During World War II, Chuuk Lagoon (then known as Truk) was the logistical hub of the Empire of Japan's operations in the South Pacific theatre. In February 1944, in preparation for the forthcoming Battle of Eniwetok, the United States Navy launched an attack on the atoll. Over the course of two days, a series of airstrikes devastated the Japanese fleet, in an offensive codenamed Operation Hailstone. A total of 50 ships were sunk, although many key Japanese warships had been relocated the week before, and thus escaped destruction.
After carrying two companies of infantry and two battalions of coast artillery, about 1,100 men, for the Canton (Kanton) Island garrison, and possibly due to loss of an anchor while landing troops and equipment by means of shallow draft craft from outside the lagoon, the ship became firmly grounded on the coral reef. The hull was eventually scrapped by 6 April 1955.
A three-masted auxiliary barque driven onto the bar of Parengarenga Harbour, a few miles south of North Cape. There were no fatalities amongst the crew of thirteen men and one woman.[3]
A fishing trawler that was purchased by Greenpeace in 1978 for use as a fundraising and protest ship. She was sabotaged and sunk by the French secret service at Auckland on 10 July 1985, and although later refloated, was found to be beyond repair and finally scuttled in Matauri Bay.
A passenger paddle steamer used as a gunboat during the New Zealand Wars. In 1865 she reverted to civilian use and became Tasmanian Maid, before being wrecked off New Plymouth.
Diggle, Lynton (2014). Shipwrecks of New Zealand: Companion to New Zealand Shipwrecks, 8th edition (2nd ed.). Auckland: Lynton Diggle. ISBN 9780473197247.
Edwards, Hugh (1978). Australian and New Zealand Shipwrecks & Sea Tragedies. Sydney: Currawong Press. ISBN 090800110X.
Ingram, C.W.N.; Wheatley, Percy Owen; Diggle, Lynton; Diggle, Edith; Gordon, Keith (2007). New Zealand Shipwrecks: Over 200 years of disasters at sea (8th ed.). Auckland: Hodder Moa. ISBN 9781869710934.
McLean, Gavin (2007). Full astern!: an illustrated history of New Zealand shipwrecks. Wellington, NZ: Grantham House. ISBN 9781869341039.
Taylor, Peter (2006). The Australian and New Zealand list of vessels lost, missing or taken from active service 1874-1949. Newport, Vic: Scuttlebutt Press. ISBN 9780975175460.