1839 Tsunami: Waikawa, Southland, New Zealand

Reference #5324:

1839, late February to early July.

The Margaret Rait, a whaling ship, experienced a sudden increase in tidal current while lying partly dismantled in Waikawa. The bow anchor chain was parted, the after mooring chains tore the whole starboard quarter out, and the ship was washed onto the shore. The ship was repaired and got off but the anchors and mooring chains were buried under 7 ft of sand. (Wallace, F. W. 1927, reference & extract given by Rhys Richards]

According to Wallace (1929), who appears to have accessed the original journal of the voyage of the Margaret Rait in New Zealand waters, records that at some time between February and July 1839: "while lying partly dismantled at Wyacava [Richard's interpretation: Waikawa, Southland], a sudden increase in the tidal current parted the bow anchor chain, and the after mooring chains, tore the whole starboard quarter out and the ship went ashore. The vessel was eventually repaired and got off, but the anchors and mooring chains were buried under seven feet of sand and the crew had to dig them out." Assuming that the sailors of the time were completely familiar with tide times, local tidal eccentricities and vagaries of the weather, it is difficult to find an explanation for the quite damaging effects given here. A tsunami is a credible explanation, not only of the sudden change in tidal current but also the burying of the anchors and mooring chains in sand and the beaching of the vessel.

According to the Department of Conservation website: "The first Europeans in the area were sealers and whalers. A short-lived whaling station was established just inside Waikawa Harbour entrance in 1838. It was abandoned by 1844." The likely source of this information is McNab (1913).

There are no known local earthquakes (NZ National Earthquake Information Database), no record of any sea level disturbances elsewhere noted in McNab (1913) and no regional or distant source tsunami that could be a source of a tsunami in ITDB (2004) database. Nevertheless, the descriptive account is credible, and hence a validity of 3 is assigned.