On 26 March 1890 the wooden barque Emille, 729 tons, cleared Bluff for Port Pirie, South Australia, with a cargo of sawn timber, much of it in heavy ten inch baulks.Some two weeks later on 12 April the ketch Clyde arrived in Bluff bearing news of a vessel having been sighted in distress west of Easy Harbour on the south-west coast of Stewart Island.
The Bluff Harbour Board’s paddle tug Awarua was immediately dispatched to search for any survivors. She returned with four men - all that remained of the twelve that remained in the Emille - and of those, the mate, John Brownrigg, died soon after being admitted to Invercargill Hospital.
Shortly after sailing from Bluff, the survivors reported, the Emille struck a terrific storm to the west of Puysegur Point and it was surmised by the Court of Public Enquiry, the baulks of timber shifted, starting the vessels planking. As she was leaking badly, with her pumps inoperable, an attempt was made to put the vessel about and run for Bluff, but this failed and the Emille went over on her beam ends. While the crew were in the process of abandoning ship the Emille’s masts were torn out of her, one of the masts smashing a lifeboat containing the master and eight others. All, save one, were lost. Now dismasted the Emille righted herself and drifted to the south-east, the four survivors huddling in a hammock-like device suspended amid the remnants of the rigging.
After being sighted west of Easy Harbour the Emille drifted to the north-east going ashore near Red Head on 31 March.
For a week the survivors wandered through this inhospitable area before being found and cared for by local Maori. All were suffering severely from exposure, the mate being in a particularly bad way with gangrene in both legs.
The loss of the Emille may well be the first example of a flag of convenience vessel coming to grief in southern waters. Although owned in San Francisco the Emille flew the flag of Nicaragua. As has frequently been the case with flag of convenience vessels through the years, the Emille was claimed to have been in unseaworthy condition. The Court of Inqiiry, however, decided her loss was due to improperly stowed baulks of timber. Ironically, these had been loaded by the crew.
