Members of the expedition made the discovery of the cannon in June, as they searched for the elusive South Island kokako.
They unearthed the vintage naval gun by moving stones with their bare hands after spotting a patch of rust on the stony beach at Chalky Inlet. Willowback Wildlife Reserve founder Michael Willis said information which has since surfaced suggested the cannon may have come from the wrecked Star of the South.
Star of the South was a West Coast trading ship with three masts. She was transporting cargo and passengers from Dunedin to Hokitika when she took shelter from stormy seas at Chalky Inlet. On December 15, 1865, she struck a sunken rock and was beached on a sandy shore to prevent her foundering.
A newspaper article on Papers Past, discovered by a Willowbank supporter, suggests one of the ship’s cannons was taken to a nearby shore by a lookout party to be used as a signalling gun.
An article in The Press in January 1866, details the efforts of two crew members going in the ship’s boat to the shore in the Cape Providence area, and climbing a hill to light a fire to alert passing ships so they could be rescued.
‘‘By the difficulty they had in ascending and descending the hill, they also ascertained that to convey to the summit the cannon they brought with them as a signal-gun, was out of the question,’’ the article says.
It was thought after arriving in the boat, the duo left the cannon behind on the beach as they climbed the hill.
Where the cannon was found in June would have been an obvious location for the two Star of the South crewmen to land their boat, before walking along the beach for about a kilometre to access the hill referred to in the article.
Other articles on Papers Past reveal the more than 15 passengers and crew were lucky to be rescued from the remote location six days after the shipwreck, on December 21. Another steamship, William Miskin, happened to come across the wreck as it took shelter from stormy seas.
The passengers arrived at their original destination of Hokitika on December 27. The Star of the South was retrieved, but later stranded on a beach, at Napier in 1870, before ultimately being wrecked in 1884, in the mouth of the Grey River.
Naval artillery expert Peter Cooke said the Star of the South story “seems to ring true” in answering the question as to how the cannon was buried on the beach at Chalky Inlet.
‘‘If that story places the wreck of the Star of the South or the people from it at this location, then I think that does solve the mystery,” Mr Cooke said.
He said merchant ships carried arms in the 1800s in case of attack by pirates. Additionally, cannons were used for signalling. They were fired as a ship came into harbour to alert the pilot boat to come out and guide the ship into port.
Mr Cooke said it was an exciting find, in that it referenced an event that went back to New Zealand’s early history.
From looking at photos of the cannon, he determined it was a carronade.
While Willowbank initially hoped to obtain custodianship of the cannon, this now seems unlikely. For finds like this, agencies, the finder and communities typically co-operated so items could be displayed locally.
That would allow it to remain part of the Fiordland heritage story.
- By Susan Sandys, The Star
