The SS Ventnor was a British cargo steamship built in Scotland in 1901 that was shipwrecked off New Zealand in 1902, with the loss of 13 crew members. Her cargo included the bodies of 499 gold miners who had died in New Zealand and were to be repatriated to China. The shipwreck ended the practice of mass exhumation of human remains in New Zealand and returning them to China.
The Cheong Sing Tong Charity Society commissioned SS Ventnor to return the remains of 499 bodies exhumed from 40 cemeteries in New Zealand to their homes in southern China. These men, mostly gold miners, came from the Poon Yu and Jung Seng districts of Guangdong Province. Nine elderly Chinese men were also on board as "coffin attendants" and looked after the remains during the return journey to China. The rest of her cargo was listed as "5,347 tons of coal for the Admiralty at Hong Kong, 144 sacks and 22 bales of mushrooms, one bale of tow and one bale of flax".
The ship sank at 20:45 on 27 October about 9 nautical miles (16 km) offshore in 147 m (482 ft) of water near Hokianga Heads. Two lifeboats, one under the command of the First Officer, reached Ōmāpere beach. A third lifeboat later reached land safely, but another capsized and 13 people drowned, including Captain Ferry and five of the nine elderly Chinese.
wikipedia
Translated by Google •
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