Walking around the Mauao Track, starting from the surf club, and continuing past the North Rock, you will come to a seat on the right, facing Karewa Island. On the rocks below this seat can be seen a plaque mounted on a large rock which reads:

'Seaward Of This Rock

Lie The Remains

Of A Locally Owned Launched

The RANUI

Wrecked In Heavy Seas On

Her Maiden Voyage On The

28^th December 1950 With The Loss of 22 Lives.

(The engine block still appears at every low tide)

I was only four and a half years old when this happened, living at Mount Maunganui with my parents and younger brother.

I remember a story of a boy who lost his father in the tragedy. On a clear night, he would look at the mountain summit and see a red light. This, to him became 'Daddy's Star.”

Like many other families, we souvenired a piece of timber from the Ranui, which we never quite knew what to do with. It just lay about the house until the family shifted to Tauranga in the sixties.

When I was 14, I started fishing on the ‘Ratahi', a sister ship to the ‘Ranui'. Every Sunday, if sea conditions would allow, and even some school days, I could be found fishing with skipper Trevor Williams on that launch.

I remember Trevor once, yet only once, recalling the incident. 'I came down (from Coronation Pier) and pulled bodies out of the entrance. I cannot go through the entrance without thinking about it.”

The skipper of the Ranui on that tragic day was Geoffrey Harnett - Trevor's brother-in-law. He was among the 22 who drowned. The only survivor was 19-year-old, Philip Smith of Tauranga.

It was said that the Ranui was not insured as the risk was not considered great enough. It was a great financial loss to Harbour Transport owner, the late Jerry Williams - Trevor Williams' father.

Brian Burlace, Tauranga