Schooner KATE

Loss of the Kate 

The Harlequin, which arrived on Monday from Otago, having left on the previous day, has brought the intelligence of the total 
wreck of the schooner Kate, on the 25th January, in Open Bay, near the Cascades, on the West Coast of the South Island. The
Kate had gone round to Open Bay to take in oil, and bring away the shore party at Captain Salmons's whaling station, and had 
nearly completed loading when the weather threatening to blow from the north-east, to which quarter the bay is open, she 
attempted to put to sea about 8 o'clock in the evening; there was very little wind at the time, and the sea was setting into the 
bay. She missed stays and anchored, but shortly afterwards, with the assistance of the whale boats from the shore, she got 
under weigh again, and was apparently getting out to sea, when the wind, stilt proving light and baffling, she anchored again, 
and at this time she touched lightly on some sunken rocks. In trying to weigh her again they tore the windlass out. The chain 
was then slipped, and an effort made so return to her old anchorage in the bay, but the vessel struck several times, unshipped 
the rudder, and becoming unmanageable, she went broadside on to the reefs. It was now near midnight, the masts were cut 
away, and in two hours after the vessel broke up. Four of the crew reached the shore on a part of the wreck. The master and 
one hand remained on the deck, the only part of the vessel left, until daylight, when they attempted to get on shore on the 
main boom, when the man was unfortunately drowned. About fifteen tuns of oil were lost The master and crew got a passage 
in the Amazon whaler, which touched a few days afterwards at Open Bay, to Stewart's Island, whence they proceeded to Otago
in an open whaleboat. The master sailed yesterday in the Queen to Open Bay to bring away the whaling party.

Transcribed from the Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, of 10 March 1849, Page 6