Stranded in paradise

Description:

"The 'true story' of Royal Mail Ship Maitai whose wreckage is still visible off Avarua harbour is unveiled in a book written by a CookIslands-based physicist. Gordon Keys has written a story titled Stranded in Paradise - Salvage on the RMS Maitai and her story which re-examines the intriguing history of the ship and her wreck on a Rarotonga reef a century ago. 'My story with the ship began about 60 years ago when I was working at a little scientific office at the Takuvaine Valley,' Keys said. 'A friend of mine and I got interested in this (wreckage) and decided to take the propeller off the ship.' So half of this booklet is about the history of the ship and the other half is about how the ship got stranded and the salvage work we did. Keys said many stories had been told about the Maitai, and most of them were not true. 'This story is told in the spirit of preserving snippets of Rarotongan history which, while hardly momentous, would otherwise be missing from the archives. It is dedicated to the memory of my good friend Keith Davidson, my late colleague on the salvage venture that is described in the book.' Keys said it took him about six months to collate all the information which he had gathered over the past 60 years."--Cook Islands News.

subjects: Shipwrecks,  Salvage,  Steamboats,  History,  Maitai (Steamship)

Places: Cook Islands,  Rarotonga

Times: 19th century