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Striking the Sand Bar

When: 7 February 1863
Where: Sand bar near Whatipu beach
Part of: HMS Orpheus sinks at Manukau Harbour with 189 lives lost

Orpheus struck a sand bar in Manukau Harbour after following outdated charts, resulting in the loss of 189 lives.

Despite Quartermaster Frederick Butler alerting officers to the improper course, the ship hit the bar at approximately 1:30 pm. The disaster resulted in 189 deaths, including Commodore Burnett, marking the highest casualty rate for a shipwreck in New Zealand waters.

Sources

HMS Orpheus (1860) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.