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New Plymouth, New Zealand. - Tracing the burial ground of a young hero

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#1 · (Edited)
This is my first post so I'd like to say hello to everyone and I'm sure it's a happy ship. But the purpose of my 'being here' is to seek the help of members who may have witnessed a tragic incident that took place about 1957 in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

This is a plea for information from 'Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers'.

We publish a quarterly newsletter that keeps members up to date with local/international maritime events. We also trace the history, where we can, of events that they experienced during their sea-going days. They are encouraged to contribute their own stories of home and abroad and one such tale that was brought to our attention concerns the freighter 'British Monarch' that ended in tragedy.
It is of two young local girls swimming in the harbour at Port Taranaki in New Plymouth, New Zealand, whilst the ship was discharging her cargo of Phosphate at the quay. For some reason the girls got into trouble and called for help. At the same time two young apprentices were on deck of the British Monarch and were attracted by the girls call for assistance. Both of the boys (aged about 16) responded immediately, and without any thought for their own safety, dived in the water and made a heroic effort to save the girls. Thankfully both girls were saved, but tragically one of the apprentices was drowned and buried in a small churchyard that overlooked the harbour.
I have been given the task of finding out the boy’s name and the churchyard where he was buried. Some of our members make the occasional visit to New Zealand and if we can identify the boy’s name and church, they could make arrangements to visit the grave and give a fitting commemoration to a young and maybe forgotten hero. It could well be that the girls or their families have tended the grave over the years but we have no knowledge of this.
Therefore does anyone remember the sorrowful incident with clarity?
Can anyone identify our young hero?
Was there a mission to Seamen in Port Taranaki?
We would like to know the name of the churchyard and if it was reported in the local paper.
Any information regarding this would be much appreciated

Thanks,
Rainbow
 
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#7 ·
Welcom to the site Rainbow. I wish you well in your quest. am sure somebody on this site will be able to help you find the answer you are looking for. we have NZ members here who may have heard of this tragic incident. good luck and thank you for goining us on SN.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the warm welcome. A few details as requested. I come from Liverpool and I'm 64 yrs of age, married 38 yrs and I've got 4 kids + 8 grandkids. I stopped going away like many others in Liverpool in the late sixties, as the demise of shipping, (passenger and cargo), was 'on the cards'. My hobbies are computers and digital photography, on a nice day I'll call a pal from our days on the Carinthia (Cunard) and we'll go out and capture the ever changing face of Liverpool (politicians and planners have wrecked this magnificent city). My involvement with Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers newsletter has only just started (because the editor is computer illiterate and he needed a gofer) although I've been a member of L.R.M.S. for a few years.
Hope that give you a broad picture of myself.
Thanks for askin'
Rainbow
 
#11 ·
Tracing the burial ground of a young hero

rainbow said:
This is my first post so I'd like to say hello to everyone and I'm sure it's a happy ship. But the purpose of my 'being here' is to seek the help of members who may have witnessed a tragic incident that took place about 1957 in New Plymouth, New Zealand.

This is a plea for information from 'Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers'.

We publish a quarterly newsletter that keeps members up to date with local/international maritime events. We also trace the history, where we can, of events that they experienced during their sea-going days. They are encouraged to contribute their own stories of home and abroad and one such tale that was brought to our attention concerns the freighter 'British Monarch' that ended in tragedy.
It is of two young local girls swimming in the harbour at Port Taranaki in New Plymouth, New Zealand, whilst the ship was discharging her cargo of Phosphate at the quay. For some reason the girls got into trouble and called for help. At the same time two young apprentices were on deck of the British Monarch and were attracted by the girls call for assistance. Both of the boys (aged about 16) responded immediately, and without any thought for their own safety, dived in the water and made a heroic effort to save the girls. Thankfully both girls were saved, but tragically one of the apprentices was drowned and buried in a small churchyard that overlooked the harbour.
I have been given the task of finding out the boy’s name and the churchyard where he was buried. Some of our members make the occasional visit to New Zealand and if we can identify the boy’s name and church, they could make arrangements to visit the grave and give a fitting commemoration to a young and maybe forgotten hero. It could well be that the girls or their families have tended the grave over the years but we have no knowledge of this.
Therefore does anyone remember the sorrowful incident with clarity?
Can anyone identify our young hero?
Was there a mission to Seamen in Port Taranaki?
We would like to know the name of the churchyard and if it was reported in the local paper.
Any information regarding this would be much appreciated

Thanks,
Rainbow

Kia ora from Kiwiland, Rainbow,
I haven't heard of this episode, but then, I haven't been in New Plymouth since Oct 1957. I didn't hear anything about it at the time but I suppose it could have happened after we sailed? I have asked one of our local newspapers to help in the search and will keep in contact. I wish you well in your quest and hope it all turns out well. Vix.
 
#12 ·
Re:The young heros.

I have sent an email to the shipping officer at Port Taranaki reqesting Information about the incident. There is a Seafarers centre at the port. I will also asked the local newspaper if they have any information.

I will report back when I have the information.

Regards

Blair Lagerstedt.
NZ
 
#15 · (Edited)
I thought I'd bring you all up to date with my inquiry. On another site that I posted the same request, a member recalls a further incident during the voyage. I didn't mention it because I didn't want to deflect interest from my objective.

Here's what I posted;

There's no doubt the lengthy voyage that the British Monarch was undertaking at that time was eventful.
It is true that the 2nd Mate fell over the wall whilst reading the log and was in the water for 9 hrs. The ship turned around on discovery of him missing, found him and hauled him aboard. Lucky man and deservedly so.

The person who related the incident to L.M.R.S Newsletter (ship's radio officer) also said that 'Victoria Drummond' was the British Monarch's 2nd Engineer on that trip. This checks out with her biographer Cherry Drummond.
Here is an extract of a few of the ships she sailed in for that period;
MV Lord Canning 1956
SS Concha 1956
MV British Monarch 1957
MV Adventuress 1958
SS Grelrosa 1959-60

To further complicate matters there is a photogragh of the graveside service but a female cannot be identified in the group of mourners, all officers and men were in attendance. EXCEPT the 2nd Engineer and 1st Mate who had to stay on board to look after the ship.
Thanks for all help.
 
#16 ·
Tracing the burial ground of the young hero

Today I recieved an email from the shipping officer at the Taranaki Harbour Board. He said all records for the period have been passed on. He says he remembers reading about the incident in the port records and he has given me a name to contact. I will make contact and see what the port records say.

Regards
Blair Lagerstedt
NZ
 
#18 · (Edited)
Did a few phosphate runs from Oz- Naru Oz - Christmas Island on the British Monarch,(Harrisons of Clyde) this would be in 1962/63 I think,never heard that story though,she was famous for having the only female Second Engineer in the Merchant Navy serving on her at one time, but again before my time.
I did hear the story about the second Mae taking a dive off the wing of the bridge and being miraculesly picked up again but again that was brfore I joined her.
You are dead right about the length of the voyages,I did some short trips on her,PortChurchill for grain,back to Hull, a couple of times,was a bit fed up with paying off with not much coin or leave,so the Captain (Huggins a great character) says we have a BI general cargo charter ,medi ports,Red Sea Durban then back home, six months, we jumped at the chance,we did not see home again for near two years,Captain Huggins didn't do the trip he payed off sick,so he must have been laughing up his sleeve,
Happy Days
Tony D
 
#53 · (Edited)
Well done for finding and posting the photo Tony. - I have added a link to the British Monarch as it deserves its own page on SN Guides as well as its own thread.

I have also taken the liberty of moving the thread from "Hello" to its new location and also made a small edit to the title, in the hope that the hard work that Tony has put in will be rewarded with more hits and more information.
 
#22 ·
Died of the young hero.

Today I received a email from the info officer, New Plymouth District Council who own and run "Puke Ariki" the district museum and library. He says he has had a number of requests for the information.

He has sent the following which appeared in the death notices of the New Plymouth news paper (Taranaki Herald) 5 March 1958.

GRAMMAN, Robert Ian - (Result of a drowning accident) At New Plymouth 4 March 1958, beloved son of Mr and Mrs R.P Gramman, Gourock, Scotland, aged 18 years.

The funeral will leave St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Liardet Street, New Plymouth, tomorrow March 6 for Te Henui cemetery at the conclusion of a service which commences at 3.15pm. Freinds please accept this as an intimation.

d249 Voster & Hingston

When I get more info I will pass it on.

Regards

Blair Lagerstedt
NZ
 
#23 ·
Very sorry, I tried various local newspapers and couldn't even get an acknowledgment, let alone a reply. Vix
 
#24 · (Edited)
Well it's done, and on behalf of Liverpool Retired Merchant Seafarers, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the search for the requested info. I turned on my PC this morning and I found several messages informing me of success. So I would like to convey my own 'Thank You' to all members who took up the task, especially Blair and Vix for their determination.

Below is a copy of the message I received off Puke Ariki Library's research dep't.

Dear Tony,
Thank you for your enquiry about the young sailor who died while rescuing two girls in trouble near the ‘British Monarch’.
Although this is proving to be a challenge, we are a little closer to finding the information. The first request dated it ‘in the forties or fifties’, giving us a broad time span to check. Your dates ‘about 40/50 years ago’ are similarly broad.
Unfortunately we have no index of newspaper reports, or even of ship visits to Port Taranaki. So we have been looking at newspapers for the dates supplied. You can appreciate that it is made more difficult by the lack of a name to go on.
We have also asked some key informants, and had no luck with these until two days ago. One informant remembers the event as having occurred some time after she fell off her bicycle, an event that made the front page of the newspaper and which occurred on February 21 1956. She suggests 1960 as a likely year.
One of your colleagues from the Hawkes Bay has made a request for the same information, and puts the year at 1957. A search of newspaper records for that year has so far failed to reveal the story.
It is most likely that the event would have made the front page of the local newspapers, the Daily News and the Taranaki Herald.
I am confident that we will find the information eventually. We are using several resources, including an index to scrapbooks compiled by Fred B. Butler which is the most likely place we will find the information.
The nearest graveyard to the harbour is an Urupa that is the burial place of Dicky Barrett and his family. I have asked the Cemetery officer at the local council to look through his records for likely candidates.
I will let you know as soon as we have more detail about the event.
* * * * * * * * *
Here is the funeral notice transcribed from the Taranaki Herald of 5 March 1958:
CRAMMAN, Robert Ian. – (Result of a drowning accident.) At New Plymouth, on Tuesday, March 4, 1958, beloved son of Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Cramman, Gourock, Scotland; aged 18 years.
The funeral will leave from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Liardet Street, New Plymouth, tomorrow, Thursday, March 6, for Te Henui Cemetery at the conclusion of a service commencing at 3:15 p.m. Friends please accept this intimation.
* * * * * *

Bill Howard
Information Services Officer
--------------------------------
Puke Ariki and District Libraries
 
#25 ·
A brave man who lies far from his home...he deserves every accolade we can give him...There is nothing more one can ask of a man than the fact that he gave his life to save another one! Vix
 
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