Three weeks after the crater rim of Bay of Plenty volcanic island Te Puia o Whakaari | White Island collapsed the only survivor, ‘Peter the Great’ was finally rescued. No sign of the 12 men working on the island was found and it is presumed they were buried under the lahar that blocked the blowhole and caused an eruption. No memorial or compensation was provided to their grieving families and the men were never officially recorded as having died. Story researched, written and published by Debbie McCauley.
Whakaari is an active marine volcano, part of the ‘Ring of Fire’ (a ring of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean). The island has a “respectable-sized” eruption around every 2-10 years.
- Te Puia o Whakaari – The full Māori name for the island is ‘Te Puia o Whakaari’ meaning literally, ‘The Dramatic Volcano’.
- White Island – On 1 November 1769 Captain Cook named it White Island ‘because as such it always appear’d to us’.
The White Island Sulphur Company Ltd had ten workers mining sulphur on the island in 1914. On 9 September 1914 they were joined by Arthur James Brennan and David Malcolm McMurtrie who arrived via Auckland and Opotiki.
The following day, on 10 September 1914, Whakaari’s south-western crater rim collapsed, causing a lahar (volcanic mudflow) to rush through the crater floor, smashing the workers’ huts, the manager’s house and other mine buildings and shunting them into the sea. It is believed that the debris from the landslide blocked the blowhole and caused an eruption.
One of five camp cats, ‘Peter the Great’, was the only survivor, discovered hungry but uninjured three weeks later. The bodies of the 12 men and other camp cats were never found. No memorial or compensation was provided for their grieving families and the men were never officially recorded as having died. Five of the men had twelve children who were left fatherless, including one child born a few months after the tragedy.
‘DISASTER AT WHITE ISLAND. PLANT AND MEN OVERWHELMED.’ This headline appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times of 21 September 1914. In the weeks after the disaster, wreckage from the plant was washed up on Tauranga beaches, but no trace of the men was ever found. The only survivor was ‘Peter the Great’, one of five camp cats. He recovered from his ordeal to live to a ripe old age in Opotiki and is said to have fathered many kittens in the town.
White Island: A place of hope and despair by Stephanie Smith.
The 12 [possibly 11] killed:
- Anderson, A ?
- Brennan, Arthur James 34
- Byrne, John 49
- Chappell, Robert Henry (aka Robert Walker) 37
- Donovan, William Joseph 31
- Kelly, L 33
- Lamb, Robert 36
- McKim, Archibald James Campbell 34
- McMurtrie, David Malcolm 23
- Waring, R ?
- Williams, Harry Edward 31
- Young, Stephen Henry 27
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