Selwyn Times: August 04, 2021

Selwyn Times Wednesday August 4 2021
4
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Halkett connection to Fiordland
• By Susan Sandys
A SCIENTIFIC expedition has
found a cave in a remote part of
Fiordland where survivors of a
shipwreck may have sheltered.
A team from Willowbank
Wildlife Reserve was looking
for the elusive South Island
kōkako when they chanced upon
the cave in Chalky Inlet last
month.
The cave had a drawing of
a galleon vessel and what is
believed to be the names of its
mariners etched underneath. The
remains of an old cannon were
discovered nearby.
“You can’t help
but wonder the
history behind
those names,
why those men
were there and
what happened
to them,”
Michael
Willis
Willowbank
managing
director Michael
Willis said last week.
The Halkett man said the
exciting discovery hinted of an
unknown shipwreck, perhaps
dating back to the age of
exploration when Dutch,
French, English, Spanish and
Russian ships sailed New
Zealand waters.
“If it had been in the later
stages of exploration, people
would have been more likely
to know about it. The fact that
people don’t know about it would
suggest it is in the early days,”
Willis said.
He believed it could be from as
long ago as the very early 1800s
or even the 1700s.
Willis and fellow expedition
members Mark Willis and Dale
Hedgcock unearthed the cannon
late last month. They were at a
Chalky Inlet beach when they
spotted a small, deep orange
patch among the stones.
They moved the surrounding
rocks with their bare hands.
“It was sheer luck that they saw
it, it was a patch of rust and they
knew that there was something
underneath,” Willis said.
The discovery followed Willis
exploring a cave he happened
to see the previous month while
walking along the same beach,
and finding the scrawlings of
UNEARTHED: Dale
Hedgcock and
Mark Willis with
the cannon they
discovered on a
beach in Chalky
Inlet, near a cave
with a drawing of
a galleon. PHOTO:
WILLOWBANK
WILDLIFE RESERVE
names underneath the drawing
of an old ship.
The cave and the cannon are
only about 100m apart, pointing
to the possibility the cannon is
from the ship that is drawn on its
wall. The drawing of the ship is
not detailed enough, however, to
see if it has cannons or not.
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