Rapaki in Auckland Harbour | |
History | |
---|---|
New Zealand | |
Name | Rapaki |
Owner | Lyttleton Harbour Board |
Port of registry | Auckland |
Builder | Fleming & Ferguson, Paisley, Scotland [1] |
Yard number | 485 [1] |
Launched | 19 November 1925 [1] |
Identification |
|
Fate | Towed for scrapping in December 2018 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Steam crane |
Tonnage | 762 GRT [1] |
Length | 160.4 ft (48.9 m) [1] |
Beam | 52.3 ft (15.9 m) [1] |
Installed power | Steam engines |
Propulsion | Twin screw [1] |
The steam crane Rapaki was a historic ship in New Zealand.
On 24 December 1925 the Lyttelton Harbour Board ordered an 80-ton self-propelled floating crane, called Rapaki. She was named after the settlement close to Lyttelton of the same name. She was built at a cost of £42,000. The Rapaki took 109 days to sail from Greenock, Scotland, to Lyttelton, arriving on 28 July 1926. [2] Rapaki was one of two steam cranes in New Zealand waters, the other being the Hikitia which as of 2024 can still be visited on the Wellington Waterfront. Rapaki operated in Lyttelton for 60 years. During World War II Rapaki was requisitioned for war work in the Pacific. [3] [4] It had been intended that she go to the Middle East, but after Japan joined the war this plan was cancelled. [5]
At the end of her working life, Rapaki was transported to Auckland, [4] and became an exhibit at the Maritime Museum on Auckland's waterfront. [6] In December 2018, the Rapaki was towed to Wynyard Wharf to be broken up. [7] Some of its parts were given to the Hikitia. [8]
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.
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.
William Crush Daldy was a captain and New Zealand politician.
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.
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.
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.
The New Zealand Shipping Company (NZSC) was a shipping company whose ships ran passenger and cargo services between Great Britain and New Zealand between 1873 and 1973.
Henry Niccol was probably the first shipbuilder in Auckland, New Zealand. He was born in 1819 in Greenock. He was the father of George Turnbull Niccol and Malcolm Niccol.
Caesar Roose (1886–1967) was a New Zealand ship owner and operator, flax and timber miller, businessman, entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist. He was born in Mercer, Waikato, New Zealand in 1886.
George Fraser was a New Zealand engineer, foundry proprietor and ship owner. He was born in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on 28 June 1832.
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 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.
Novelty was a barque-rigged iron paddle steamer, built at Sydney in 1863.
Phoenix Foundry, often printed as Phœnix, was an engineering company in Auckland from 1861 to 1952. By 1900 it was on the verge of bankruptcy, but also Auckland's largest engineering works, supplying a wide range of goods and often leading in the design of equipment used to exploit the country's resources, such as timber and flax mills, crushers for gold ore and locomotives, pumps, cement and gas works and steamers. The foundry started with engineer, George Fraser, and a handful of employees, but grew to employ hundreds and operated under several names, including Fraser and Tinne and George Fraser & Sons Ltd.
SS Go Ahead was a twin screw-steamer, launched on the afternoon of Saturday 20 April 1867 by Seath and Connell, of Rutherglen, for the Clyde Shipping Company, with a plan to use her in New Zealand coastal trading. She had 30, or 35 hp (26 kW), high pressure engines, and tubular boilers from Campbell & Son's foundry.
George Holdship (1839–1923) emigrated to Auckland in 1855 and became a businessman, mainly involved in timber logging and sawmills. His companies removed much of North Island’s native forest, initially kauri and later kahikatea. He moved to Sydney in 1913.
Isaac Coates (1840–1932) was mayor of Hamilton, New Zealand, from 1888 to 1892, a farmer, flax-miller, and a drainage and railway contractor.
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.
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)