Writers festival hears of the search for a sunken ship
| Published date | 23 November 2023 |
| Publication title | Central Otago News |
She lives in Hawke’s Bay and recently published her new historical fiction book, Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant.
Bill Day, of Wanaka, owns Seaworks, a shipping and salvage company with 150 employees and 18 ships, and is chairman of Wanaka Search and Rescue.
For nearly four decades, he has been searching unsuccessfully for the wreck of the gold-laden General Grant at the Auckland Islands. His fifth expedition was in early 2022.
‘‘I really did think he would find it,’’ Sanders laments during their conversation at the recent Queenstown Writers Festival.
When she first heard about Day, she ‘‘thought he would just be some pirate’’.
Just before he left on his 2022 trip, she sent him a draft of her novel and some champagne, with a promise if he did find it, he could write the last chapter.
Day thought she had produced a great book, and appreciated the champagne.
‘‘One thing you don’t realise is, when you’re a treasure hunter, you get every nutter in the world contacting you.’’
But he added she ‘‘understood that’’.
He took her draft and passed it around his crew.
‘‘We read it on dark and stormy nights. It was an incredible privilege.’’
As soon as he read the book, he realised he had serious competition for the title of General Grant expert.
‘‘Of course, we are different. I am a hairy-a.... diver looking for treasure and she is a sophisticated author. And she is very well researched ... There were a couple of things we fed to each other, but we have the same information and we would be the two people on the planet that have got that information ... The interesting thing is we came at it from different angles. I am trying to figure out where it is and I have views on that and Cristina is looking at it from the psychology of the people. Those different views lead to different opinions on the location,’’ Day said.
It is an alluring mystery. Where exactly did the ship founder? How much gold was on board?
The General Grant was a United States-made, three-masted sailing boat. It sank at the Auckland Islands in 1866, on the way from Melbourne to London with 70 passengers and 2657 ounces (73kg) of gold in the captain’s cabin. Just 15 people survived.
There are legends about the gold. In those days, people wore sovereigns in waist belts or sewed nuggets into hems to avoid taxes.
Day thinks the ship was significantly overinsured if it was just carrying the recorded 73kg of...
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