Wellington Harbour Board - History & Photos

view photo collection

In 1878 the General Assembly of New Zealand passed an Act entitled "The Harbours Act 1878" to regulate the management of Harbours and to make provision for matters connected therewith.

Many of the Harbour Boards of New Zealand were bought into being by this general Act. It provided for the constitution of public bodies called Harbour Boards. These Boards carried out such harbour improvements considered necessary for the particular needs of each port and were responsible for financing all the work necessary although reclamations needed Government approval. 

The Wellington Harbour Board was constituted in1879 and in 1880 took over the Railway Wharf and adjacent breastwork at Waterloo Quay from the Railways Department and the following year Queens Wharf and the Bonded Warehouse from the Wellington City Corporation.

The coat of arms of the Board consisted of an anchor and ring with a wooded stock. Round the throat of the anchor was a mural crown above which was a dolphin imposed on the shank with a five-pointed star opposite the head and tail. Under the anchor on a scroll the motto "Firme dum fide" meaning "Strong but True" or as some employees joked it translated to "Pass the Buck".

In addition to constructing wharves and cargo sheds  and the Harbour Board supplied pilots, tugs, navigational aids, wharf cranes, heavy lift cranes, gangways, water and electric power to ships. 

On the afternoon of Saturday 17 August 1889, the Wellington harbour pilot put out from the pilot station at Worser Bay to board the Shaw Savill full-rigged ship PLEIONE, bound from Port Chalmers to Wellington. The weather was not favourable with a freshening south easterly wind.

The pilot boat used to take the pilots to and from ships was an 8 metre whale-boat style cutter manned by the coxswain and three boatmen. A small lug-sail was used in favorable winds but rowing was the main means of propulsion. Most of the crews lived at the pilot station, some with families. Their varied duties also included the maintenance of the boat and its shed, the dwellings, vegetable gardens and grounds, the tending of poultry and some small livestock and the collection of firewood. When necessary they would also row the boat to "town" for stores and coal. Pilots would commute between the station and town by horseback. Those on board this day were the pilot Captain Thomas Simms, coxswain John Henderson and boatmen Robert Tait, Herbert Cox and James Vass. On leaving Worser Bay they soon found themselves battling very rough seas.

An hour after leaving they were only just abeam of the northern end of Barrett Reef they obtained a tow to take them towards the PLEIONE from the Union Steam Ship Company's steamer HERALD, which had left Wellington at 5.00pm bound for Greymouth.

About ten minutes later, after being hit by a particularly big sea just south of Outer Rock, the pilot boat capsized and the line to the steamer parted. All the men, wearing sea-boots, oilskins and other heavy clothing were fortunately able to stay with the upturned boat and with great difficulty clamber on to its keel. The HERALD put about and launched a life-boat, burned blue lights and began a search for the pilot boat. Darkness had fallen and in the rough seas and strong winds then prevailing, conditions could not have been worse for those involved in this unfortunate occurrence.

More than half an hour was to pass before the HERALD came up with the swamped boat and its hapless crew. Suffering from advanced hypothermia in the bitter wind and numbing cold water. All the crew were alive when the HERALD came alongside them and in desperation but with failing strength they grasped the lines that were thrown to them. Boatman Cox failed in his attempt to clamber up the side of the HERALD and fell back into the water, disappearing into the darkness. Boatman Tait and Pilot Simms also lost their grip and fell back into the sea never to be seen again. Henderson and Vass were the only survivors. Henderson was promoted to pilot in October 1889 to replace the lost Simms.

There is no doubt that this disastrous event hastened the decision to reorganise the pilot service. The Worser Bay Pilot Station was closed down in 1894 and those stationed there transferred to Wellington. For the next few years the Board contracted with various local tug owners to transport pilots to and from ships. The launch UTA was built in 1900 and maintained the service after that date until joined in 1925 by ARAHINA and in 1953 by TIAKINA.

The Wellington Harbour Board was the only one in New Zealand to also act as wharfinger, receiving cargo at the ship side and giving receipts therefore, delivering to consignees or transhipping to other vessels as required. The Board also undertook wool and hemp dumping, warehousing of  bonded goods, cool storage for cheese and fruit.

In 1931 it took delivery of a floating dock which was built in England and towed to Wellington and which was described as the longest tow ever undertaken.

Wellington experienced its largest volumes of cargo crossing the wharves during 1942-1944 when it was the headquarters for the United States 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions. Some of the largest passenger ships then afloat visited the port. They had been converted to troop transports - British ships taking New Zealand servicemen to Europe and the Middle East and American ships bringing American servicemen from the United States and taking them to the Pacific war.

Industrial unrest on the New Zealand's waterfront marked the years after World War 2. Port congestion was the rule rather than the exception and ships swung at anchor waiting for berths as they had done in the days of sailing ships waiting for the wool clip. A prolonged strike in 1951 saw some ships spending 90 – 100 days in Wellington.

However changes in shipping were on the horizon.  Although the Union Company ferry service to Lyttelton was carrying over 350,000 passengers per year, the Anchor company overnight service to Nelson was slowly grinding to a halt, with worn out ships and eventually ceased service in 1953. The Union Line passenger service to Sydney ceased in 1960 and the Australian Huddart Parker Line 2 years later, because of increasing competition from the air. In 1962 the NZ Government Railways built a rail ferry to sail between Wellington and Picton. In its first year of service ARAMOANA carried 207,000 passengers, 46,000 cars and 181,000 tons of rail cargo. This was the start of the decimation of the coastal fleet that until that time used Wellington.

In 1964 a new overseas passenger terminal was opened despite the decrease in passenger traffic by sea.

A Government report in 1967 recommended the adoption of containerisation and that Wellington should be one of the two New Zealand ports. This resulted in the start of an extension to the Aotea Quay reclamation. A severe storm in 1968 caused the Lyttelton ferry Wahine to founder at the harbour entrance but also resulted in two tugs being built which started service at the same time as the first container ships arrived in 1971.  

The next 15 years saw more industrial unrest with slow cargo handling rates in New Zealand when compared with other countries. Containers were handled in many New Zealand ports and this lead to criticism from Government that Harbour Boards were not taking a commercial approach. They were accused of not costing services provided, making investment decisions without commercial reality, cross subsidising between recreational and commercial users and operating accounting practices which fell well short of the then current practices.

In 1988 the Ports Reform Act became law which in effect finished Harbour Boards, transferring the commercial operations to newly formed public companies and the recreational operations and assets to regional local bodies.  

The Wellington Harbour Board ceased operations in 1989 when its commercial operations were transferred to a company formed for that purpose, Port of Wellington Limited. Land, marinas and other non marine assets were transferred to the various councils in the Wellington area.

WHB Fleet List

1881 – 1897  Omega

1883 – 1903  Priestman Dredge B

1893 -  ?  2 silt punts

1894 -  1920  Priestman Dredge D

1900 – 1958  Uta

1903 -   ?    Huia

1903 – 1934  Whakarire

1925 – 1987  Arahina

1926 – 1949  Toia

1926 – 1989  Hikitia

1938 – 1981  Kerimoana

1953 - 1988  Tiakina

1939 – 1988  Tuna

1971 - 1988  Kupe

1972 -  1988  Toia

1977 – 1988  Ngahue

1982 – 1988  Keri-iti

1990 -  Tarikena 

2008 -  Taiki 

The following article appeared in The Evening Post 11 March 1915. 

PIONEER PILOTS -PERILS OF OLD TIME SERVICE
EARLY DAYS AT THE HEADS
CAPTAIN SHILLING'S REMINISCENGES

BUFFETINGS IN A WHALEBOAT

An open whaleboat battling against wind and wave was a frequent sight off Pencarrow Head forty years ago. In it would be seen four small specks, representing four sturdy specimens of manhood pitting their strength against the elements. These would be the crew with the oars, every sweep of which would bring their small craft nearer to the larger one in the distance beating up against the breeze. Perhaps half a gale would be blowing and a heavy sea running. And sometimes,in addition to these handicaps, it would be in the dead of night, and a wild night, too. But all these things would make no difference. The larger vessel in the offing had signalled for a pilot and duty must be done. The open whaleboat was the pilot boat, the task of whose occupants it was to bring the sailing vessel to the safe anchorage of the inner waters of the harbour. Those were the days of the early pilot service. There was no tug boat to steam perkily to the assistance of the ship from overseas. Manual labour alone had to be relied on, and nearly every day the men of the service carried their lives in their hands.

These were the conditions under which Captain W. Shilling, deputy-harbourmaster and senior pilot, first made his acquaintance with the pilot service in Wellington. For thirty-seven and a-half years he was continuously associated with the service, although his connection with it dates back even beyond that time. On 28th February this year he retired from active service on the waterfront, with an honourable record of which any public servant might feel proud. Naturally those early days were crammed with incident, and adventures tumuled so thick and fast upon each other that they became no more than part of the day's work. Captain Shilling is genuinely adverse to publicity, but he consented to relate some of his old-time reminiscences to a Post representative.

WORSER BAY STATION
The exact year in which he first joined the pilot service was in 1869, but the next year he left it. In 1871 he joined again as a boatman, and step by step he advanced up the ladder until he reached the position he held at the time of his retirement. In those days Captain Holliday was harbourmaster, Pilot Holmes was the chief pilot, and Captain Holm, at one time of the HELEN DENNY,  G. M. TUCKER, and other well-known traders, was assistant pilot and coxswain. The eervice had its headquarters at Worser Bay, four miles inside the Heads and the old buildings may still be aeen there. Control was in the hands of the Provincial Government, instead of the Harbour Board, as at present. The rate of pay was 5s 6d a day for boatmen, and it was no unusual thing for them to have to wait four or five months for their money. Often the journey to the pilot station was no light task. Miramar was frequently flooded with water, and the men of the pilot service had to "pad the hoof" right round the hills to get to Lyall Bay. The only buildings at Worser Bay were those belonging to the station and tho huts of one or two fishermen. All the stores for the Fencarrow Lighthouse had to be carried up the hill, and the work was indeed gruelling.

CHANGES IN THE STAFF
In 1870 Captain Shilling heard the sea a-calling, and, leaving the pilot service, he "went on the coast", taking command of various vessels belonging to Messrs. Fell Bros., of Blenheim, and trading round Cook Btrait. The schooner FALCON was his last command. In November, 1877, the pilot service once more claimed him, and in that year he was appointed assistant pilot, taking the place of Captain Holm. Eleven years later in March 1888, Pilot Holmes retired and Captain Shilling took charge as pilot at the Heads, with Captain Henderson (still on the waterfront) as assistant pilot and coxswain. In December of the same year he was relieved by Pilot Simms and came to the town headquarters.  Captain Holliday was then still harbourmaster. Until November 1890 he did inside and outside work, with the assistance of Captain Henderson. Then Captain Johnson was appointed chief pilot in Wellington and Captain Shilling went out to Worser Bay once more.  He remained there until July, 1894, when the pilot service at the Heads was abolished and was worked by a steam tug from the harbour. From that time until his retirement a few days ago Captain Shilling had his headquarters in the harbourmasters office.

A TRAGIC EPISODE
In those days of strain and stress there is one tragic incident which stands  out prominently in the memory of Captain Shilling. The ship PLEIONE arrived at night-time on 17th August 1889, and burned blue lights as a signal that she required a pilot. A southerly wind was blowing and there was a nasty jobble on the sea. Pilot Simms went out with the crew, and the whaleboat was towing behind the ship, when it suddenly capsized in the trough of the waves. Pilot Simms and two of his men were drowned. Captain Henderson, who was in the boat at the time, was one of the two men saved. There were many other exciting experiences, but luckily these were not accompanied with disastrous loss of life.

Captain Shiliing has good cause to remember one particularly thrilling episode. Two ships appeared off the Heads one day just as dusK was settling down and signalled for pilots. Captain Shilling and his crew launched their boat and pulled out past the Heads, a long pull and a strong pull with a freshening nor'west wind. Before the boat could reach the vessels they had 'bout ships'and were standing across the Strait. The pilot boat was, therefore, left in the lurch, a tiny speck tossing about four or five miles from the Heads. The heavy sea threatened to swamp  the whaleboat unless the best of seamanship was used. There was nothing for it but to pull back to shelter, no enjoyable prospect after a stiff pull of nine or ten miles. After six hours strenuous oarsmanship, however, the signal station on Beacon Hill was reached. By this time day was breaking, and after climbing up to the signal station the weary mariners saw the two sailing vessels coming across to the  Heads again. There was no alternative but to  go down, sleepless and weary, and launch the boat again.  Eventually the tired  oarsmen reached one of the vessels, both of which were beaten safely up into the harbour. 

BLOWN OFF FOR TEN DAYS
Like all other occupations, the pilot service has its disappointments, and Captain Shilling well remembers an experience he had on a Liverpool barque. The wind was blowing off the land and although the vessel tried on two or three occasions bo sneak up to the Heads she could get no closer than within four or five miles from land. Meanwhile Captain Shilling's boat had reached her, and he clambered aboard to pilot the boat up the harbour. The barque was slowly getting blown further out, and then her skipper made the discovery that he had only two days' supply of water aboard. The prospects of the barque  making the harbour in such a short timt were not too rosy, and so the skipper decided to run for Lyttelton. Under a fair wind the barque  reached the Kaikouras, and then, to the disgust of everybody, the wind veered round to a southerly gale. Back the vessel was headed to Wellington, and then once more much profanity was caused through the wind turning round to a hard nor'wester when the barque was four miles off Wellington. It looked as though she might be zig-zagging indefinitely, but the steam tug MANA (which was sometimes used when the sea was too rough to allow the whaleboat to venture out) came to the rescue under the command of Captain Jones, and towed the much delayed barque into the harbour. The time occupied in all this manoeuvring was ten days.

One of the narrowest escapes from shipwreck that Captain Shilling calls to memory is that of a vessel named the MARGARET GALBRAITH. She appeared seven or eight miles off the Heads just as night was coming on. A strong southerly wind was blowing and the skipper, mistaking Chaffer's Passage for the proper entrance, was running right smack
on to Barret's Reef, when Captain Shilling managed to board the vessel. He swung the barque clear of the dangerous rocks not a moment too soon, dodging disaster by a few feet only. By careful piloting he managed to get the vessel to a safe anchorage, and the skipper, who had up to this time smothered down his feelings, collapsed as the result of the reaction after his close call.

A WILL-0'THE-WISP ERRAND
Captain Shilling has good cause to remember the arrival of the first direct steamer from England on 19th March, 1883. The vessel was the BRITISH KING, in command of Captain Kelly, and her advent resulted in a will-o'-the-wisp chase for Pilot Holmes and Captain Shilling. As she came up on the Heads she was burning blue lights and sending up rockets. Thinking she was in distress or wanted a pilot. Pilot Holmes's boat pulled out sixteen miles to her, and then, to the astonishment of all aboard the whaleboat, the steamer commenced to forge ahead. It transpired that a slight breakdown had occurred in the machinery, and the whaleboat's long pull had been all in vain. Those aboard the steamer were astonished to find that the pilot boat had come so far out, and the only satisfaction the chagrined pilotmen had was "a ride- home".

ALMOST.FORGOTTEN WRECKS
Several wrecks occurred during the time Captain Shilling was in the pilot service. One of them was. that of the barque EARL of SOUTHESK, coal-laden from Newcastle. She anchored outside and & gale came up from the south with a heavy sea, The vessel dragged her anchor, and canted stern onto Barrett's Beef.  She sank in a few minutes, and the crew had just time to take to one of the boats floating on her deck and pull for the shore. For the next few days the fishermen in the locality neglected their calling, and had a busy time collecting the flotsam and jetsam washed up from her, mostly oranges, of which her deck cargo consisted.  Then there was the HANNAH BROOMFIELD, which was lost off Constant Point, fortunately with no loss of life.
Another vessel which met with disaster was the CARLOTTA, which missed stays at Pencarrow Head, smashed on to the rocks, and went to pieces. Her crew were saved by the men of the pilot service. On 31st August, 1888, the schooner COLONIST was lost on the Western Ledge, at the east end of Lyall Bay, and only one man of her crew of four or five was saved. The Shaw-Savill barque HALCIONE went ashore at Fitzroy Bay on
8th January. 1896, and some of her ribs, gaunt and stripped, are still to be seen there. Another vessel to find Davy Jones's locker in this vicinity was the barque WILLIE  M'LAREN, which struck a rock off Steeple Reef (Worser Bay). She was run into the bay, where she sank at anchor, and was eventually blown up. Disaster also overtook the small ateamer TUI, which met her fate in Chaffer's Passage, and the last and most sensational wreck of them all was that of the DEVON, some eighteen months ago, within a biscuit's throw of the low-level
light at Poncarrow.