| Brief Description |
A black and white photograph of the wreck of the vessel "Port Bowen", aground at Castlecliff Beach in Whanganui. The view looks over the grassy beach towards the vessel which is side-on on the beach, but upright. The vessel has a large smoke stack in the centre, and a mast at either end. A large wave has crashed against the far side of the ship and the plume of water can be seen rising over the deck.
The Port Bowen was a steel, twin-screw, 8267-ton steamer. At five past midnight on 19 July 1939, it ran aground on a sandbank, just north of the North Mole. The refrigerated ship was carrying wool and 31,417 carcasses of mutton and lamb for the English market. All attempts to tow the vessel off the sandbank failed, the load of carcasses and wool was retrieved, the ship was abandoned, handed over to the New Zealand government and the following year a salvage operation began.
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