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Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 2, Issue 5, November 1971
Other Buildings
Other Buildings
There have been many interesting building changes in the old port area. Alongside the present Anchor Company's offices was the tin shed which served as the watersiders waiting room until the present Assembly Hall was erected in 1947. Alongside that tin shed (also demolished), was the building which served for many years as the office and warehouse of the N.Z. Fruitgrowers Federation. Beyond that there now stands the Harbour Board workshops, the site on which an old warehouse and bond store once stood. In 1947 this warehouse was operated by Levin & Co., but originally it belonged to Sclanders & Co. a name which went right back to the first arrivals. Mr Sclanders built his first warehouse at Auckland Point and com-page 21
menced business there as a merchant in 1842.
Just past the Harbour Board workshops and near the wharf is a small wooden office building still used by the Board. This was originally a Railway building and was handed over to the Board when it purchased the wharves, and took over the working thereof from the Railways Department in 1921. From 1901 the Board had its offices on Wakefield Quay, and these consisted of the board room, a passage and two small offices. In 1921 this building was dragged on skids from Wakefield Quay and joined up to the old Railway building. It was from this group of buildings that the Board carried out its business until the present building was opened in 1963.
On the eastern side of the old Power Station (i.e. Associated Fishermen Ltd.) one can see at low tide the grid-iron built in front of the Anchor Foundry, in 1913, for vessels not over 150 tons. This was the site of the old ship's cradle once used by all Anchor vessels and other small craft. This grid-iron was discarded for the better slipway facilities built by Nalder & Biddle Ltd. in 1936. Now in 1970 that slipway has given way to the Calwell slipway built by the Harbour Board on the reclamation.
Mention of slipways brings to mind an industry which the port has never lost, although its character has changed somewhat—ship building. When Nelson was first settled there was immediate demand for small craft, particularly cutters and schooners, to trade round the Bay. These were the well-known Blind Bay hookers and records show that in 1843 at least four small craft were built in Nelson. The names of Ricketts, Jacobsen, Freeman and Strong were prominent among shipbuilders of the day.
Some of the more famous ship-building events at Port Nelson have included:
| 1. | The launching of the dredge "John Graham" in February, 1903. This dredge cut the entrance through the Boulder Bank. |
| 2. | The iron twin screw steamer "Koi" was sent out in sections from the Clyde and was assembled by the Anchor Company. She was launched broadside on in 1906 but she foundered and sank at the entrance to the port on 30th March, 1910, when heavy seas threw her on her beam ends. She was later raised and converted into a hulk a Picton. |
| 3. | The schooner "Southern Isle" was sighted by the light-keeper at Farewell Spit on 31st May, 1916, floating bottom-up. The hull was towed to Nelson and sold to the Harbour Board for £75. The hull was altered and fitted out as a grab dredge commencing work in 1923—known then as the "Te Wakatu". |
| 4. | The suction dredge "Karitea" was pre-fabricated in Bristol, shipped to Nelson and assembled by the Nelson Harbour Board staff under the supervision of its Engineer, Mr. D. Calwell. The "Karitea" was launched on 17th March, 1953, about 100 yards east of Collins Street and near Haven Road where petrol tanks now stand. Everyone knows the story of the reclamation and there is no need to elaborate. |