SS Penguin

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title: "SS Penguin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1864-ships", "1909-in-new-zealand", "ships-built-on-the-river-clyde", "cook-strait-ferries", "history-of-the-wellington-region", "maritime-incidents-in-1909", "ships-of-the-union-steam-ship-company", "shipwrecks-of-the-cook-strait", "wellington-harbour", "1900s-in-wellington"] description: "19th and 20th-century New Zealand ferry" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Penguin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 19th and 20th-century New Zealand ferry ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox ship"]

Field	Value
section1	{{Infobox ship/image
image	SS Penguin 16271 pm01.jpg
image_caption	SS Penguin at Port Chalmers.
Photograph by David Alexander De Maus.
section2	{{Infobox ship/career
country	New Zealand
flag
name	SS Penguin
owner	* G. & J. Burns, Glasgow, Scotland (1864–1879)
builder	Tod and Macgregor, Glasgow
yard_number	128
launched	21 January 1864
identification	Official number: 47849
fate	Sank on 12 February 1909 after colliding with rocks near Wellington. 75 people killed.
section3	{{Infobox ship/characteristics
header_caption
type	Passenger/cargo steamship
tonnage	* As built
length	220 ft
beam	28 ft
depth	14 ft
propulsion	* As built
* Robert Napier and Sons {{Convert	180
speed	* As built
* {{Convert	10
* {{Convert	12
::

|section1={{Infobox ship/image |image= SS Penguin 16271 pm01.jpg |image_caption= SS Penguin at Port Chalmers. Photograph by David Alexander De Maus.

|section2={{Infobox ship/career |hide_header= |country= New Zealand |flag= |name= SS Penguin |namesake= |owner=* G. & J. Burns, Glasgow, Scotland (1864–1879)

• Union Steamship Company, Dunedin, New Zealand (1879–1909)

|operator= |registry= |route= |ordered= |awarded= |builder= Tod and Macgregor, Glasgow |original_cost= |yard_number= 128 |way_number= |laid_down= |launched=21 January 1864 |sponsor= |christened= |completed= |acquired= |maiden_voyage= |in_service= |out_of_service= |renamed= |reclassified= |refit= |struck= |reinstated= |homeport= |identification=Official number: 47849 |motto= |nickname= |fate=Sank on 12 February 1909 after colliding with rocks near Wellington. 75 people killed. |notes= |badge=

|section3={{Infobox ship/characteristics |hide_header= |header_caption= |class= |type=Passenger/cargo steamship |tonnage=* As built

• From 1882

|displacement= |length= 220 ft |beam= 28 ft |height= |draught= |depth= 14 ft |hold_depth= |decks= |deck_clearance= |ramps= |ice_class= |power= |propulsion=* As built

• Tod & Macgregor 2-cylinder inverted steam engine
• From 1882
• Robert Napier and Sons 180 hp 2-cylinder compound steam engine

|sail_plan= |speed=* As built

• 10 kn
• From 1882
• 12 kn

|range= |endurance= |boats= |capacity= |crew= |notes= '*SS Penguin''' was a New Zealand inter-island ferry steamer that sank off the southwest coast of Wellington after striking a rock near Sinclair Head in poor weather on 12 February 1909. *Penguin''s sinking caused the deaths of 75 people, leaving only 30 survivors. This was New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.

Ship history

Penguin was built by Tod & McGregor of Glasgow, Scotland, for G. & J. Burns of Glasgow, and launched on 21 January 1864. Registered in Glasgow on 4 April 1864, she was finally sold to the Union Steamship Company in 1879, and was extensively refitted in 1882.

In 1904, a passenger aboard the SS Penguin tried to shoot a dolphin named Pelorus Jack with a rifle, leading to Jack becoming the first individual sea creature protected by law in any country.

Sinking

Penguin departed Picton on 12 February 1909 en route to Wellington in good conditions. However, the weather conditions changed by 8 pm, with very strong winds and bad visibility. At 10 pm, Captain Francis Naylor headed farther out to sea to wait for a break in the weather, but the ship smashed into Thoms Rock while making the turn, and water started to pour in. Women and children were loaded into the lifeboats, but the rough seas dragged the lifeboats underwater; only one woman survived, and all the children were killed. Other survivors drifted for hours on rafts before reaching safety. As the Penguin sank, seawater flooded the engine room. The cold water reached the boilers, and a massive steam explosion violently fractured the ship.

Following the disaster, a half-day holiday was declared in Wellington to allow the many funerals to be held, as some 40 people were laid to rest in Karori Cemetery.

A court of inquiry found that the ship struck Thoms Rock near the mouth to Karori Stream in Cook Strait. The captain maintained that it had struck the submerged hull of the Rio Loge, lost the month before. On the 100th anniversary of the sinking, Wellington's mayor unveiled a plaque at Tongue Point, near the site of the wreck.

References

References

1. (2013). "SS Penguin". [[Clyde-built Ship Database]].
2. The 1863 sinking of {{HMS. Orpheus. 1860. 6 remains New Zealand's deadliest maritime disaster.
3. [http://www.museumofwellington.co.nz/fact_sheets/pelorus_jack.pdf Pelorus Jack fact sheet] {{Webarchive. link. (21 May 2010 at the Museum of Wellington)
4. (2013). "SS ''Penguin'' – New Zealand Disasters". Christchurch City Libraries.
5. (2013). "SS ''Penguin'' wrecked in Cook Strait". nzhistory.net.nz.
6. (11 February 2009). "Search for wreck of ''Penguin''". [[The Dominion Post (Wellington).
7. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130210122245/http://wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=3453 SS ''Penguin'' Sinking to be Remembered on South Coast], Wellington City Council, 9 February 2009. Retrieved 25 June 2024.

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