set sail on 22 January 1867 without a compass, chart, or nautical instrument of any kind and were never seen again. Fifteen of the 83 on board survived the wreck, but only ten endured on the island until rescued by the Amhurst 18 months later. From as soon as 1868, the General Grant's cargo of gold attracted numerous recovery attempts, several of which proved deadly for the wreck seekers, but the exact location of the wreck has yet to be confirmed.

The record shown here is a letter from a ledger of the Southland Provincial Government in Invercargill from 1868. The record contains details on a range of events including details on the survivors who landed at Bluff. The ledger has details on the possibility of repatriating passengers to Melbourne and the possibility of ships passing the Auckland Islands leaving supplies for other possible survivors of the General Grant wreck, but also other subantarctic wrecks. The letter to the Colonial Secretary from February 1868 refers to survivors of the General Grant and the provisions that should be put in place on the Auckland Islands to assist other survivors from other wrecks.

This item is from the Dunedin Regional Office of Archives New Zealand. For further enquiries please email Dunedin.Archives@dia.govt.nz Archives Reference: AAKJ D365 18/a SP12/5 archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=18824802

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