Description
The 2013 discovery of the 1902 shipwreck SS Ventnor off the New Zealand North Island coast created major international media interest and controversy. The ship had been transporting the exhumed remains of 499 Chinese miners from New Zealand to China for reburial.
In 2021, the bones of the lost miners were found entombed in the deep shipwreck. What is to become of these hungry ghosts of the deep is a question involving conflicting cultural beliefs and sensitivities. Artefacts recovered from the shipwreck created bureaucratic indecision and are cause for unprecedented Government legislation of a vessel lost in New Zealand seas.
This is the full story of the author’s personal involvement with the search, discovery and exploration of a shipwreck of New Zealand national importance. The history of the lost ship, her discovery together with the story of the early New Zealand Chinese gold miners, is a tale involving New Zealand cultural and maritime heritage, daring record-breaking shipwreck exploration, and controversy involving Maori, Chinese and European cultures.
Keith Gordon is a pioneer underwater explorer with extensive underwater and shipwreck exploration experience.
He is an International Fellow of The Explorers Club and a past President of the New Zealand Underwater Heritage Group.
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