| Brief Description |
A black and white photo of the vessel SS "Cyrena" aground on Castlecliff Beach. The photograph was taken from the beach and looks across the sand towards the vessel which lies on a significant lean. A cable extends from the masts of the ship towards the left of the image, where a man is suspended in the breeches buoy that was used for communicating between the wreck and the rescue boat.
The British Imperial Oil Company steamer SS "Cyrena", skippered by Captain D R Paterson, was approaching Whagnanui on 25 May 1925, intending to deliver 8,000 cases of oil before proceeding to Bluff, Port Chalmers and Lyttelton to deliver the remaining cargo. The ship met trouble entering the harbour and ran aground. It was hoped to be reflosted so work began to lighten the load. The salvage tug "Terawhiti" arrived from Wellington to help dislodge "Cyrena", and the steamer "John" arrived from New Plymouth to help with the salvage of cargo. Lightening the load was not successful in refloating her and so other schemes were attempted. One involved pumping compressed air into the ship, which was intended to achieve a “greater degree of buoyancy.” Despite this not being very successful, another similar idea entailed attaching all the empties, the beer barrels from local hotels, to see what difference they would make when Cyrena was re-floated. These attempts were not successful and the final blow was delivered on 12 June by a large southerly swell which broke the ship in two, sending all remaining cargo into the sea. The owners of Cyrena were ordered to remove the wreck which was demolished by lighting 300lb of explosives were detonated near the boilers in that September.
The reason for the disaster was initially thought to be the result of a build-up of excess sand or mud from a recent flood, but one newspaper reported a 40ft long log had made contact with the steamer. Further exploration revealed that there was a “formidable” obstruction lurking beneath the waves that was probably responsible for the damage that occurred. While there were some close calls, no one was hurt and Captain Paterson was exonerated of wrong-doing at a later inquiry, which called the wreck an Act of God.
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