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Kōrero: Rowing

Rowing a lifeboat, 1881

Image
Rowing a lifeboat, 1881

This engraving from the Illustrated New Zealand Herald shows four men rowing and one man steering a lifeboat. This followed the wreck of the Tararuaon a reef at Waipapa Point, Southland, on the night of 29 April 1881. 131 people died in the wreck. Whether it was saving lives after a wreck or travelling across a lake, rowing was a much-used form of locomotion in colonial New Zealand.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0047-1881-0002

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

David Green, Rowing – Overview and origins of rowing, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/artwork/41255/rowing-a-lifeboat-1881 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā David Green, i tāngia i te 8 April 2013, updated 19 September 2016.