On 26 June 1918 the Wimmera, an Australian passenger ship, hit a German mine north of New Zealand. She sank with the loss of 26 lives out of 151 passengers and crew.
Now Mike Hodson, an Auckland electronics expert, and his team claim to have found it in about 90 metres of water.
During the First World War a German raider, the Wolf, had laid mines between Cape Reinga and the Three Kings, off Northland. An inquiry at the time was told that shipping notices to skippers advised that the mines were “not a menace to navigation”, but Captain Herbert Kell was blamed for not taking a more northerly course to avoid the minefield. Captain Kell went down with his ship after supervising the loading of lifeboats.
The wreck is in 90 metres of water, and while it has not yet been positively identified, the people who found it are convinced that it is the Wimmera.
The photo comes from the New Zealand Herald’s website, which has more detail of this story.
