Ref: G4664
- £375.00
On 1st November 1894, the “Wairarapa”, a 1786 ton steamer of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, was traveling from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand. Due to dense fog she ran on to a reef and was totally wrecked at Great Barrier Island, about one mile east of Miners Head and thirty miles east of the New Zealand mainland, with the loss of 135 lives. The steamer ‘Argyle’ picked up the survivors and delivered them to Auckland the same day. Mail salvage operations lasted nearly three weeks. All the recovered mail received either a two line hand stamp in either deep violet or violet - blue ‘Saved from the wreck of the / “WAIRARAPA”. This cover was posted at Wollongong, N.S.W. on October 22 and arrived Auckland 3 Nov.
