Lynx, ship: Commanded by Captain J. Gaunson, the Lynx left Sydney about September 1837, for New River (Invercargill) to load a cargo of oil at the Omaui whaling station, owned by Messrs Joss and Williams. Having loaded 100 tuns of black oil, the ship commenced her passage down river on November 18, bound for Sydney. The light north-east wind dying away, the crew were obliged to man a boat and tow the Lynx. They succeeded in towing the ship about three miles when she went aground. The vessel was subsequently hove off and anchored in mid-channel. At 4 am. November 19, the wind blew hard from the south-west, and a heavy sea settled in and compelled the captain to get under way to run up the river again, in order to anchor in smooth water. This was done, but as the anchor was being dropped the cable parted, and before the crew could get canvas on the vessel she was driven ashore.,, An attempt was made to tow the Lynx off, but this failed. All the sails were clewed up, and by this time the seas were making a breach over her, practically filling her hold. The crew cut away the mainmast, which fell leeward, but hung by the rigging lanyards and stove in some planking. The ship began to fill very fast, and at 6 am. the crew, numbering twelve all told, were forced to abandon the ship. After a great struggle in the high sea which prevailed they landed safely in a boat which had come to their assistance from the whaling station. Eight days were spent at the whaling station, where accommodation and food were scarce and the shipwrecked crew embarked in a whale boat and proceeded to Stewart Island, from where they were taken to Sydney in the whaler Governor Bourke.When Captain Bruce, of the whaling barque Magnet, arrived at New River towards the end of February or the beginning of March, 1838, to load what remains of the Lynx’s cargo, not a vestige of the wrecked ship could be seen. This was not surprising, as she must have been a very old vessel. Polack, writing in 1838, stated that “the original register of the ship was lost, but a second copy of this important document was dated nearly 100 years since.” The Lynx was of 500 tons register, built at Bengal of teakwood. She was owned by Messrs, Jones and Walker, of Sydney and had been engaged in the New Zealand trade for many years. The loss of the ship was said to have been caused through bad management on the part of her crew, who were incapacitated through drunken-ness.
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