New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Thanks GoGold for the interesting info

Here what i have found for shipwrecs there :
http://www.angelfire.com...f/shipwrecksfoveaux.html


There is a list with all information about boats and cargo etc....

I wish i was a scuba diver... with my Excalibur.. :-))

you beat me to it gbm heres a website interesting story lots of $$$$$$$$$$ somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
http://wreckofthegeneralgrant.com/index.htm

I got the funniest faintest suspicion that the General Grant and the Auckland Islands are to the Foveaux Strait what Wellington is to Christchurch so somehow I dont think the General Grant classifies as a Foveaux Strait shipwreck...and dont any of you guys get any ideas about the General Grant because I am going to buy me a big boat when I win Lotto and go and find it myself!

Gingerbreadman - I dont know where you got the information that one of the masts went through the floor - The Fore topmast came into contact with the roof of the cave and carried away the Foremast close to the deck. The Main Topgallant mast tumbled with it and also the Bowsprit and Cathead.

It would be almost impossible for the mast to be driven out through the bottom of the ship as the mast step is on the keel and the keel is amazingly thick. Long before that happened the mast would snap at deck level or higher. One might refer to the cabin 'floor' but in reality the cabin floor is actually part of one of the decks and each deck had its own term as in Orlop deck, Poop deck, Main deck, Gun deck (On ships which carried a row of guns) and so on. The timber right on the bottom where the rounded sides of the ship meet the keel is neither floor nor deck but rather the timber of the bilges.

Just a bit of nautical information for those interested I suppose!

Edited by user Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:00:54 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi GT& GB, the son of one of the oringinal finders of the wreck is here in Dunendin and has vivid memories of his trips to the islands to find the Gen Grant on his fathers boat.The ship that was found under a rock slide in an cave entrance at first was thougth to be the general grant, but with the salvagers dredgeing results now cast doudth on the wreck being the General Grant. With a bit of research you should be able to find out more info than i could give you, there was a little doco on telly a year or two ago about the last salvage attemp.

i'll join your pirate ship if there is rum a plenty.

Hi Lammy
The General Grants story is very interesting...though with out doubt like you said there are different versions!.
i got my hands on a few books the latset 1 iv read is a great read "The General Grants Gold" by Allen and Scadden....i must drop it off at your pad for you to read in the near future.

Syndicate man i can dream with the best of them!....from what i can gather that bill day has been down about 4 times looking at 1 point i think they were parked up for around 3 or 4 months as they did actually find a wreck but not the grant....

Edited by user Friday, 10 August 2012 1:19:31 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Mr Gingerbreadman

I think that the first reports are the most accurate - every book written subsequently to the first newspaper articles, official reports, books and dairies is like Chinese whispers - they either neglect to include certain information, they misinterprete what they have read or they embellish it.
From what I can gather from the primary sources it might have been assumed that the main mast of the General Grant penetrated the hull and this assumption was made on the basis of the rapidity by which she went down - do you think it is just as likely that the wall of the cave stove in the hull - I think that is actually more likely as the vessel would have been heaving against the cave walls.

A good example of the twisting of the truth or neglect to include the facts is the virtually unknown story of the altercation at Gabriels Gully.
For one of the Primary source reports of this altercation read the section 'Burgess and Kelly Gang' in the following; -

http://paperspast.natlib...mp;e=-------10--1----0--

By the 1930s when Gilkinson wrote 'Early Days in Central Otago' his book gives a good account of what happens but adds a few more details not mentioned in any of the early newspaper accounts or reports I ave read. Todays 'history' books in this politically correct society fail to mention this altercation at all! Instead they give a 'Politically correct' view of Goldfields life. Indeed todays book give a completely false impression of life on the gold fields. The interesting book 'Diggers, hatters and Whores' went opposite to the Politically correct books and gives as many accounts of violence, depredation and so on that the author could find and yet the most interesting account of the use of pistols on any of the New Zealand goldfields doesnt seem to have made the book at all!

To summarize re the General Grant - The earlier accounts seem to suggest that the Main mast penetrated the hull of hte ship but I cannot find any definitive statement that it actually did so - until reading modern accounts. Did someone in translation turn an assumption into a matter of fact?

Wow,
Did i spark a great interest on all you guys? :-)

So. as was mentioned- how about a syndicate, rent a boat and start research .. salvage like cannon or treasures :-)

Sounds like fun DB. How much were you thinking we would need to front with on this adventure?

Hi Asterix
Pretty sure you can still get down there must be a lot of red tape though i think that clip i posted at the start of this thread "the youtube link" well im pretty sure those fellas were supposed to have a doc guy on board with them for the intyre trip but i think he didnt show so they went anyway !
here is a link that shows the numerous attempts to find the grant interesting to read what happens to some of them!
www.maanz.wellington.net.nz/projects/gengrant.html