Thoughts and Afterthoughts

Thoughts and Afterthoughts

Niagara : The Fallout

Most WWI veterans in New Zealand who maintained their service connections were at best wary of the Labour Party between the wars. I did not pay attention but I am sure that I could have heard my elders and betters being scornful on the subject of what was being done about our local minefield. There were no purpose built minesweepers in place and a number of coastal traders were taken over and retrofitted for the task. As long as a mine stayed in place it was assumed to be dangerous. If a mine broke away from its mooring it was supposed to disarm itself.
It must have been less than two years after the sinking of the Niagara that I was shown the mechanism existing in each horn of the mine to produce an explosion, and also the way breaking the mooring disabled it. [Almost] everyone knew this and it was reinforced by an urban/rural/coastal myth. The story was that a mine had broken away and got washed up on a beach. Such things did happen. In the myth a local farmer had heard of a reward for finding a mine. He decided not to risk someone else claiming that reward. Once it was on his land he would feel secure about his reward so he got his horse(s) into harness to tow it a little way. There was a portion of the cable as a convenient place to hitch onto. Any reward he obtained was in another sphere. His demise is not in the official history.

Unfortunately there were casualties. The mines were brought to the surface and exploded by rifle fire. The explosions could be heard from a considerable distance. We heard several when there was no visible minesweeper. The casualties came on an occasion when a minesweeper struck a mine that had been spotted on or close to the surface, late on the evening before. It had moved in the meantime, so was obviously already detached from its mooring. The disabling mechanism did not work that time.

For whatever reason the authorities were soon confident that there was clear channel fairly close to the coast. Perhaps nobody thought a German ship would dare linger long within sight of land to lay more than had already been found there. The mines that surfaced or were swept possibly began to show the pattern associated with a fairly swift single passage across the mouth of the Hauraki Gulf. For the remainder of WWII the shipping lane hugged the coast until it had left the Gulf well behind it. Incoming shipping came on the same track. They came inside the boundaries of Bream Bay, between us and our accustomed set of islands on the horizon. I am not sure that knowing all shipping movements in and out of Auckland would have benefitted the Axis Powers too much, but our coast would have been the ideal spot for the spy to set up in business. We watched the arrival of the QEI, but I don't remember a departure. It could easily have been at night If there was a battleship HMS Howe, with 15 inch guns, afloat at that time, and if she visited Auckland, I did but see her passing by, and my memory has not slipped completely. I am prepared to be corrected about the name of the ship, but not the event.
When a war zone approaches a coastline some debris often comes first. From time to time during WWII penguins came ashore with oil on their feathers. That spoiled their swimming and in preening themselve they were likely to poison themselves. Some rationpacks must have been discarded occasionally somewhere. Some bits floated ashore. Most material was spoiled by the time it got there but occasionally a container of boiled lollies or something that floated and contained chocolate made the sea shore. Sugary things were in short supply and rationed. The tide came up and the beachcombers came down, to the beaches and the neighbouring rocks.

Curiosity is always at home in small boys. In that district people often cleared tree stumps and rocks. There was work involving explosives, including at least one working quarry. Small boys had to be warned about hazards. In my first school there was a display warning us not to play with detonators. From memory it was pretty graphic. Most schools of the time would, I think, have had their own copy of the display. We all knew on one level what at least one brand of the device called a detonator looked like. Likewise, that if we saw a detonator we did not even pick it up and that we called for adult backup.
It remains true that three small boys were not prepared for what they -- we -- did find. Where we found it I do not see that it could have come in from the sea Nor yet do I see it coming down to that point from the land. It is late to ask.

Imagine four large altar candles - not wax but looking vaguely waxy. Tie them together with some toughish string. Indent one end of each so that a copper structure will fit there. Two of them had the copper structures in place, and one of those had a further copper structure fitted into that. After doing several foolish things we took the collection home. We had enough sense between us not to interfere with that final small copper structure, which was indeed a detonator. The collection was eventually and casually transported to an army depot where it got much more respectful treatment - and was not returned.
We would probably claim that the war passed the three of us by at a safe distance. On final summation, make that a "sufficient" distance.

posted by Donald Beag @ 3:27 AM