Petition to remember the “Doris Disaster”

Ten watersider workers at Napier died in 1932 in this maritime tragedy. Some of their descendants now have a petition online to rename a local landmark in their memory.

At 11pm on 28th Decem­ber 1932, ten water­side work­ers (includ­ing my great-grand­fath­er) drowned at Napi­er, Hawke’s Bay, New Zea­l­and, when their launch, the “Dor­is”, and anoth­er ves­sel col­lided. This remains Hawke’s Bay’s worst mari­time dis­aster and has had a last­ing impact on the fam­il­ies of the vic­tims. When I was a child my grand­fath­er would often take me to the closest coastal spot to where the dis­aster occurred (known loc­ally then as “Per­fume Point”).

Land Inform­a­tion New Zea­l­and is cur­rently con­sid­er­ing a pro­pos­al to name this point of land “East Pier Point”. This is the name of a nearby res­taur­ant and hotel.

I am ask­ing Land Inform­a­tion New Zea­l­and to con­sider nam­ing the point “Dor­is Point” in remem­brance of the vic­tims of the “Dor­is Dis­aster”. Many still have fam­ily liv­ing in the area and apart from their grave there is no pub­lic memori­al to these men.

Melanie Gib­son (Hawkes Bay)

Sign the peti­tion here.

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One Response

  1. I AM ONE OF TWO SURVIVING SONS OF EDDIE COOPER (SHOULD HAVE BEEN BROWN ) OF ELIGHA BROWN OF TeMUKA NZ

    i don‘t care about anoth­er Memori­al but would like to meet some fel­low sur­vivers of that ter­rible night

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