In September 1995 the crew of Hikitia Heavy Lift, on instructions from the Wellington Regional Council's Harbourmaster, used their vessel the "Hikitia" to lift and remove chain from the harbour floor. The chain had been found when divers went to investigate an anchor snagging in the harbour. On recovery of 250 metre’s of chain it was discovered that attached was an anchor some five and a half metres in length.

The location of the Anchor has been put as 200 metres south of where the Jubilee floating dock used to be located in the region of Aotea Quay.

Anchor.

• The dimensions are:

• Overall length: 5.6m
• Overall width: 3.3m
• Depth of flute: 1.02m
• Width of flute: 0.75m
• Length from body to turn down end of bar: 2.7m
• Length from body to start of turn down: 2.3m
• Distance from "bow" of anchor to 1st gravity band on body: 0.8m
• Distance from "bow" of anchor to 2ndgravity band on body: 2.0m
• Body or main shaft diameter: 0.3m
• Estimated Weight: about 8 tonnes

• For conservation purposes the anchor was put back into seawater. It is now located at the Taranaki Street Wharf adjacent to the national museum - Te Papa. It will remain there until a decision is made on its future.

 

Chain.

• All but a short length of chain was removed and sold to Wellington Providoring Co.

 

Objective of work being done by MAANZ

To ascertain what kind of vessel would have been fitted with such a large anchor of this variety and how it came to be in the harbour.

• What do we know about the anchor?

• How did it get to New Zealand?

• How did it come to be where it was found?

• Why was its existence unknown?

 

Photos of the anchor.

If you can help or have any queries please contact us.