T
he restaurant’s shell collection is not
the only historic link to a maritime
past – the restaurant walls are studded
with portholes and other memorabilia either
collected or salvaged by Roger Turner from
some renown shipwrecks here and overseas.
The coffee table with shells under the glass
pictured on previous page with Enid and family,
is made from cabin timber and a cabin window
from the doomed shipwreck in the Marlborough
Sounds. The
Mikhael Lermontov
, a Russian
cruise liner ventured too close to the shore and
ran aground on a reef, tearing a huge hole in
her hull and sinking nearby. Roger explains
that these pieces were salvaged by noted
local diver John Young, a diving mate of Kelly
Tarlton.
Roger then points to two favourite portholes
with pride. “These are from the bombed
Greenpeace flagship,
Rainbow Warrior,
” he
explains matter of factly.
Wow!
These would be
holy relics to those in the anti-nuke movement.
The protest ship was docked in Auckland
before heading out to protest the French testing
of a nuclear bomb at the Mururoa Atoll. It was
July 1985. (see story next page)
Before the ship was scuttled as a diving reef,
the
Rainbow Warrior
was salvaged, and Roger
managed to obtain the portholes at auction.
One
(see next page)
has a crack in the glass,
caused by the blast of the bomb.
Another of the portholes displayed at Shells is
from the 1919 wreck of the steamship
Wairoa
on the Tairua bar. Roger explains that the tide
was falling toward low ebb, and the captain
wanted to make way while there was sufficient
depth on the bar. However, he was unable to
extricate his crew from the local pub and they
were too late; the ship struck downward as she
passed through a wave.
“The rudder was broken, and she lost her way,”
Roger says. “Overnight a storm blew up, and
she went ashore near the harbour mouth and
eventually broke up. Her hull to this day rests
below the sand just metres off Pauanui beach.”
A storm in 1977 uncovered her skeleton for just
three days. Seeing this from his home on Paku,
Roger hurried to the shore, snorkel gear in
hand. He was able to recover a nearly pristeen
porthole by diving in just 3 metres of water.
“The moving sands had both protected it and
given it a good clean!”
Such fascinating stories hidden everywhere
one looked. I could have listened to the stories
behind all these historic treasures from the sea
for hours... even days.
– Tovi Daly
Salvage me timbers!
PORTHOLES
TO THE PAST
Roger Turner obtained two Greenpeace
Rainbow Warrior portholes at auction,
while he dived to recover several of the
others on display at Shells. Some wood
used in the restaurant has been salvaged
from wrecks as well.
A lucky salvage
Roger retrieved this porthole himself
when a 1977 storm exposed the
wreckage of the
Wairoa
, which went
aground in 1919.
Roger spotted the wreck from the deck
of his home and immediately went to
the site, finding this treasure in the
skeleton of the wreck.
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...
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Peninsula’s only 5-Star rated dive store.
7 Blacksmith Lane, Whitianga
Ph
:
07-867 1580
E:
Photo courtesy of the Cory-Wright Family
12
COROMANDEL LIFE LATE AUTUMN/WINTER
