The
steam crane
A steam crane is a crane (machine), crane powered by a steam engine. It may be fixed or mobile and, if mobile, it may run on rail tracks, caterpillar tracks, road wheels, or be mounted on a barge. It usually has a vertical boiler placed at the ...
''Rapaki'' was a historic ship in New Zealand.
Service history
On 24 December 1925 the
Lyttelton Harbour Board
The Lyttelton Harbour Board was established on 10 January 1877 to manage Lyttelton Harbour. The harbour had previously been managed by the Canterbury Provincial Council, but provincial government ceased to exist on 1 January 1877. The harbour b ...
ordered an 80-ton self-propelled floating crane, called ''Rapaki''. She was named after the settlement close to
Lyttelton of the
same name
''Same Name'' is an American reality television series in which an average person swaps lives with a celebrity of the same first and last name. It premiered on July 24, 2011 on CBS. The series received low ratings, and CBS pulled it after four-ep ...
. She was built at a cost of £42,000. The ''Rapaki'' took 109 days to sail from
Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
, Scotland, to Lyttelton, arriving on 28 July 1926. ''Rapaki'' was one of two steam cranes in New Zealand waters, the other being the which as of 2024 can still be visited on the
Wellington Waterfront
Wellington Harbour ( ), officially called Wellington Harbour / Port Nicholson, is a large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour entrance is from Cook Strait. Central Wellington is located on parts of the ...
. ''Rapaki'' operated in Lyttelton for 60 years. During World War II ''Rapaki'' was requisitioned for war work in the Pacific.
It had been intended that she go to the Middle East, but after Japan joined the war this plan was cancelled.
At the end of her working life, ''Rapaki'' was transported to
Auckland
Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
,
and became an exhibit at the Maritime Museum on
Auckland's waterfront. In December 2018, the ''Rapaki'' was towed to
Wynyard Wharf to be
broken up
Ship breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship scrapping, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of Interchangeable parts, parts, which can be sol ...
. Some of its parts were given to the ''Hikitia''.
See also
*
List of classic vessels
*
List of museum ships
This list of museum ships is a sortable, annotated list of notable museum ships around the world. This includes "ships preserved in museums" defined broadly but is intended to be limited to substantial (large) ships or, in a few cases, very notab ...
References
{{reflist
''The New Zealand Maritime Record''''Engineering Heritage New Zealand''
Merchant ships of New Zealand
Steam cranes
Ships built on the River Clyde
Paisley, Renfrewshire
Crane vessels
Floating cranes
Individual cranes (machines)
1925 ships