Matoaka (also listed as Mataoka)[1] was a 1092-ton wooden New Brunswick full-rigged ship built in 1853 for Willis, Gunn, & Co. She was sold to Shaw, Savill, & Albion by 1859.
His family and a group of some 80 migrants he had gathered together had arranged settle at Mangonui under Government sponsored land grants.
On 10 January 1867 he arrived with a large number of starlings, larks, blackbirds, thrushes, pheasants, and partridges.
She had 44 passengers on board together with a cargo of wool, flour, tallow, flax, skins, and assorted items.
[42] These sighting and messages all proved untrue and the ship was declared by Lloyd's as missing, presumed sunk by ice in the Southern Ocean.
[45] In May 1872 a bottle containing a supposed message from the ships First Mate was discovered on St Kilda Beach, Dunedin.
[46] Examination of the hand writing found no comparison with that of the first mate and the message was dismissed as a cruel hoax.
[47] In May 1870 a deputation from the families of those on board sought assistance from the New Zealand Premier, William Fox, to mount a search of the Bounty Islands in case the ship had been driven there by bad weather.
[49] Prior to this the Admiralty had received a letter from a John Knowles who was on the Alexander Duthie which said they had passed Enderby Island in January and seen smoke from a fire.
On the basis of that letter, in April, the Admiralty ordered Commodore Lambert of Australia Station to make a search of the Auckland Islands for the missing ship.