Hikitia at the Taranaki Street wharf | |
History | |
---|---|
New Zealand | |
Name | Hikitia |
Owner | Maritime Heritage Trust of Wellington |
Port of registry | Wellington |
Builder | Fleming & Ferguson, Paisley, Scotland [1] |
Yard number | 486 [1] |
Launched | 15 April 1926 [1] |
Maiden voyage | 29 September 1926 [2] |
Identification | IMO number: 5150393 |
Status | Operational |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 746 GRT [1] |
Displacement | 926 tonnes |
Length | 160.1 ft (48.8 m) [1] |
Beam | 52.3 ft (15.9 m) [1] |
Draught | 7 ft (2.1 m) [2] |
Installed power | steam engines originally fed by coal-fired Scotch boilers, later replaced in 1963 by oil-fired boilers and then by small modern package boilers.[ citation needed ] |
Propulsion | twin screw [1] |
Speed | about 9 kn (16.7 km/h) [2] |
Hikitia is a working self-propelled floating steam crane in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. She is thought to be the only working steam crane of her type in the world.
She is also the sister ship to the Rapaki , formerly of the Port of Lyttelton, which was put on display at the New Zealand Maritime Museum after being taken out of service, and then scrapped in January 2019. Some parts from Rapaki were given to Hikitia. [3]
The Hikitia was built by Fleming & Ferguson of Paisley, Scotland. After completing trials, the vessel left Greenock on 29 September 1926. The delivery voyage took 77 days, travelling via the Panama Canal to reach New Zealand. The vessel travelled with the crane fully erected, and arrived in Wellington Harbour on 21 December 1926. [2]
Twin screws are driven by surface-condensing direct-drive compound engines which were supplied with steam by a coal-fired Scotch boiler with two furnaces. A similar but oil-fired boiler replaced the original boiler in 1963. In 1980 this was also removed and the present two locally made small modern package boilers were installed. [4] These new boilers produce less steam than the original ones.[ citation needed ]
The hull of the vessel was built by Fleming and Ferguson and the crane was built by Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow. The crane alone weighs 310 tonnes, and was built to lift 80 tonnes. However, while dismantling the wreck of TEV Wahine it is thought that she lifted 140 tonnes. [5] In 2004, she lifted 100 tonnes to maintain her lifting licence of 80 tonnes. In 2009, Hikitia lifted a 22 tonne ice plant in Lyttelton. [3]
Hikitia travelled to Lyttelton in June 2009 for hull, tail shaft and various other underwater repairs. [6] While in Lyttelton, she moved an ice plant between wharves to repay part of her refurbishment at the port's dry dock. The venture south was the ship's first time out of Wellington since 1926. [7]
There have been two deaths resulting from people climbing the crane and jumping into Wellington Harbour, one in 2015, and another in 2024. The owners of the Hikitia said they had reviewed safety along with the Wellington City Council after the 2015 fatality. Video cameras and warning signs had been placed on the vessel. [8] [9]
Transport in New Zealand, with its mountainous topography and a relatively small population mostly located near its long coastline, has always faced many challenges. Before Europeans arrived, Māori either walked or used watercraft on rivers or along the coasts. Later on, European shipping and railways revolutionised the way of transporting goods and people, before being themselves overtaken by road and air, which are nowadays the dominant forms of transport. However, bulk freight still continues to be transported by coastal shipping and by rail transport, and there are attempts to (re)introduce public transport as a major transport mode in the larger population centres.
TEV Wahine was a twin-screw, turbo-electric, roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry. Ordered in 1964, the vessel was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland for the Union Steam Ship Company's Wellington-Lyttelton Steamer Express Service in New Zealand.
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
GMV Aramoana was a roll-on/roll-off train ferry operating across Cook Strait between 1962 and 1983.
Interislander is a road and rail ferry service across New Zealand's Cook Strait, between Wellington in the North Island and Picton in the South Island. It is owned and operated by state-owned rail operator KiwiRail. Three roll-on roll-off (RORO) vessels operate the 50-nautical-mile route, taking about three hours to complete the crossing.
Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō is a major inlet on the northwest side of Banks Peninsula, on the coast of Canterbury, New Zealand; the other major inlet is Akaroa Harbour, which enters from the southern side of the peninsula. Whakaraupō enters from the northern coast of the peninsula, heading in a predominantly westerly direction for approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) from its mouth to the aptly-named Head of the Bay near Teddington. The harbour sits in an eroded caldera of the ancient Banks Peninsula Volcano, the steep sides of which form the Port Hills on its northern shore.
The New Zealand Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui A Tangaroa is a maritime museum in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on Hobson Wharf, adjacent to the Viaduct Harbour in central Auckland. It houses exhibitions spanning New Zealand's maritime history, from the first Polynesian explorers and settlers to modern day triumphs at the America's Cup. Its Maori name is 'Te Huiteanaui-A-Tangaroa' – holder of the treasures of Tangaroa.
Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated facilities in the Greater Auckland area, this article is about both the current company and the ports of Auckland themselves.
Fleming and Ferguson was a Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding company that traded between 1877 and 1969.
Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited was once the biggest shipping line in the southern hemisphere and New Zealand's largest private-sector employer. It was incorporated by James Mills in Dunedin in 1875 with the backing of a Scottish shipbuilder, Peter Denny. Bought by shipping giant P&O around the time of World War I it was sold in 1972 to an Australasian consortium and closed at the end of the twentieth century.
William C Daldy is a historic steam-powered tugboat operating on the Waitematā Harbour, in Auckland, New Zealand. Named after William Crush Daldy, an Auckland politician, she was built in 1935 and is still an active vessel, maintained by an enthusiast preservation society which charters her out for functions and cruises.
Titan was a floating crane that operated in Sydney Harbour from 1919 until 1991. She was fabricated in Carlisle in the United Kingdom and then sent to Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney for assembly before entering service with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
Wellington Harbour Board was the body which formerly managed the shipping and commercial affairs of the port of Wellington in New Zealand. It was constituted in 1880 and was disestablished in 1989.
The steam crane Rapaki was a historic ship in New Zealand.
The Northern Steam Ship Company Ltd (NSS) served the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand from 1881 to 1974. Its headquarters, the Northern Steam Ship Company Building, remains in use on Quay St, Auckland as a bar.
Langer Heinrich, or in English Long Henry, is a floating crane commissioned in 1915 for the Wilhelmshaven Imperial Shipyard in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and has been located in Genoa, Italy since 1997. At the time of completion she was the largest floating crane in the world, passing up the Ajax crane barge completed in 1914.
Mullogh was a ketch rigged steam ship, built in 1855 in Belfast. It sailed to Australia, then to New Zealand. The wreck of Mullogh is now beached on Quail Island.
The Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company linked Nelson with other parts of New Zealand from 1870 to 1974. The company's former office remains on the quay at Nelson, as do steps of their foundry, which built one of their ships, repaired their fleet and made other machinery.
Wharves in Wellington Harbour have been essential to the operation of the Port of Wellington and to the development of the city and the lower half of the North Island of New Zealand.
TEV Rangatira was a passenger ferry that sailed the Wellington to Lyttelton route between 1931 and 1963. She was the first turbo-electric vessel (TEV) to arrive in Australia or New Zealand waters. During the Christmas season she would also run trips between Wellington and Picton.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)