New Zealand did issue a sheet of stamps all 45c on 2 February 2006 for the 75th Anniversary of the Hawke’s Bay Earthquake.
Two stamps have a maritime connection.
One stamp depict HMS VERONICA an escort sloop, and an other stamp sailors from the ship helping in the rescue effort.
http://stamps.nzpost.co.nz gives the following by the stamps.
Seventy-five years ago, 150 seconds would completely redefine Hawke’s Bay. It would change the relationship of Napier with the sea, seed new architecture and deeply affect the people who lived there. That event was the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, and it began at 10.47 a.m. on 2 February 1931
A huge jolt magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale and just 16 kilometers deep – would wreak widespread destruction on a region that until then had enjoyed tremendous growth.
Napier had been established in 1851 and by the 1920s was a thriving town of 16.000 people, with a great number of brick buildings, including the Anglican Cathedral and the Municipal Theatre.
Hasting, just 20 kilometer south, had grown out of developments that began in the 1870s. By 1930, the population had reached 10.850 and the city was justifiably proud of structures such as the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Co-operation Associating building, the Grand Hotel, Roach’s department store and the Post Office with its tall tower. Other towns in the area were also developing – Havelock North, Taradale, Waipawa, Waipukurau, Dannevirke and Wairoa.
The day itself began innocently enough – hot and still. It seemed the best of starts for children returning to school for another year. But at 10.47, there was a sudden jolt, then noting for 30 seconds – before another shock shook the ground smashed buildings and opened huge fissures in roads. In just two and a half minutes – chaos! Cherished businesses in Napier and Hasting were obliterated. Wairoa, which was close to the quake’s epicenter, was also extensively damaged. Fires began within minutes, and by the early afternoon Napier was ablaze – adding to torment and devastation that those living there faced.
Rescue workers sprang into action as all who could help ignored the powerful aftershocks and did what they could to aid the trapped and hurt. Unfortunately, Napier Hospital and the Nurses Home in Napier were unusable, and the Public Hospital at Hasting was too small to cater for the large numbers of injured and wounded. The injured were ferried to the Botanical Gardens and the Racecourse in Napier and Hastings. In all 258 died. Countless numbers were hurt. Everyone was shocked dazed and confused.
If there was one fortunate coincidence, it was the presence of HMS VERONICA in Napier at that time. In fact, it was the ship’s radio that alerted those outside the region as to what had happened, because all other forms of communication had been cut off. The crew of HMS VERONICA was dispatched to the devastated town to help with the rescue effort and set up emergency services. By early afternoon, two more ships laden with supplies had been dispatched to the stricken area from Auckland.
Over the next two weeks people evacuated the region, taking what possessions they could recover, and the long clean-up began. What would emerge from the rubble would be new cities, including the art deco wonder of Napier, and new hope.
This 20-stamp issue pays tribute to this huge event in New Zealand’s history, to those who endured it, those who were lost and to the cities that have been risen from the rubble in its aftermath.
HMS VERONICA.
Built as an escort sloop by Dunlop Bremner & Co., Port Glasgow for the Royal Navy.
01 January 1915 laid down.
27 May 1915 launched under the name HMS VERONICA one of the Acacia class. 36 were ordered of this class, 24 built.
Displacement 1.325 tons full load.
Powered by steam engines 1.800 hp., one shaft, speed 16.5 knots.
Coal fired, range by a speed of 15 knots, 2000 mile.
Armament 2 – 12 pdr, 2 – 3 pdr.
Complement 90
06 July 1915 commissioned.
The class was built under the War Emergency Programme, first used for mine sweeping till 1917.
1920 Was she transferred to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, maintained by the British Admiralty.
When in New Zealand she had a armament of 2 – 4 inch, 4 – 3 pdr. 2 – 2 pdr. and 2 – MG’s
She was used around the coast of New Zealand and made some voyages to the Pacific Islands.
When a devastating earthquake struck Napier, Hastings and other places throughout the Hawke’s Bay on 2 February 1931 at 10.47 a.m. with a force of 7.8 on the Richter Scale.
She was moored in Napier at the Ahuriri Basin, at that time she was under command of Commander H.L.Morgan. She had arrived early the same morning.
Suddenly they on board the VERONICA heard a terrific explosion, and first they thought that the ammunition magazine had blown up, the bed of the sea rose beneath the ship, and the stern mooring lines gave away.
The harbour bottom slammed into the bottom of the VERONICA and five of the six heavy hawsers holding the sloop to the quay snapped.
The quayside astern of the VERONICA slumped and broke away.
Water rushed from the inner harbour like a tidal race, the ship hit the bottom threatening to capsize, if the last hawser broke. Commander Morgan rallied his crew to secure the vessel.
When VERONICA hit bottom the valves on her radio transmitter were smashed, but this did not prevent transmission, and at 10.54 a.m. the outside world was notified of the catastrophe.
After the vessel was save and secured sailors from the VERONICA were helping with the rescue work together with the crews from two merchantmen the TARANAKI and NORTHUMBERLAND (on the stamp is visible behind the VERONICA an other ship what can be one of this two).
1935 She was handed back to the Royal Navy.
22 February 1935 sold for scrap to Cashmore in Newport, U.K.
The ships bell of the HMS VERONICA you can find in Napier, known there as Veronica bell.
Sources: Portrait of the Royal New Zealand Navy by Grant Howard. Ships of the Royal Navy by J.J.Colledge. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/stor ... d=10365989 and various other web-sites.