Fishing Vessel 'Cowan' Sinks at Port Levy

On March 9, 1948, the fishing vessel *Cowan* was on its way back to Lyttelton Harbour when it hit the rocks at Port Levy. The ship was holed on its starboard side and sank quickly. All seven crew members were saved.

The *Cowan* was a wooden steam trawler, built in Sydney, Australia, in 1914 by Woodleys Limited. It was 83.6 feet long, with an 18.4-foot beam and a depth of 9.4 feet, and weighed 30 tons net register. By 1919, it was operating out of Auckland Harbour, and its catches around Manukau Harbour were even discussed at a Fisheries Commission hearing that February. The *Cowan* traveled to ports all over New Zealand.

In the 1920s, the Auckland City Council owned the *Cowan*, and it fished from Auckland Harbour. The ship's master was fined £10 in July 1920 for poaching fish by trawling in a prohibited area of the Hauraki Gulf. Its relatively shallow draft allowed it to dock right next to the fish market wharf in what is now Auckland's Wynyard Quarter.

The *Cowan* continued fishing through the 1920s and 1930s, both trawling and dredging for oysters from Bluff. It also performed other duties, like searching for vessels that were feared lost or wrecked. At the time of its sinking, the *Cowan* was owned by P. Feron and Son Limited, of Christchurch.

A Court of Inquiry into the sinking found that no reprimand was warranted. The vessel had been steered by an uncertified crew member, and while Captain G. Mouncer hadn't monitored its course, he had stayed close to the wheel. The wreck of the *Cowan* lies in 8 meters of water, near the rocks it struck, and little remains of it today.