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1. If the Harbour Master, or any one connected with the Port, can mark on a plan of the entrance the exact spot where the barque was wrecked.

2. Whether it is true, as the Pilot is reported to have said, "that no such channel as the North Channel of that chart existed."

3. Whether there is any reason to believe that the North Channel has shoaled up materially since the date of the survey.

4. Whether vessels, in fine weather, make use of this Channel, or if any wrecks have occurred before in it.

I enclose a copy of a caution* that I have had pasted on our charts, across the entrance of the North Channel for the present, until I receive your answer, as it is better to err on the safe side; but we must not allow the character of a Port to be taken away by the random assertion, without any particle of proof, of a Master of a vessel that wished to excuse himself from the neglect of losing his ship.

I have communicated with the Agents for the district, Messrs. Crawford and Auld, and they have never heard any report of the shoaling of the North Channel.

I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,

JOHN WASHINGTON,
Rear-Admiral and Hydrographer.

The Superintendent of the District of Otago,
New Zealand.

THE GENEVIEVE.

Mauritius, Aug. 26.

The Marine Board met for the purpose of inquiring into the loss of the barque Genevieve, of 271 tons burthen, Francis Turpie, master, at the entrance of the Port of Otago, New Zealand, on the 17th of January, 1862.

Present: D. Wales, Esq., Harbour Master and President; P. A. Wiehe, Esq., President of the Chamber of Commerce; James Fraser, Esq., Lloyd’s Agent; T. H. Mullens, Esq., Surveyor to the Mauritius Marine Insurance Company.

Presented themselves for examination: Francis Turpie, 8850, Commander of late barque Genevieve. No others of the crew having returned to this port.

From Captain Turpie’s account, it appears that the Genevieve, from this port, with a valuable cargo of coffee and sugar, after a most favorable voyage, came in sight of Otago Lighthouse on the 17th of January, at about 2 p.m.

Neither Captain Turpie nor any of his Officers had ever visited the place, but there was a chart on board of the coast in the neighborhood of the port, together with one on a large scale, of the port itself and its approaches. This chart, which bears the respectable names of Captain Stokes, R.N., Commander Richards, R.N., and the Officers of H.M.S. Acheron, was published in 1855, and it bears also the stamp of the Hydrographical Office. On it may be seen a fine clear channel, with not less than 21 feet low water spring tides, and the Board venture to assert that a stranger like Captain Turpie, with such a chart, would immediately determine that this North Channel (as it is called on the chart) was the best channel for reaching Otago Heads; and that certainly a vessel like the Genevieve, drawing only 14 feet water, could run no risk whatever in passing through it. As no Pilot made his appearance, Captain Turpie, having a leading wind, steered for this North Channel, with the lead going. Finding that he was shoaling faster than he expected, he hauled out to the eastward, and almost immediately struck, and remained unmoveable. A swell setting in, the vessel bilged shortly afterwards, and the following day the North Channel was covered with breakers from side to side. The Pilot got on board shortly after the vessel struck. He was the Senior Pilot on the Station, and he informed Captain Turpie that the chart was erroneous, and that no such channel as the North Channel of that chart existed. In making these remarks the Board have not the very slightest intention of depreciating the labor and skill of the gallant Officers who made that survey. No question the North Channel existed at the time the survey was made, but there appears to be little doubt that the sands which form it are constantly shifting, and that what was a good channel in 1855 has now ceased to be one, and the sooner this is generally known the better. We have this intelligence on the authority of the Senior Pilot on the Otago station, who ought to know something about the matter; and we have the chart before us where the bearings of the Genevieve, when on shore, are carefully laid down; the chart marks 22 feet on that spot, and the draft of the Genevieve was only 14. Under these circumstances no blame can attach to Captain Turpie for the loss of his vessel, but the sooner the public are made aware that no such channel exists as the North Channel of the Hydrographical Office Chart of 1855 the better.

*CAUTION.—It having been reported that the North Channel, Otago, has shoaled up since the date of this survey, the mariner is warned not to attempt it without a Pilot, as the North Channel, as laid down in this chart, is to be pasted on to the Admiralty Chart of Otago Harbour, No. 2411, across the entrance of the North Channel.

Shipping Gazette, 24th Nov, 1862.