Wellington Harbour Board

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. Another name change occurred 10 years later when it became Centreport.

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  

2011-  Tapuhi 

2016-  TeHaa