General Grant's Gold
Some 300 miles south of New Zealand, in a coastal cave of a sub-antarctic island, lay millions in gold bullion. The islands are called the Auckland Islands. They are bleak and foreboding little islands, somewhere between civilization and Antarctica, lost in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
The Island
For centuries the very few visitors were seals, castaways and the occasional ship wreck. A forlorn and desolate place of windswept grass and forbidding coastal cliffs. Unimpeded Pacific waves crash against sheer cliffs of the Auckland Islands. It's the end of the line for sailing ships that found themselves in these currents, with their last stop: the towering cliffs that guard the coast like natural sentinels. Even the Pacific Ocean is rebuffed and refused entry there, with only seabirds, nesting in the crags, as disinterested witnesses, to the sea's attempts.
The Ship
Built in Maine, in 1864, the General Grant, named after President Ulysses S. Grant, was a 1,005 ton 3 masted barque type sailing ship. The General Grant's dimensions were 179.5 feet, by 34.5 feet and had a depth of 21.5 ft. When the the General Grant left Melbourne, Australia on the 4th of May she had a total of 83 lives aboard, 25 crew members and 58 passengers. Various sources seem to differ on how many escaped the wreck alive, but approximately fifteen people escaped the sinking ship.
The Cargo
The cargo of the General Grant consisted of 9 tons of zinc for ballast and 2,576 ounces of gold bullion. That amount of gold at today's prices is over 4 million. Many of the General Grant's passengers were thought to be gold miners from Australia's gold fields that had done well for themselves and were traveling to London. The General Grant's voyage was intended to start out from Australia and then on to London, England, by going around the Cape Horn of South America. There have been rumors that there was much more gold on board.
The Wreck
Late at night on the 13th of May, 1866, The General Grant's date with destiny had arrived. She was headed directly into the cliffs, on the west side of Auckland Islands. According to the story, the General Grant was driven into a cave about 200 to 250 feet into the cliffs. With waves crashing about and the tides rising, the ship inside eventually succumbed by having its own main mast impaling her own hull by the rising and pitching sea and the top or roof of the cave above.
Survivors
The fifteen that escaped the ship made their way to a nearby island in small boats. They barely survived on this smaller, desolate island for months. A few attempted to escape the island in one of the small boats, but were never heard from again. Eventually the remaining survivors were rescued by a passing ship.
