Lizzie Bell Wrecks on Rugged Rocks

Last week an Israeli tourist was rescued from Mt Taranaki.  He was wet, cold and very lucky. More than forty people had spent a day and a night looking for him and an Air Force helicopter and the TET rescue helicopter helped out too. This week's story is about another Taranaki rescue. The year was 1901 when twelve young sailors found that their luck had run out.

REWIND

True or false?  Have a go!  In 1901…

1. There were only three women in New Zealand's Parliament.
2. A good meal could be bought for one shilling and sixpence. (About 15 cents)
3. The Treaty of Waitangi was about to be signed.
4. New Zealand's total population was less than 800,000 but there were around 43,000 pianos and 1,400 music teachers.
5. A man called Marconi used his wireless to send the world's first electronic message. The letter S went all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.

Starters

Find out about the Lizzie Bell. Study the photo above and check out this website. 

• Masts?  Two or three?
• Decks?  Two or three?
• Built in? 1800s or 1900s?
• Made of ? Wood or iron?
• Powered by? Steam or sail?
• Age when wrecked? Younger than your teacher or older?
• Length? Longer than two classrooms or shorter?
• Built in? Britain or New Zealand?

Read Lizzie Bell Wrecks on Rugged Rocks

As you read, look for...

• Virginia's great intro - the first two sentences. (Go for great intros like this when you write.)
• The time the Lizzie Bell hit the rocks.
• The level of impact. Hard or soft?
• The weather.
• The point on the Taranaki coastline where the Lizzie Bell ran aground.
• The ages of those that died.
• The reason for the shipwreck.

Finished reading? Talk over the points above with a classmate

Thumbs up or thumbs down? You decide!

• The navigation skills of Captain Rees.
• The captain's first orders to the oarsmen.
• The cook's attempt to swim ashore.
• The survivors' trek to the Good family homestead.
• The Good's daughter.
• The Oeo publican. ( A publican is the owner or person in charge of a hotel.)

Let's locate!

Use this map with a classmate or small group to find:

• The Lizzie Bell cemetery. Is it north or south of Opunake?
• Exactly where the Lizzie Bell struck the rocks.
• Whether the Good's daughter rode inland or to the coast.

Shutterbug

Check out this photo. You could print it out before you try the activity.

The Lizzie Bell's lifeboats probably looked like this one but would have been a lot smaller. This surfboat was used to bring people and goods ashore in the days before a wharf. This is the very last landing in New Plymouth and the photo was taken in 1884.

Think, pair and share ideas

• What is this surfboat made of?
• How was it steered and powered?
• What features made this lifeboat safer than the Lizzie Bell lifeboat?
• What clues tell you the Taranaki coastline could be just as dangerous then as it can be now? (There's a model of a surfboat in the Taranaki Life Gallery at Puke Ariki. Check it out the next time you are there.)

Thinkers

Draw thought bubbles for some of the people in the photo. Print words in the bubbles to show what they might have thought about this being the last of the surfboats.

In the hot seat

Captain Rees lost 12 of his men and a very fine ship. He was taken to court and then punished. You decide, in a group:

• Was his punishment "fair enough", or "a bit harsh"?
• Now half of you answer for Captain Rees and the other half ask the difficult lawyer type questions. Hold your own court case. Spend a bit of time thinking up the questions or deciding how you might answer. When you're "ready for court" the class can be the jury. They hear your evidence and decide if Captain Rees is guilty. The jury could decide on a fair punishment too.

Horrific headlines

Write headlines that might have appeared in the Hawera Star after this shipwreck:

1. Two days after.
2. After the funerals
3. After the court case.

Gravestones

Choose one of the sailors that died and draw his gravestone with his epitaph printed on it.

(An epitaph is a sentence or two that gives readers a clue as to what the person was like.)

Which ship?

Find out on the shipping lists, if any of the Lizzie Bell sailors ever arrived or left New Plymouth by ship. See if your own family name is there. You could look up an ancestor!

FAST FORWARD...to 2003

Mountain walker Doran Kalinka made a mistake last week just like Captain Rees. He went tramping high on Mt Taranaki in jeans and a cotton sweatshirt. He carried a camera but had no food, no water and no warm gear. He was told to do a 6 hour tramp but tried to do one that took 15-18 hours. Doran was lucky. The Search and Rescue volunteers. Police and the Air Force all chipped in to help find him. Doran is from Israel and said, "When they found me I was starting to think slow and walk slow." He also said he didn't have experience with the weather in New Zealand.

Rules

"Fair enough," or "a bit harsh?"  Decide on these TreasureLink rules in a group and then report on your opinions in class:

1. All people rescued on the mountain will have to pay for the cost of their rescue.
2. Anyone who does not take expert advice or appropriate mountain/ tramping gear, will have to pay for the cost of their rescue.
3. All people must have a permit before they allowed to tramp or climb on the mountain.
4. All trampers and climbers must carry a mobile phone.
5. All trampers must carry an emergency locator beacon which can be hired from the visitor's centre at a reasonable cost.

TreasureLink quiz

This week we link news from around 100 years ago to news from recent weeks. Just decide if this news is old, new or a bit of both.

1. The All Blacks play Australia.
2. The family farm is the most common type of business.
3. Hidden speed cameras will return.
4. Land decisions in North Taranaki upset some people.
5. Ned Kelly is a popular movie.
6. Thirteen million letters are posted in one year.
7. Newspaper as wallpaper is the latest fashion.
8. New Plymouth schools use the strap and cane.
9. Outside toilets and baths are still very popular.
10. In France the speed limit for cars in town is set at 6 miles per hour.

Answers in next week's TreasureLink!