Great War Stories

Ripapa (“mooring rock”) Island in Lyttelton Harbour, now administered by the Department of Conservation, is steeped in military history. In the mid-1880s, as the “Russian scare” gripped the country, Ripapa was selected as one of Lyttelton’s four coastal defences. The quarantine buildings came down and workers, including local prison labour, completed a submarine mining depot. Four large guns – two eight-inch rifled muzzle-loaders and two six-inch hydro-pneumatic disappearing guns – were installed and by 1895 the formidable-looking Fort Jervois, the colony’s most complete single fortress, was fully operational. The island was remilitarised in World War I.

Alongside the “Ripapa Island martyrs” – young conscientious objectors who staged a hunger strike in 1913 – incarcerated on the island was noted German navy raider Lieutenant Commander Count Graf Felix von Luckner. An exceptional seaman (he sank 14 Allied ships in 1917), he was also known as a considerate captor. His raids produced only one casualty and those who were taken captive by him unanimously spoke well of him. After escaping from Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf, von Luckner was taken to Ripapa Island. Here, the story goes, he devised an escape plan but felt too much sympathy for his commanding officer to carry it out.