The Catlins Historical Society, which operates the Owaka Museum, will mark on January 1 next year the 150th anniversary of the loss of passenger sail ship Surat, with a day of events including a commemorative lunch.
All 268 souls on board made it safely to shore, making it one of the more positive shipwreck stories from the notoriously fickle south coast, spokeswoman Glenda Landreth said.
"Most of the drama of the tale comes not from the sea conditions, or hazardous rocks, but from the Surat’s drunken captain, Edmund Johnson.
"In calm night-time conditions, the Surat went off course around New Year’s Eve, hit rocks off Chaslands Mistake, but was not so badly damaged it could not continue.
"It got as far as Forsyth Bay — now Surat Bay — and the somewhat stubbornly drunk Johnson had to be ‘persuaded’ to let passengers off by grounding on the beach there.
"However, this was only after he had threatened to shoot anyone disobeying his orders, using his revolver, as he wished to continue to the final destination of Dunedin."
Thanks to mild sea conditions no lives were lost during the incident, Mrs Landreth said.
However, the captain received a two-month prison sentence for failing to carry the correct charts on the three-month journey from London.
The only other victim was the passengers’ luggage, which was unfortunately saturated with sea water by the time it was salvaged from the 60m 999-ton ship.
Mr McPhee said Surat, which had a permanent display at the museum, was one of its most frequent topics of public interest.
"Because all 268 survived, they have a lot of present-day descendants, many of who retain a strong interest in the story.
"We held a 30th anniversary, which about 150 people attended.
"We’d expect a similar number to return this January."
Registrations could be made through the event Facebook page, Surat Shipwreck.
