Captain Mello Schenkel – The Mystery Master Mariner

By Carl Bonniface

Little is known of Mello Schenkel's early life except that he was born on 5 December 1831 in Nes, Ameland, an island off the northern coast of the Netherlands, once a centre of the Dutch whaling industry. His father Roelof Melles Schenkel, who was a sea captain, died when Mello was eight years old. Roelof married three times and had 13 children, but five of those died young. Mello was the third child from the third marriage.

In his teens Mello went to sea as a ship's boy, using the birth date of his younger brother, Jan Willem, born 9 August 1833, who had died in 1839, as Mello himself was too old to qualify as a 'boy'. The next thing we hear of Mello is when he shows up in Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour in early 1859, where he owned and commanded a ketch called Industry, registered in Port Lyttelton. It had been built by Brown Brothers in their boat building yard in Koukourarata Port Levy, which later moved to Motu-kauati-iti Corsair Bay.

Ten years earlier, on 8 November 1849, Mr CE Dampier had arrived in Ōhinehou Lyttelton aboard the Phoebe Dunbar. He was solicitor for the Canterbury Association and was granted land by the Association’s founder Godley, at what would become Dampier Bay (now Te Ana Marina development). In the late 1850s, Dampier decided to build a port and town to rival Kaiapoi, at Saltwater Creek, in order to be located closer to the large North Canterbury sheep stations and to take advantage of the booming wool export trade. He named it Northport. The only problem was negotiating the bar and the Ashley River mouth. Captain Schenkel was the first to do so in Industry. For his efforts he was given a quarter acre section at 38 Industry Street (named after his ketch), Northport, for his "prompt and spirited conduct in opening up Saltwater Creek for navigation".

Northport was an ambitious project which had limited success due to its difficult accessibility. Unfortunately, on 3 February 1868 disaster struck, when an ex-tropical storm swept down through New Zealand causing widespread damage. Many ships were destroyed and 40 lives were lost throughout the country. Several ships were wrecked in Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour, including Iona and Three Sisters, both locally owned. Northport did not survive. By 1870 it was in ruins and Dampier returned to England, where he died a year later. Nothing remains today of the port or settlement aside from a plaque marking the site.

Meanwhile, back in Ōhinehou Lyttelton, Captain Schenkel married Myra Martha Morey, daughter of Edward Morey, on 10 February 1862 at the Wesleyan Church. They went on to have 11 children, six of them born in Lyttelton, four in Akaroa and one in Christchurch. On 16 October 1862 Mello was proclaimed a New Zealand citizen by Governor Sir George Grey, who backdated it to 1 January 1861, so that by law Mello was a New Zealand citizen when he married Martha.

Captain Schenkel owned or part-owned several ships along with Industry, which unfortunately met her demise "after crossing the Sumner Bar on July 24th 1863 the ketch Industry struck on the South Spit and after a few minutes severe hammering, filled and sank. She became a total loss”.

CWN Ingram, New Zealand Shipwrecks 1795 - 1975.

He was half owner of Julia Ann in 1862-1863, which had been registered in Lyttelton on 18 August 1860. He was sole owner of Linnet from 1867-1874, built by Brown Brothers at Port Levy in 1863 and registered at Lyttelton on 13 July 1863. Linnet met an undignified end when she was acquired by the Lyttelton Regatta Committee and blown up as a spectacle at the New Years Day Regatta in 1906.

On 27 October 1868, in command of Prince Alfred, Captain Schenkel was involved in the rescue of the crew of the ketch Crest, which ended up in a cave on the rugged coast between Akaroa and Flea Bay. Unfortunately her captain, William Ellis and one crew member were trapped in the cave overnight and were swept away. A tablet made by EW Morey (Schenkel's father in law) in memory of Captain Ellis was placed in St Peter’s Church in Akaroa and remains there to this day.

Sometime around 1889, Captain Schenkel retired from the sea and took up residence with his wife and family at North West Bay in Pelorus Sound. This move was prompted by the marriage of their daughter Alice on 29 June 1885 to George Semple Johnson, a Pelorus Sound resident. This is where the mystery of this Master Mariner resurfaces. Rumours abound. One is that Captain Schenkel separated from his wife and went to live in Waitara, Taranaki, dying there in February 1896 and being buried in the Waitara Cemetery. However, there is no gravestone, cemetery records were destroyed many years ago, and no death certificate has ever been found. The mystery remains!

Descendants of Captain Mello Schenkel still live in Ōhinehou Lyttelton today, having been involved in the local community, working on the development of the harbour over the years, and promoting the history of this little slice of paradise.