page_title: Auckland Islands
section_title: Shipwrecks
hierarchical_section_title: Auckland Islands / History / Shipwrecks
caption_attribution_description: South Coast of the southernmost island of the Auckland Islands group — Adams Island — showing typical steep cliffs and vegetation.
context_page_description: The Auckland Islands are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying 465 kilometres south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying 510 km², is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, Enderby Island, Disappointment Island, Ewing Island, Rose Island, Dundas Island, and Green Island, with a combined area of 626 km². The islands have no permanent human inhabitants.
  The islands are listed with the New Zealand Outlying Islands. The islands are an immediate part of New Zealand, but not part of any region or district, but instead Area Outside Territorial Authority, like all the other outlying islands except the Solander Islands.
  Ecologically, the Auckland Islands form part of the Antipodes Subantarctic Islands tundra ecoregion. Along with other New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands, they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
context_section_description: The rocky coasts of the islands have proven disastrous for several ships. The Grafton, captained by Thomas Musgrave, was wrecked in Carnley Harbour in 1864. Madelene Ferguson Allen's narrative about her great-grandfather, Robert Holding, and the wreck of the Scottish sailing ship Invercauld, wrecked in the Auckland Islands a few months later in 1864, counterpoints the Grafton story. François Édouard Raynal wrote Wrecked on a Reef.
  In 1866, one of New Zealand's most famous shipwrecks, that of the General Grant, occurred on the western coast. Ten survivors waited for rescue on Auckland Island for 18 months. Several attempts have failed to salvage its cargo, allegedly including bullion.
  Because of the probability of wrecks around the islands, calls arose for the establishment of emergency depots for castaways in 1868. The New Zealand authorities established and maintained three such depots, at Port Ross, Norman Inlet and Carnley Harbour from 1887. They also cached additional supplies, including boats (to help reach the depots) and 40 finger-posts (which had smaller amounts of supplies), around the islands.
  A further maritime tragedy occurred in 1907, with the loss of the Dundonald and 12 of her crew, off Disappointment Island. The 15 survivors lived off the supplies in the Auckland Island depot.
  In 2019 a helicopter with three passengers crashed into the ocean near Enderby Island, when they were on route to uplift an ill man on a fishing trawler. The three passengers all survived the crash, and were found the next day with only minor injuries. The rescue effort was led by Richard Hayes.
caption: Auckland's southern coast
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