It was a scene never to be repeated at the George St wharf, Port Chalmers, 60 ago this Wednesday (Anzac Day, 1952).
While the Port Lines' aptly named Port Chalmers, loading for London, was berthed on the north side of the wharf, three standard, war-built steamers occupied the opposite side.
Argojohn, with Domingo de Larrinaga double-berthed alongside, were at the town end of the wharf, with Viggo Hansteen at the seaward end.
The latter vessel had arrived in port late on the evening of April 24.
But earlier that day at 2.30am the vessel ran aground two miles northeast of the Moeraki lighthouse.
In response, the Otago Harbour Board sent the Port Chalmers-built tug Dunedin to the scene and at 3.16pm the tug refloated the vessel and escorted it into port.
At the time, Viggo Hansteen was on a voyage from London, via Panama, to Port Chalmers and Wellington with new British cars and bagged cement.
The ship was only slightly damaged, and after discharging cars here, sailed for Wellington on May 5.
Viggo Hansteen and Domingo de Larrinaga were both Liberty ships built by the Bethlehem-Fairfield yard at Baltimore.
Both were wrecked later in their careers.
The 7176gt Viggo Hansteen, launched as George M. Shriver on October 11, 1943, was completed on October 18.
Two days later it was taken over on bare-boat charter from the US War Shipping Administration by the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship).
This had been established at London in April 1940, to take over the administration of the Norwegian merchant fleet outside the areas under German control.
The ship was renamed Viggo Hansteen in memory of Harald Viggo Hansteen, a Norwegian lawyer executed by the Nazis on September 10, 1941.
In October, 1946, it was sold to the Norwegian government.
When it called here it was owned by A/S Asplund, of Moss.
It sold it in 1953 to Faros Shipping, of London, which renamed it Alkimos. The ship operated under the flag of Panama until 1959 when it was transferred to Greek registry.
But its mishap on the Otago coast was nothing compared to a chapter of later events.
The ship went aground on March 20, 1963, about 170 miles north of Fremantle, on passage from Indonesia to Bunbury in ballast.
The seriously damaged ship was refloated five days later and towed to Fremantle.
It left there on May 30, 1963, bound for Hong Kong under tow.
On the following day it broke adrift in a storm and grounded 31 miles north of Fremantle. It was finally refloated and moored on February 11, 1964.
However, the anchor chain broke on May 2, 1964, and Alkimos was driven back ashore to the same position.
It was not refloated until July 1, 1965, but then it went aground again and was declared a constructive total loss.
The hull broke in three sections and although sold to local buyers for scrapping, the wreck was partially demolished and abandoned.
Domingo de Larrinaga , completed in June 1944, as Samskern, also traded as Stanthorpe from 1947 before being bought in 1949 by the Larrinaga Steam Ship Co, of Liverpool.
This 7242gt vessel brought coal here to top up Argojohn's bunkers, and was only in port on April 25-26.
Sold out of the fleet in 1959, the steamer served as Vassilis, then Katina, before becoming the Panama-flag Anastassia in 1963.
On January 6, 1969, while on a voyage from Alexandria to Constanza, it went aground off Constanza in heavy weather, was abandoned and became a total loss.
Argojohn, in port from April 18 to May 1, had also arrived from London with cars. This 7159gt vessel was completed as Fort Marin at Vancouver on October 27, 1943, by North Van Ship Repairs Ltd.
As Argojohn, it was operated by the London-Greek interests of A. Lusi Ltd from 1947 to 1960.
It spent the rest of its career under the Greek flag as Kertis before arriving at Keelung for demolition during November 1966.
The 8535gt, 1933-built Port Chalmers had arrived at Kaohsiung 12 months earlier to be broken up.
