Media Release Friday 22/7/16

Greetings

Tomorrow Sat 23/7/16 Wellington's historic floating crane Hikitia will lift the very large old anchor in storage aft of Hikitia. Photo attached shows the anchor last being lifted in 2010.

The anchor is very large being 4.5m long by 4m wide and is NZ's largest anchor weighing in at about 8tonne. Very modern anchors from large cruise ships can be be bigger but none are known to be in New Zealand. Origin of this anchor is unclear. It is of the style that was built in the late 19th century for very large battleships, the 1890s Orlando class being an example, and specialist tasks such as static moorings. The records show the anchor was used in providing a mooring system for a row of ship hulks in Wellington Harbour. How the anchor arrived in Wellington remains a mystery.

The anchor was first discovered in 1995 when a visiting ship got its anchor snagged and divers were deployed to assist. Hikitia was called in and the divers connected the end of the very large associated chain to the Hikitia crane and a very long length of chain was pulled up to eventually reveal this very large anchor. Since discovery it has been stored in the water aft of Hikitia.

In 2010 it was raised so that anodes could be fitted to begin a conservation process to remove chlorides from the metal of the anchor. Advice received from the Western Australian Maritime Museum has provided a future plan for the conservation work. The anchor will remain on Hikitia's foredeck to be cleaned down and to have new zinc anodes fitted. It then be put back in the water in September to keep the process going. Conservation is being overseen by the Maritime Archaeological Assn of NZ [MAANZ].

The actual lift is planned to take place between 11:30am to midday adjacent to Hikitia's usual berth on Taranaki Wharf

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