The first interment in this plot was that of Mary Ellen Corich, a one-year-old girl who died at her home in Leeds Street on 14th February 1895. The second interment is that of Joseph Corich who died in 1902, aged fifteen years and seven months. He died ‘after sad and painful suffering’. Joseph was known to his mother as ‘Little Joe’. She inserted a poem in the newspaper to mark the second anniversary of his death:
The trial was hard, the shock severe
To part with one I loved so dear.
Though cruel death has snatched from my view,
A loving son, kind and true.
Death cannot from my mind efface
His tender smiles, his loving face;
His words, his actions are not dead,
But in my heart are daily read.
The parents of Mary Ellen and Little Joe were Captain Joseph Corich and his wife Catherine (born Lodge) who had married in Westport in 1884. Joseph was born in Rijeka, in present day Croatia. Catherine’s parents had emigrated from Kilkenny, Ireland.
Captain Corich was ‘one of the best known and most popular figures on the Wellington waterfront’. He was Captain of the Pilot and then the harbour tug ‘Karaka’. When he first came to New Zealand, he worked for the Union Steam Ship Company as tug master. He became a naturalised citizen in 1890. Between 1907 and 1919, he worked for Mr E. G. F. Zohrab.
Captain Corich was remembered for his gallant conduct when he saved the life of the hulk keeper Mr Woods, his wife and five children off the ‘Omega’ on 18th May 1901. Captain Corich and Constable Tom Ryan had risked their lives by going onto the harbour that night, as it was ‘wild and tempestuous’. At 3:30am a fire had broken out on the coal-hulk which was moored in the harbour. The Woods family slept unaware of the danger until they were roused by Constable Ryan and Captain Corich who came alongside in the steam launch ‘Snark’.
A plucky attempt was made by Captain Corich to recover Mrs Woods’ small store of rings and trinkets, but as he rushed along the deck to escape the flames, the drawer fell out with a gust of wind and all but one ring was lost. Nothing could save the hulk and she gradually burnt out over the course of the day. For his bravery, Captain Corich received a certificate, and a medal which was pinned on him by Lady Ward. The same were awarded to Constable Ryan and these are now held by the Wellington Museum.
Captain Corich died at Wellington hospital on 5th November 1919, aged sixty-two years. His funeral departed his residence in Caroline Street at 2:30pm on 7th November for St Joseph’s Church in Buckle Street and then on to Karori Cemetery. There was a representative gathering of shipping men at his funeral, including the harbour master.
Catherine continued adding ‘In Memoriam’ notices to the newspaper for her son, husband and close friends every year until her death.
Catherine died in 1928 aged sixty-one. A Requiem Mass was celebrated prior to her funeral at St Joseph’s Buckle Street. The interment was private. She was buried with her husband and two children. Catherine was survived by her son John and daughter Nora.
*note that Captain Joseph Corich is incorrectly recorded in the WCC Cemetery database as George Corich.
Plot: *ROM CATH/B/9
By Julia Kennedy
