{"id":407818,"date":"2026-05-02T04:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407818\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T04:09:08","slug":"whangarei-museum-to-restore-rms-niagara-lifeboat-linked-to-war-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407818\/","title":{"rendered":"Whang\u0101rei Museum to restore RMS Niagara lifeboat linked to war, flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

The RMS Niagara story<\/a> starts with her launch in 1912. She was originally billed as \u201cThe Titanic of the Pacific\u201d \u2013 before the actual Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage. <\/p>\n

Her nickname was changed to \u201cPrincess of the Pacific\u201d in time for her launch.<\/p>\n

Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga volunteer Jack Kemp, who has researched the ship, said the Niagara delivered on its media hype, having set records for transtasman crossings and earning a reputation for reliability and stability in all weathers.<\/p>\n

Her prestige took a hit when an outbreak of Spanish flu emerged during a voyage from Vancouver to Auckland in October 1918. <\/p>\n

By the time the ship docked at Auckland, she was firmly in the grip of the virus which had been misdiagnosed as regular influenza by doctors on board \u2013 though suspicions about the virus being Spanish flu persisted.<\/p>\n

Minister of Health George Russell advised the Governor-General that Spanish flu was not a notifiable disease and that he therefore could not quarantine the Niagara.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussell made the call to give clearance to disembark the ship,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately 28 patients were transferred to Auckland City Hospital, with a further nine cases over the next week. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, 160 of the hospital\u2019s 180 nurses were infected, and two died. The Spanish flu had well and truly arrived in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Influenza Epidemic Commission established in 1919 investigated the impact the ships Niagara and Makura may have played in bringing the virus to New Zealand. <\/p>\n

One witness, Dr Milson of the New Zealand Division of the British Medical Association, said the Niagara was the cause of the epidemic in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

However, an earlier outbreak at Auckland\u2019s Narrow Neck military camp is where the first Spanish flu case was reported on September 30. <\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Commission\u2019s interim report suggested that the Niagara\u2019s arrival with Spanish flu cases onboard was a \u201csubstantial factor\u201d in its spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next two decades the Niagara continued to ply its pan-Pacific trade linking Auckland with Sydney, Canada, Suva and Honolulu \u2013 largely without drama,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

Except in 1937, when a case of Chinese fireworks exploded as 300 cases were being loaded into the hold in Sydney. Dock workers were blown through the air \u2013 five were injured and one later died.<\/p>\n

\"FrederickFrederick Wilkinson took this photograph of the Niagara departing Sydney for Vancouver on Thursday, August 28, 1924.
\nPhoto \/ Australian National Maritime Museum<\/p>\n

Kemp said in June 1940, the German raider Orion laid a field of more than 220 contact mines across the mouth of the Hauraki Gulf – one of which was struck by the Niagara<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crew and passengers watched her stern rise clear of the water then diving to her final resting place on the edge of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. <\/p>\n

Passenger Hazel Royd recorded the sight: \u201cEven the men caught their breath as, like a great shadow in the night, she vanished from view\u201d. <\/p>\n

Everyone on board was safely evacuated to lifeboats, though there were initial fears for the ship\u2019s cat Aussie, who refused to leave.<\/p>\n

According to the New Zealand Maritime Museum, Aussie survived by clinging to a water tank which eventually washed up on the beach at Hora Hora. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe unique cargo that went down with the ship sent chills throughout senior military and Government officials in Wellington, however,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive hundred and ninety gold bars from South Africa \u2013 a payment from the United Kingdom to the United States for munitions \u2013 with half of New Zealand\u2019s stock of small arms ammunition en route to Britain via Canada now lay at the bottom of the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing a shipload of ammo during wartime was a big enough problem but a cargo of gold bars for war payments<\/a> was a next-level disaster. <\/p>\n

The Bank of England\u2019s reward \u2013 \u00a327,000 plus 2.5% of any gold recovered \u2013 showed how eager authorities were to recover the treasure.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of the many holes in the RMS Niagara, as shown in this screen grab from ROV footage.
\nPhoto \/ New Zealand Defence Force<\/p>\n

The Claymore – a rusting old tub moored in Auckland Harbour and one of the few ships available during wartime – eventually found the Niagara by dragging her anchor over the sea bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn imprecise method which also located two other mines laid by the Orion. Fortunately the Claymore avoided being sunk, though the most hair-raising moment came when the diving chamber, complete with diver inside, became fouled with the anchor wire of one of the mines,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

On February 2, 1941, the wreck of the Niagara was found and salvage work began. <\/p>\n

The team used the ship\u2019s grab to tear open a side of the hull and, with a man in the diving bell guiding the grab via telephone line, eventually exposed the Niagara\u2019s strong room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn October the team blasted open the strong room door using explosives, and the first two gold bars were recovered on October 13. By December 8, the salvage ended with 555 of the gold bars safely recovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1953 the job was almost completed when a second salvage team managed to retrieve 30 of the 35 remaining gold bars. Five bars still remain unaccounted for to this day.<\/p>\n

Tonnes of oil are still believed to remain on the wreck, leading some to label the ship a potential ticking environmental time-bomb<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The RMS Niagara story starts with her launch in 1912. She was originally billed as \u201cThe Titanic of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1443,1379,71,134,82258,424,209867,7055,3025,3586,111,139,209866,69,23365,79684,18248,60776,26533,3179,61,6149,25535,1869,80],"class_list":["post-407818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-about","tag-flu","tag-from","tag-health","tag-lease","tag-life","tag-lifeboat","tag-linked","tag-most","tag-museum","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-niagara","tag-nz","tag-restore","tag-rms","tag-sail","tag-ships","tag-storied","tag-thanks","tag-to","tag-war","tag-waters","tag-whangrei","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}