SS Otaki Commemoration

On 12 March 2021, Ōtaki College once again welcomed distinguished guests to its SS Otaki Commemoration.  Represented were local government, Ngā Hapū o Ōtaki, the Ōtaki Returned and Services Association, the Merchant Navy Association and related organisations, the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

In addition to the above, wreaths were laid by the German Ambassador, His Excellency Stefan Krawielicki, and by Mr Simon Bull, Second Secretary, British High Commission.

Guest speaker at the Commemoration was Deputy Chief of Navy, Commodore Melissa Ross.  Both Commodore Ross and Principal, Andy Fraser, spoke about the need for young people to demonstrate courage and resilience in their daily lives.  Mr Fraser summed this up with the words "While courage may be required to start a journey, often, even greater courage is required to see it through to its conclusion."

The origins of the SS Otaki ceremony lie in 2017, when it was first held to mark the centennary of the sinking of the New Zealand Shipping Company vessel, SS Otaki, named after the river that flows through the township, by the German ship SMS Moewe.   While the Commemoration highlights the importance of the Merchant Navy, in peace and in war, it also serves  to celebrate the relationship between Ōtaki College and Robert Gordon's College in Scotland.  Mr Fraser announced at the ceremony that this relationship was now secured for many years to come, by means of a new scholarship fund.  He said that the Everiss Scholarship Fund had been set up by various interested parties, including Babcock International Group, to carry on the tradition established by the Sander Scholarship, generously funded for the last 8 years by Sander Ties.  The new Scholarship is named after Pilot Officer Carlyle Everiss, a New Zealand spitfire pilot killed in the Second World War in Cowie, Scotland.  Mr Fraser said that the aim of the Scholarship is to fund an Ōtaki College student to travel each year to Scotland and, possibly, to Germany.