Work

Programme Note

Rough, unpredictable weather and a lengthy, often treacherous coastline meant many ship were wrecked in the early days of New Zealand’s history.

Shipwreck opens with a setting of a folk ballad, ‘John Smith A. B.’ (printed in The Bulletin Sydney 1904), which describes the loss of a life at sea and illustrates how such tragedy was accepted by the early sailors as part of the hazards of their occupation.

The second part recalls a disaster off the coast near Timaru in a setting of a poem printed in the Timaru Herald on 23 May 1882.

Text Note:

Text: Anon

Related Works