TEV Wahine
TEV Wahine lists heavily to starboard as she sinks in Wellington Harbour on 10 April 1968. Some of her lifeboats can be seen on the left.
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| History | |
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 New Zealand
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| Name: | TEV Wahine |
| Namesake: | Māori: woman |
| Owner: | Union Steam Ship Co of NZ |
| Operator: | Union Steam Ship Co of NZ |
| Route: | Wellington – Lyttelton |
| Ordered: | October 1963 |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering,Govan, Scotland |
| Yard number: | 830 |
| Laid down: | 14 September 1964 |
| Launched: | 14 July 1965 |
| Completed: | May 1966 |
| Maiden voyage: | 1 August 1966 |
| Out of service: | 10 April 1968 |
| Identification: | official number 317814 |
| Fate: | Sunk in a cyclone |
| Status: | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | ferry |
| Tonnage: | 8,948 GRT |
| Length: | 488 ft (149 m) |
| Beam: | 71 ft (22 m) |
| Decks: | six |
| Propulsion: | turbo-electric transmission; twin screw plus stern and bow thrusters |
| Capacity: |
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| Crew: | 126 |
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger and vehicle ferry of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand. She was launched at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Scotland, in 1965 and worked the New Zealand inter-island route between Wellington and Lyttelton from 1966. On 10 April 1968, near the end of a typical northbound crossing to Wellington, she was caught in a fierce storm stirred by Tropical Cyclone Giselle. She foundered after running aground on Barrett Reef and capsized and sank in the shallow waters near Steeple Rock at the mouth of Wellington Harbour. Of the 734 people on board, 53 people died from drowning, exposure to the elements or from injuries sustained in the hurried evacuation and abandonment of the stricken vessel.
The wreck of the Wahine is one of the better-known maritime disasters in New Zealand's history, although there have been worse, with far greater loss of life. Radio and television captured the drama as it happened, within a short distance of shore of the eastern suburbs of Wellington, and flew film overseas for world news.
TEV Wahine was designed and built for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, and was one of many ferries that have linked New Zealand's North and South Islands. From 1875 ferries have plied Cook Strait and the Kaikoura coast ferrying passengers and cargo, making port at Wellington in the north and Lyttelton in the south. From 1933 the Union Company's Wellington – Lyttelton service was marketed as the "Steamer Express".
By the early 1960s the Union Company was starting to face major competition. Apart from air travel, especially with the introduction of turboprop aircraft by the National Airways Corporation, in August 1962 New Zealand Railways began a roll-on/roll-off road and rail ferry across Cook Strait between Wellington and Picton, which continues as the Interislander. The Wahine was the Union Company's first purpose-built roll-on/roll-off ferry, introduced to maintain competition with the Railways ferries.
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