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Luhrs Rock is off Te Raekaihau Point, which marks the eastern edge of the three southern bays of Owhiro, Island and Houghton.
Henry Luhrs was a German who emigrated to America, and was a ship’s chandler. He was the first owner of the Sophia R. Luhrs probably named after his wife. The Luhrs family is still involved in recreational boat building and chandlery in America.
It seems clear that the rock is not named for Mr Luhrs, or his family, but for the unfortunate meeting of the Sophia R. Luhrs and the rock in 1880.
The naming of the rock provides us with a link not only to the intensive history of surveying around the treacherous Wellington Southern Coast, but to the often-forgotten trade links between the United States and New Zealand, which flourished in the 19th century.
The Sopia R. Luhrs, a wooden barque of 661 tons was built at Millbridge, Maine, USA in 1874. Her measured length was 145 ft, beam 34 ft, depth 18.25 ft. In 1877 the vessel was registered at the Port of New York and in 1878 she sailed to Wellington with a cargo of American gear for horse-drawn vehicles, and was subsequently registered here.
The Sophia R. Luhrs entered the coal trade as part of the Black Diamond Line run by coal merchant William Robert Williams from 1878 to 1885. In 1880 Mr Williams would sell coal alongside the vessel at 30 shillings a ton.
On 27 February 1880 the Sophia R Luhrs was carrying a cargo of coal from Newcastle N.S.W to Wellington under the command of Captain John Paton. The vessel was outside the harbour waiting for the tide to turn when she drifted down onto the sunken rocks, remaining there for several minutes and afterwards floating off. A check below showed she was taking on water but not in sufficient quantities to cause alarm and so she proceeded to her berth. After discharge of the coal she was placed on the slip for survey.
On March 4 the Hinemoa (commanded by Captain Fairchild) went out to survey the vicinity of the rock struck by the Sopia R. Luhrs. Captain Paton accompanied them to pilot them to the locality of the mishap. According to the newspaper report of the time:
Careful soundings were taken and the position of the rock was accurately ascertained. It is a large rocky patch, running eastward from Lyall Bay. The shallowest water over the reef was 4.8m (16ft) [the depth of the vessel was 18.5 ft]. The Hinemoa returned to Wellington that evening. The rocks on which she struck were found not to be on the chart, and were an extension of the ledge running off Lyall Bay.
On the 12th March it was reported that a further enquiry took place before the Collector of Customs and Captains John Moore, Sharp and Scholes.
It was found that it was dead low water when she struck. Had it been high water, they would have gone over it without touching. Captain Paton had entered the port about sixty times. Captain Edwin, R.N. who had visited the site with Captain Paton found it was a detached pinnacle lying away from the reef. It was about a quarter of a mile west of the outermost visible rock of the western reef of Lyall Bay. The rock was not on the latest chart. Any master finding himself on the spot would be under no alarm, seeing no danger marked on the chart. Captain Fairchild (who had been in charge of sailing vessels on the coast, but had hardly ever been in so close as the Sopia R. Luhrs was) [said he] scarcely considered it prudent to be so close in with a vessel of the size of the Luhrs, but it would be with smaller vessels. The repairs would probably cost £1000. As the rock was not defined on the chart, Captain Paton was exonerated from blame.
The Sophia R. Luhrs continued trading for the Black Diamond Line until the Line was sold to the Union Company in 1885, and was last mentioned in the published records consulted in June 1888, when she was pushed ashore from anchor while waiting to load timber at Kaipara for Melbourne.
The vicinity of Luhrs Rock remains dangerous today. A wreck, the Deinda, a ferro-cement hulled yacht, probably built in Australia lies close by in 5m to 7m of water on a rocky promontory. On the 3rd February 1992, the yacht ran aground around 3.30am as it was being brought into Lyall Bay in mistake for Wellington Harbour entrance. The three crew were rescued in their liferaft about 6.30am by Surf Rescue personnel who were out training in canoes.
Sources:Papers Past National Library of New Zealand.http://www.morgan-nj.orghttp://marinesource.com/builders/luhrs/
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