Divers delve into 130-year history | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

Divers are drawing up an unusual map this weekend of the seabed remains of a steamship that sank off the Western Bay of Plenty 130 years ago.

Tauranga photojournalist Shane Wasik is part of the team which will produce the first accurate map of the SS Taupo which sank 11km out from Tauranga Harbour's northern Bowentown entrance in 1881.

The team, which has undergone specialist archeological training for the task, will be joined by this year's Australasian Our World Rolex Scholar Anthea Ibell from Christchurch.

Mr Wasik said the mapping of the wreck site would include a marine life and biodiversity survey to establish a baseline for the wreck's importance as an ecosystem.

SS Taupo, a Scottish-built Union Company steamer which plied the East Coast in the late 1800s, settled on a sandy bottom well away from any reefs.

Mr Wasik said the wreck was found in 1979 by the Paeroa Underwater Club after a fisherman dragged up bits and pieces.

Sadly, it was quickly picked over by divers who removed items such as portholes.

The final indignity to the sunken vessel was inflicted when someone blasted the wreck to remove the copper from the boilers.

The blasting took place just before the Historic Places Act came into force in 1981 which protected historic shipwrecks.

Sitting in 34m of water, Mr Wasik said the SS Taupo was opened up like a tin can, scattered and broken but still easily identifiable as a wreck.

The sinking followed the grounding of the SS Taupo two years earlier on a reef at Mount Maunganui. She was patched up and taken under tow to Auckland, but the repairs to the bottom of the hull did not hold and she sank on April 29, 1881 shortly after the towline was switched to another vessel off the northern entrance to the harbour.

The survey was meant to coincide with the 130th anniversary of the sinking last weekend, but it was postponed to this weekend because of rough seas.

Mount Maunganui Underwater Club divers will be assisted by marine archaeologists from Otago University and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, with the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic assisting with the biological survey.

The survey will lead to the production of an information leaflet, along with a range of media materials, to give non-divers an insight into the wreck site.