
On 19 June 1940 the 13,415-ton liner RMS Niagara had just left Auckland for Vancouver via Suva when it hit a German mine off Bream Head. All 136 passengers and 203 crew made it to the lifeboats. The secret cargo of 590 bars of gold and half the New Zealand Army’s small-arms ammunition sank with the ship. The gold, valued at NZ$230 million in 2016 dollars, was salvaged in 1942.


Evening Post, Saturday 22 June 1940, p 9.
