There was no possible hope of anyone having survived, the Herald wrote. "The camp was obliterated, the buildings being buried in about 20 feet of sulphurous mud."Ī search party dug a trench into the 6m hill of debris where the men's huts had stood, but found no trace of them. "The effect of the eruption seems to have been to throw the whole hillside overlooking the large lake and camp into the lake and over the whole surrounding area, completely burying the works, dwellings, boats, small wharf and all the inhabitants." The volcanic activity or the tremor were thought to have toppled a 300m wall of the crater into the sulphur lake, blocking the main vent and leading to an eruption elsewhere.īut the eruption theory lost favour and it is now thought the collapse of the south-western crater rim caused a lahar to rush through the crater floor, smashing the workers' huts, the manager's house and other mine buildings and shunting them into the sea. The first newspaper reports didn't appear until 11 days later, telling of "the greatest eruption since Tarawera in 1886", and guessing at a date of September 10 or 11, based on the timing of clouds of black smoke, "loud detonations" and an earth tremor that was seen, heard and felt from the mainland. There was also initial uncertainty about the death toll, thought to be either 10 or 11. The only survivor was a cat, later renamed Peter the Great.
The day of the 1914 disaster was probably September 10, but this isn't certain because no witnesses survived. Herald report of the White Island disaster in 1914.
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