The 812 ton wooden ship (variously written as between 668-812 ton), Montmorency, Captain McKenzie, departed East India Docks, London on 7 Dec 1866 - Gravesend 9 Dec 1866 - Plymouth 18 Dec 1866 and arrived Napier 24 March 1867, a voyage of 104 days, with 180 passengers and nearly 400 ton of cargo.
She was built in Quebec in 1854 for James Baines & Co of Liverpool (Blackball Line). For this voyage (2nd of 2) she was chartered by Shaw Saville & Co. Her previous voyage to New Zealand was in 1858 when she sailed from London 13 Dec 1857 and arrived in Wellington 11 April 1858, making the passage in 119 days. After landing 52 passengers and cargo the ship sailed for Lyttelton, arriving there on 11 May 1858. Captain Kiddie was then in command.

24 March 1867
The Montmorency dropped anchor at about 3.45 p.m. yesterday. She has been comparatively free from seasickness - two only of her passengers arriving in ill health while the deaths have been but four these being infants and entirely from a deficiency of maternal nourishment. There has been one birth, so the number that she arrives but three short of her original number. The Montmorency, for her age and tonnage, has carried more passengers than any other vessel from Great Britain to this colony. Voyage of 104 days. We heartily welcome the new comers to the land of their adoption and trust that a prosperous career is before them.

Saloon
Dr Gibbs, Surgeon Superintendent
Miss H. H. Herbert
Miss Ogilvie
Miss Starkey
Miss Louisa Cleary

Second Cabin
Mr & Mrs Orr and family
Miss Spears

Steerage Families
Bourne, James, fencer, and wife
Boyle, William, bootmaker, wife & 3 children
Bowden, Francis, farmer and 3 children
Bradley, George, saddler and wife
Burrell, Alexander, mason, wife & 4 children

Cammock, Alexander, laborer, wife & 4 children

Dyas, Thomas, rough carpenter and wife
Dyson, John, laborer and wife

Enniss, Frederick, rough carpenter and wife

Fortzer, George, bootmaker, wife & 5 children

Glazebrook, Henry, farmer and land steward, wife & 3 children

Heledon, Michael, sawyer, wife & 4 children

Johnson, Henry, bootmaker, wife & 3 children

Mann, Edward, plumber and grazier, wife & 1 child
M'Culloch, Edward, farm laborer, wife & 3 children

O'Brien, James, boot and shoe maker, wife & 4 children
O'Hourahan, Edward, carpenter, wife & 5 children

Parkinson, George, agricultural carpenter and laborer, wife & 4 children
Palmer, Philimon, brickmaker, wife & 2 children

Redmond, Michael, carpenter and wife

Sharpe, John, laborer, wife & 1 child
Stanford, shepherd, wife & 2 children
Swanston, Robert, shoemaker and gardener and wife

Thomas, Nicholas, laborer, wife & 4 children
Tucker, John, warehouseman, wife & 2 children

Vaughan, David, clerk and warehouseman, wife & 3 children

White, Levie, gamekeeper and farmer, wife & 3 children
Wye, William, gasfitter and blacksmith and wife
Winchcombe, Henry, boilermaker's assistant, wife & 3 children

Steerage Single Men
Anner, William, 16 laborer

Branson, 22 laborer
Baker, Henry, 24, clerk and painter
Bennett, David

Carr, John, 39, laborer
Coward, Frederick, 25, laborer
Craig, Robert, 15, clerk and engineer

Daniels, Jonathan, 39, laborer

Glazebrook, Henry, 12

Howden, Alfred, 14, farmer's lad

Jenkinson, James, 19, laborer

Lambert, George, 20 ironworker

M'Cartney, Arthur, 20, porter and packer
M'Kinlay, William, 21, farm laborer

Noble, Charles, 34, farmer and policeman

Page, William, 21, laborer

Sweeting, Robert, 18, laborer

Toop, George, 20 laborer

Westoby, Robert, 24, laborer
Watkins, Frederick, 22, carpenter and sawyer
Winchcombe, Henry, 16, laborer
Winchcombe, John, 14

Steerage Single Women
Ainsworth, Fanny, 29, general servant
Anner, Margaret, 34, housekeeper

Boulter, Ann, 22, general servant
Brown, Elizabeth, 27, general servant
Butler, Phoebe, 22, general servant

Davies, Elizabeth, 18, general servant
Davies, Esther, 48, housekeeper
Donovan, Maria, 19, general servant
Dowden, Caroline, 21, general servant

4 Nights After Arrival, at midnight, 27 March 1867, the Montmorency was totally destroyed by fire whilst at anchor in port. The fire raged out of control, most of the passengers luggage and possessions were lost but no loss of life.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, 28 March 1867
While preparing for the issue of this morning's paper we were suddenly interrupted by an alarm of fire, and on proceeding to the beach we discovered the good ship Montmorency, but so recently arrived from England, was on fire between her main and fore-masts. The flames were rushing up though her forward hatchway to the height of 30 or 40 feet. This occurred at 1 a.m. It was known at least one of the ship's boats was on shore, and the captain also (we believe this being the first night he had been away from the vessel since her arrival). Several boats put off as quickly as possible but because against a strong flood tide and head winds the Captain was unable to undergo passage to the ship. At half-past 2, the mizen-mast being burnt through at the foot and the main mast at the main-top, both gave way the same instant, the former falling clean over the stern into the sea. At about 2.45 a boat was seen making for shore, and speedily the welcome news was told, and received amidst loud cheers, - all hands were saved.

The watch had discovered smoke coming up the fore hatchway about midnight, and the alarm immediately alarmed the first officer and the remainder of the crew; that every practicable measure was taken to extinguish, but in vain, for being overcome by the effects of suffocating vapours, they were at length compelled to desist, and fasten down the hatches. They took to the boats at about 1.30 a.m. but remained in proximity to the burning ship until she had become an entire wreck. At 4.am the foremast, being burnt off at the foot, fell backwards on the deck. Nothing now remains of the ship that but yesterday looked so fair, and that had done her duty so far and so well, but a flaming hull, with some remnant of the bowsprit. At daylight she had burnt nearly to the water's edge. In addition to a very valuable cargo for this port, none of which had been landed, and all of which is destroyed, a large amount of valuable property is lost by the passengers, who of course, are totally deprived of their properties, we have one particular instance where deeds, plate, and heirlooms of generations past are, by this sad mishap, totally and irrecoverably lost and Captain McKenzie has lost all his earthly goods, which were in his cabin and uninsured.

On Friday morning she was towed over to the Spit where she was left aground. During the whole of Thursday, the night following and the greater part of the next day, the vessel continued to burn more or less fiercely, until, being run into by the steamer, the sea effected an entrance and, coming in contact with the incandescent iron, produced an explosion so loud as to cause a a general rush to the Spit, when she was to be seen involved in an immense body of steam. A quantity of empty iron tanks floated off her and were safely landed on the Spit to the number of twenty-four.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, 8 April 1867
. An Inquiry .
Josiah Hudson Mackenzie
Appointed master by the managing owner, Mr John Brodie, of Mark-Lane, London. I left England on 11th December. I brought out 205 passengers. The copy of the manifest was burnt. The cargo principally of salt, tar, drapery, spirits, beer, and ale, fencing wire, agricultural implements, turpentine and hardware. I believe the vessel was insured and expired 30 days after arrival in port. I do not think there was any kerosene on board. On Tuesday all the bedding of the passengers was sent ashore. On Wednesday all the luggage belonging to the passengers was sent ashore.

Joshua Lewis Fawkes
First mate of the Montmorency. I ordered the carpenter to scuttle the ship if possible, impossible due to the swell. I threw the powder magazine overboard. I ordered the hatch to be closed again. I ordered one part of the crew to clear away the boats. I fired a set of rockets without any answer from shore. Three sets fired and burnt blue lights. Tried to unshackle the chain. I superintended the lading of the vessel in England. In the forehold, where the fire originated, there were casks of Stockholm tar, coal tar, oil, turpentine, pitch, resin, 200 or 300 boxes of candles, 10 or 12 casks of cook's slush, and about fifty boxes of pipes. Nearly all there was inflammable. The spirits were not kept in the forehold. The forehold hatch was on when I went to bed.

Charles Broberg, second mate.
William Henry Fordham - tide-waiter, Heard "Mr Fawkes, the ship is on fire!"
James Parker - third mate
Charles Prince - boatswain
James Anderson - carpenter
Timothy Ryan and William Beaumont, able seaman
Crew of 31 total.

Burning Of The Montmorency
written 1928 One of the earliest and most vivid of Napier's shipping memories is the burning of the ship Montmorency in the roadstead on March 28, 1867. It was the most notable event of the kind that has happened in New Zealand waters. The burning of the ship Cospatrick with the loss of hundreds of lives, when bound from London to Auckland, was more appalling, but the disaster that overtook the Montmorency was the worst that ever happened on the New Zealand coast. True, there was no loss of life, but the passengers lost heavily as so much of their luggage was destroyed. The Montmorency, a ship of 668 tons, had sailed from London on December 7, 1866, having on board a number of assisted emigrants. She arrived at Napier on March 24, and the passengers went ashore the following day. Those were leisurely times, and the facilities at the port were somewhat primitive, so all the luggage was not got out with the passengers. This was unfortunate, as there was still a large quantity of valuable stuff aboard when the disaster occurred.

At about one o'clock on the morning of the 28th the sentry at the Barracks noticed that the ship was afire, gave the alarm ashore, and the harbour authorities were roused, but as they had no fire-fighting gear they were helpless. Boats went out to the burning ship and found that her crew had already taken to their own boats and were safe.

It was a splendid spectacle, says a contemporary record. The night was calm, and the flames and huge clouds of smoke mounted steadily skyward, licking up the ropes and spars as they ascended. When the gaskets (the short ropes that are used to make fast the furled sails to the yards) were burned through, the sails fell from the yards, and as the flames caught the dry canvas the sky seemed to be full of sheets of lurid fire. By daybreak every mast and spar had fallen, and the ship was a black mass from which issued dense volumes of thick smoke.

The Hawke's Bay "Herald," referring to the disaster, said: "The ship was discovered to be on fire shortly before midnight, Captain MacKenzie being ashore at the time. Smoke was seen coming from the fore hatchway. The hatches were closed and hoses turned on the fire, but all efforts to quell the flames failed. Several unsuccessful attempts to scuttle the vessel were made by the carpenter. When the spare spars, etc., on the deck ignited, the task of saving the ship became impossible, and the crew left the vessel, losing nearly all their personal effects. By daybreak the following morning the masts had gone over the sides. The ship smouldered throughout the following day, and was later with difficulty beached between the Spit and the Bluff. The charred hull was sold by auction and fetched £110. The cause of the fire remained a mystery."


* An inquiry could not find a cause for the fire.
* In 1967, a ship's anchor was recovered by divers and thought to have come from the Montmorency (or not)


PHOTO The Montmorency, waiting for the pilot boat at the end of a voyage. She was the first official immigrant ship to the new state of Queensland in 1860. Between 1860 and 1865 she made four voyages to Queensland. The original photo is held at the John Oxley Library, Brisbane.