Latest news with #anchor
RNZ News
21-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Anchor rediscovery reopens wounds from early encounter between Māori, European
The rediscovery of one of New Zealand's oldest European artifacts has reopened scars from an early encounter between Māori and a European explorer. An anchor that once belonged to the French ship Saint Jean Baptiste, captained by Jean-Francois Marie de Surville, has been located in the waters of Doubtless Bay in the Far North. In a storm in 1769 they lost an anchor and had to cut two more loose. Two of them have already been found - and the 3rd was discovered by Kelly Tarlton in 1982 - however the co-ordinates were misplaced until now. Photo: Hamish Williams Chair of Ngāti Kahu and Professor of Māori Studies at the University of Auckland Margaret Mutu said the crew of the Saint Jean Baptiste arrived in Doubtless Bay "in great disarray", several had scurvy and were nursed back to health by members of Ngāti Kahu. "That time of the year in December, January we know up at Karikari that that's a time when you're subjected to the tail ends of cyclones that come down from the Pacific, it happens every year. So storms were quite common and during a storm apparently one of their boats... got washed ashore. You know things get washed ashore up there at home, they're ours and we'll take them." Mutu said de Surville and his crew then "turned on" Ngāti Kahu, ransacked their kāinga (settlement) and then kidnapped a local rangatira named Ranginui. He latter died of thirst and scurvy aboard the Saint Jean Baptiste. The kidnapping was a portent of what was to come not unlike when Captain James Cook made first landfall at Tūranga, a visit that ended when the British killed or wounded nine Māori, she said. Ngāti Kahu chair Margaret Mutu Photo: RNZ / Leigh-Marama McLachlan Many years later Ngāti Kahu were approached at Haiti-tai-marangai Marae, not far from where the ship lost anchor, asking them to support a plaque commemorating de Surville, she said. "We talked about it at Haiti-tai-marangai... our mātua told us what had happened and we told those people to go away, we don't want to know about your de Surville." But she said the recovery of the anchor may be a chance to discuss this part of New Zealand's history. Mutu said one of the first things she did when she heard about this find was to ring home and make sure people there had heard it too. "Well people didn't know about it, so that's the first thing, we need to know about it, we need to sit down and talk about it and we will decide what happens to that anchor. "I just get a little bit annoyed about that people came into our territory, we welcomed them, we nursed them back to health, we saved them, they did the dirty on us and now they're coming back and telling us 'we're going to this, we're going to that, we're going to do the other.'" Heritage New Zealand have recommended the site of the anchor remain undisturbed until tangata whenua have been consulted, and the area can be assessed by a professional archaeologist. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
17-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
256-year-old relic of European contact with NZ rediscovered in RNZ podcast
A 256-year-old anchor described by Heritage New Zealand as "one of the oldest relics of early European contact with New Zealand" has been located after vanishing for 43 years. The anchor, lost by a French ship more than 250 years ago, had been located by the famous underwater treasure hunter Kelly Tarlton in 1982, but nobody had seen it since. Efforts to relocate the anchor have been the focus of the RNZ podcast Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt . "I think we found… well, I don't think - I know we found the last de Surville anchor," marine engineer Brendan Wade said in a phone interview, still aboard his boat in Doubtless Bay. "It's really exciting." Brendan Wade treasure hunting. Photo: Ellie Callahan The anchor, estimated at 4.1 metres long, and weighing more than a tonne, once belonged to the French ship Saint Jean Baptiste , which arrived off the coast of Doubtless Bay in 1769 - around the same time Captain James Cook was making his first voyage to New Zealand. The ship's crew were dropping dead of scurvy, and its commander, Captain Jean-François Marie de Surville, had been forced to make landfall in Aotearoa New Zealand. The crew were nursed back to health by members of Ngāti Kahu living near the northern edge of Doubtless Bay. Relations between tangata whenua and the new arrivals were initially peaceful. However, that changed when one of the ship's small boats was lost in a storm and washed up on shore. It was claimed by local Māori as a gift from Tangaroa. De Surville retaliated to what he interpreted as theft by setting fire to a nearby kainga, and seizing two carved waka. He also kidnapped a local rangatira named Ranginui , who was taken away in chains, and subsequently died of thirst and scurvy aboard the Saint Jean Baptiste . The storm which precipitated these events also claimed three of the Saint Jean Baptiste' s large iron anchors. The ship's logs capture in harrowing detail how the ship was blown "within musket shot" of the cliffs of the Karikari Peninsula after the cable securing the ship to its anchor snapped. Two other anchors were deployed, but failed to find purchase on the sandy bottom of the bay. De Surville gave orders to cut the two remaining anchors loose in an effort to save the ship. His second in command, Guilliam Labe, recorded in his journal that "the vessel stayed for quite a long time without answering to her rudder and we stared death in the face, seeing rocks along the length of the ship fit to make your hair stand on end". Thanks to an extraordinary piece of seamanship, the vessel was saved, but the three anchors were lost. The anchor had been located by the famous underwater treasure hunter Kelly Tarlton in 1982, but nobody had seen it since. Photo: Supplied to RNZ The three anchors remained at the bottom of the ocean for more than 200 years until the first was discovered by famous marine treasure hunter (and aquarium founder) Kelly Tarlton in 1974. It was retrieved from the bottom of the ocean and now hangs above the foyer at Te Papa museum. The second anchor was found later that year by Northland diver Mike Bearsley and installed at Te Ahu Museum in Kaitaia. The third anchor was located in 1982 by a team including Kelly Tarlton, his daughter Nicole Tarlton, Vietnamese diver Hung Nguyen and Kelly's brother-in-law Peter Pettigrew. Kelly Tarlton recorded the location of the anchor, but in the 40 years since his papers were lost and despite many experienced divers looking for it, nobody had managed to relocate it. In the process of making his podcast, Kelly Tarlton's Final Treasure Hunt , host Hamish Williams explored the possibility the anchor might have been illicitly salvaged, and made the centrepiece of a music festival at Te Arai called "Shipwrecked". However a later expedition to Doubtless Bay with marine engineer Brendan Wade, two of Kelly's former treasure hunting companions, Keith Gordon and Dave Moran, as well as local diver Whetu Rutene (Ngāti Kahu) suggested the anchor was still at the bottom of the ocean. The team used a magnetometer to search the bay, and detected a large magnetic anomaly on the seabed. However, underwater searches of the location were unsuccessful, raising the possibility that the anchor may have been buried by sediment, or that the equipment was defective. Then, just days before the final episode of the podcast was released, there was a new development. Hamish and Fiona Tarlton with flowers for Kelly in December 2020. Photo: Hamilton Williams Kelly Tarlton had filed the detailed notes of his discovery of the anchor at his Museum of Shipwrecks, and these files were later sold at auction when the museum closed in the early 2000s. Auction records suggested the files had been sold to Kelly's brother in-law Peter Pettigrew, but Pettigrew had no recollection of purchasing them, and insisted the records must be mistaken. However, just days before the podcast was launched, Pettigrew discovered the file buried at the back of a storage unit. "[It was] the very last carton at the very back of the lock up on the ground level, the lowest rung of all was 'item 65, Kelly's Archives'," Pettigrew explained. But finding the notes turned out to be just the first step. Marine engineer Brendan Wade, partner to Ellie Callahan - one of the podcasts producers - had become heavily involved in the search for the anchor, lending both his expertise and his equipment, including his boat, a remotely operated underwater vehicle, and a sophisticated sonar-scanning array to the endeavour. Wade recalled the moment he received the email with Kelly's long-lost notes. "I thought 'f***ing eureka we've got it!'" But that enthusiasm was short-lived. It turned out that Kelly's notes did not include precise coordinates. Instead they had drawings and readings taken using a sextant, an old-fashioned navigational tool used to estimate the location of a ship at sea by referencing landmarks on shore against the position of the sun. Converting sextant readings into GPS coordinates is not a simple task. Luckily, Wade was at sea working on a survey ship at the time and was able to lean on the expertise of his colleagues. "There's a bit of clever maths involved to do this, but the boys very graciously taught me," he explained. To Wade's surprise, the coordinates he calculated didn't match the location of the magnetometer signal found in the previous expedition. He was initially sceptical that Kelly Tarlton had accurately recorded his position "I actually kinda thought I just want[ed] to go up and disprove this, because it doesn't match anything else. We've got this [magnetometer signal], that's where the anchor is." Brendan Wade with the second de Surville anchor at Te Ahu Museum in Kaitaia. Photo: Ellie Callahan Braving wild weather which brought severe flooding to parts of the country last week, Wade motored out to the coordinates with his ROV - invoking the spirit of Kelly Tarlton along the way. "I had a chat to Kelly on the way out there and said 'come on mate, you've to to help me out here!'" Wade remembered. After several attempts were foiled by heavy swell, Wade finally managed to get his ROV into the water, and was astonished by what he found. "Out of the gloom was this massive ring, and you kind of look at it and you think, oh, maybe that, Could that be natural? No, it's not natural … it turned out to be the ring on the shank of the anchor. And then as I saw further down, you could start seeing the shank of the anchor laying down on the seabed, and then out of the gloom in this massive fluke, just sticking vertically up." Wade says the anchor is sitting at a depth of approximately 28 meters, and one of its flukes is jammed so firmly in the seabed that the main shaft of the anchor is actually suspended horizontally just above the seafloor. The anchor is encrusted with marine life including large sponges, and appears to be home to a single Leatherjacket, which Wade's two children have dubbed "the guardian fish". Heritage New Zealand's has confirmed the authenticity of Wade's find saying in a statement: "By the description of the location and its physical shape and scale it is almost certainly the third anchor associated with de Surville and his ship the St Jean Baptiste . As such, the anchor is one of the oldest relics of early European contact with New Zealand." Heritage New Zealand have recommended the site remain undisturbed until tangata whenua have been consulted, and the area can be assessed by a professional archaeologist. As for what the late Kelly Tarlton would have made of the rediscovery of his anchor 43 years later, his daughter Fiona laughed and said he would have said "it bloody took you long enough!".
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former WOI anchor Samantha Mesa returns to Des Moines. See which station she's joining.
WHO-13 is adding a familiar face to its news team. Samantha Mesa is returning to the Des Moines metro as an anchor and reporter for WHO 13. Mesa left WOI-TV's Local 5 News in May 2024 after serving as the midday anchor for three years. The seasoned reporter described her move back to Des Moines as a "reunion with ease." "We are excited to add another respected journalist to the WHO 13 team," said Rod Peterson, WHO 13's news director, in an email to the Register. "Samantha is community-minded. She has strong relationships in Des Moines. She adds to WHO 13's depth of experience." After leaving Des Moines, Mesa worked at Fox 17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, she covered elections from local races to presidential. With Michigan being a swing state, Mesa left Iowa in hopes of covering consequential races. Mesa got her start in journalism working in Corpus Christi, Texas. She left for a job in New York and returned to report near the United States' southern border in Texas. Going to Michigan allowed her to cover the northern border, preparing her to, once again, cover the heartland. "I have seen now both the upper north of the U.S. and the farthest south border, which are very different from each other but are still the U.S.," Mesa said in an interview with the Register. After learning all about the caucuses in Iowa, Mesa had the opportunity to see how Michigan's election processes function. She plans to bring all this experience back to Iowa and apply it to the community outreach she established before she left. "It's a plot twist that I didn't anticipate, it's but in the best way," Mesa said about her return. "More than anything I just want to thank the community for past collaborations." You can see Mesa on WHO-13 starting in August during the evening newscasts. Her role will be a mix of reporting and anchoring, so Mesa won't have a consistent anchor schedule, she said. She will also do community outreach for the station. "I will be representing the station everywhere and anywhere that I can build community and uplift local change-makers," Mesa said. Mesa has more than 10 years of journalism experience. Her start in Des Moines was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She not only navigated reporting during quarantine but also experienced partial hearing loss from COVID. This didn't stop her from getting to know the Des Moines community through her work. Another goal of Mesa's throughout her career has been amplifying Hispanic voices. As a Latina woman, Mesa has made uplifting the Hispanic community a forefront of her job, whether it be in Iowa, Michigan or Texas. Mesa's return to Iowa also allows her to reunite with her fiancé who lives in Iowa and works as a photographer for Iowa State University. Even in their free time, the two enjoy reporting on what makes Iowa unique through pictures and storytelling. "I am all about supporting local," Mesa said. "So I will be sharing anything and everything I can to just uplift local Iowa." WHO 13 viewers may have also noticed a missing face from the evening newscasts. Award-winning anchor for WHO 13, Erin Kiernan recently posted a video on Facebook showing her spending more time with her children and saying that she would "be present" for the summer. She responded to a comment saying that she would "be back when kids are back in school." Kiernan did not respond to a request for comment and Peterson declined to provide more details. (This story was updated to add new information.) Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@ or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Samantha Mesa, a former WOI anchor, returns to Des Moines to join WHO
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Veteran journalist returns to anchor El Paso Channel 9-KTSM newscasts
A familiar face is returning to the anchor desk after more than a decade after leaving the news industry. El Paso native and Del Valle High School alum Cristina Rodda returns to the airwaves to anchor weekends and noon newscasts on Channel 9-KTSM. You may recognize the UTEP grad from Channel 4-KDBC, where she started her journalism career in 2004. "If you ask most journalists, they'll tell you that their news career is their first love — their professional first love," Rodda said. "It's a privilege to serve my community." News media buzz: El Pasoan Marcel Clarke joins KVIA-TV weeknights More than two decades ago, Rodda worked her way up at KDBC, first as weekend reporter, then morning anchor and finally, leading the station's evening newscasts. Rodda eventually ventured out of Sun City, covering stories across the Southwest, including in Albuquerque and Las Vegas. Rodda left the news industry when she was appointed by the New Mexico governor to direct public affairs at the state's corrections department. Despite her successful career in government relations, her passion for the news industry remained. "I'm happiest when I'm helping people and I really feel like I'm doing that when I'm working in news," Rodda said. While developing her journalism career, Rodda said her family rallied behind her, helping her raise her then-young children, who now are ages 21, 22 and 26. With her strong conviction, she's finally found her way back to the anchor desk. "I have a very strong faith in our savior lord Jesus Christ," Rodda said. "So I always thought whatever his will is in my life, I know he's guiding my steps. Right now, he's guiding me to KTSM and I'm truly happy about that." Journalism: Iliana Limón Romero receives UNM Zimmerman Award: 'They saw my work as having an impact' Rodda made her anchor debut on June 25, alongside KTSM chief meteorologist Robert Bettes — the two worked together at KDBC. The KTSM team is thrilled to add Rodda to the team, said KTSM 9 News Director Chris Babcock. "With established journalists like Andy (Morgan), Monica (Cortez) and Estela (Casas) and the entire crew, Cristina further strengthens our commitment to local anchors and reporters sharing local stories and covering our hometown with perspective and in-depth knowledge of the community," Babcock said. Natassia Paloma may be reached at npaloma@ @NatassiaPaloma on Twitter; natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma Thompson on Facebook. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso journalist Cristina Rodda returns to Channel 9-KTSM newscasts
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
New York news anchor goes into labour during broadcast, continues with 3-hour show
Watch Albany anchor Olivia Jaquith's water broke live on air during her morning broadcast. She continued the three-hour show before heading to the hospital.
