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The Evans Bay Patent Slip is a heritage site of the former
The immediate success of the first slipway led the Wellington Provincial Council to investigate building a bigger slip that could handle larger ships. In December 1863, the New Zealand Government passed empowering legislation, authorising the Superintendent of Wellington to compulsorily acquire an area of land up to at Evans Bay for the construction of a larger Patent Slip. The Wellington Provincial Council was keen to have a slip capable of taking large vessels, to increase the attractiveness of Wellington harbour for the shipping trade. However, the Provincial Council was unable to fund the construction, and decided to grant a concession for a slipway to be built and operated. The concession was granted to Kennard Bros., of London.
In 1866 Kennards sent hundreds of tons of machinery to Evans Bay but there was a dispute and the equipment sat there for five years until locals backed by British investors formed the Wellington Patent Slip Company (WPSCo). Construction began in 1871 and was completed in May 1873.
The New Zealand Steam Navigation Company went into liquidation in 1871 and management of the slip passed to the newly-formed Patent Slip Company. The wooden slip was in use at least until 1873 when the new slip was built slightly south of it.
The Evans Bay Patent Slip, the first in New Zealand, was a great engineering feat. A 200-ton, long cradle ran on wheels along a set of rails. Two chains were used for hauling vessels out of the water and lowering them back down. The chains worked on a cogwheel winch which was powered by two steam engines. The main 'hauling up' chain was 1700 feet (518 m) long and weighed 62 tons. Each link was 18 inches (45 cm) long and made of iron 3 inches (7 cm) thick. One end of the chain was attached to the cradle and the other dropped into a well 35 feet deep (10 m) beneath the winding gear. The smaller 'lowering out' chain was a loop with links 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) thick. This was used for lowering ships down the slip and for bringing up the empty cradle.
Construction above the high tide mark was straightforward, but work underwater was far more difficult. Workers in a diving bell excavated the sea floor, shifting rock into a shallow iron box which they slid under the edge of the diving bell to be hauled to the surface and removed. The men worked in shifts of four to six hours. After this stage, a diver worked to position piles and join pieces together. Concrete was mixed in a boat on the surface and sent underwater down a tube with a canvas hose at the end so that the diver could direct the concrete to where it was needed. The workers underwater could only work in good weather conditions: in a southerly the current was strong enough to lift a diver off the sea floor. This was the first large-scale underwater construction in New Zealand. A jetty was also erected to improve communication with ships. Along with the winch houses and boiler rooms associated with the slipways were houses, a store, inspector’s office and carpenter’s shop, a messroom and a blacksmith’s shop.
On 2 May 1873 the 316-ton barque ''Cyprus'' was the first ship to use the slipway. If necessary, two ships could use the slip at the same time. The first ship would be raised up and then chocks put under it so that the cradle could be released and sent down to pull up a second ship. A small vessel could be raised up the slip in about 20 minutes, and a larger ship could be raised at a rate of 15 or 16 feet (4.5 m) per minute. Ships of 2000 tons or more could be winched up the slip, but without the expected big Panama liners, most ships were smaller and less profitable. In 1908 Wellington Harbour Board purchased the assets of the Wellington Patent Slip Company and leased the operation to the Union Steam Ship Company, with conditions that a second slip be built. This was constructed in 1922. In 1961 the Union Steamship Company decided not to renew its lease. The Harbour Board took over running both slips until 1969, when slipway No. 1 was taken out of service and slipway No. 2 was upgraded. The slipway finally closed on 31 July 1980. The site was demolished and various equipment scrapped, sold or given to museums, and land was filled in for a new housing subdivision.
The site was listed as a Category 2 Historic Place in 1982. In 2003 Wellington City Council applied to rezone the site as a heritage area, and the area is now known as Cog Park.
File:Man working at Patent slip, Evans Bay, Wellington ca 1920s.jpg, Man working at Patent Slip,
File:Patent slip, Evans Bay, Wellington ca 1880.jpg, Patent Slip,
File:The barque Pleione in the Patent Slip, Wellington.jpg, Barque ''Pleione'' in the Patent Slip
File:View northwards at Patent slip, Evans Bay, Wellington ca 1880 (cropped).jpg, View north at Patent Slip,
File:Ship hauling machinery at the patent slip in Evans Bay, Wellington.jpg, Hauling machinery at the Patent Slip
patent slip
The patent slip or marine railway is an inclined plane extending from shoreline into water, featuring a "cradle" onto which a ship is first floated, and a mechanism to haul the ship, attached to the cradle, out of the water onto a slip. The m ...
located in Evans Bay
Evans Bay is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. Located off northwestern Bathurst Island, the bay is on the east side of Erskine Inlet, across from Île Vanier.
Other bays in the area include Dampier Bay and Cameron Bay ...
, in Wellington Harbour in the North Island of New Zealand. The first slipway on the site was commissioned in May 1863 to enable maintenance of the hulls of small vessels. The Wellington Provincial Council was keen to encourage shipping trade by improving facilities in Wellington Harbour, and began planning later in 1863 for the construction of a larger patent slip. A concession was granted for the supply, construction and operation of a patent slip on the site. Equipment for the new slip was delivered in 1865 and 1866, but construction was delayed for several years because of a contractual dispute concerning the suitability of the design for the ground conditions. The original suppliers lost a court case and withdrew from the project. The Wellington Patent Slip Company was formed to take over the assets and construction began in 1871. In March 1873, the Patent Slip was officially opened.
A second slipway was constructed at the site in 1922. The original slip operated until 1969, and the second was closed on 31 July 1980. Most equipment has been removed from the site, and a residential development now occupies some of the original land. However, the site has been listed as a category II historic place by Heritage New Zealand
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...
, and the area is classified as a heritage zone by the Wellington City Council.
The first slipway
In 1863 the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company decided to build a slip at Greta Point in Evans Bay to make it easier to repair and clean ships' hulls. A contract was let to shipwright Edward Thirkell and by May 1863 the slip was in operation. This first slip was long, with the upper part being bolted together so that it could be removed from under any ship if necessary. The slip itself consisted of two wooden "slideways" for the keel and the bilge and the low end sat in eight feet of water at low tide. Two manually-operated winches pulled ships up the runners. Edward Thirkell managed this slip and its successor until his death in 1882.The Patent Slip
The immediate success of the first slipway led the Wellington Provincial Council to investigate building a bigger slip that could handle larger ships. In December 1863, the New Zealand Government passed empowering legislation, authorising the Superintendent of Wellington to compulsorily acquire an area of land up to at Evans Bay for the construction of a larger Patent Slip. The Wellington Provincial Council was keen to have a slip capable of taking large vessels, to increase the attractiveness of Wellington harbour for the shipping trade. However, the Provincial Council was unable to fund the construction, and decided to grant a concession for a slipway to be built and operated. The concession was granted to Kennard Bros., of London.
In 1866 Kennards sent hundreds of tons of machinery to Evans Bay but there was a dispute and the equipment sat there for five years until locals backed by British investors formed the Wellington Patent Slip Company (WPSCo). Construction began in 1871 and was completed in May 1873.
The New Zealand Steam Navigation Company went into liquidation in 1871 and management of the slip passed to the newly-formed Patent Slip Company. The wooden slip was in use at least until 1873 when the new slip was built slightly south of it.
The Evans Bay Patent Slip, the first in New Zealand, was a great engineering feat. A 200-ton, long cradle ran on wheels along a set of rails. Two chains were used for hauling vessels out of the water and lowering them back down. The chains worked on a cogwheel winch which was powered by two steam engines. The main 'hauling up' chain was 1700 feet (518 m) long and weighed 62 tons. Each link was 18 inches (45 cm) long and made of iron 3 inches (7 cm) thick. One end of the chain was attached to the cradle and the other dropped into a well 35 feet deep (10 m) beneath the winding gear. The smaller 'lowering out' chain was a loop with links 1 1/4 inches (3 cm) thick. This was used for lowering ships down the slip and for bringing up the empty cradle.
Construction above the high tide mark was straightforward, but work underwater was far more difficult. Workers in a diving bell excavated the sea floor, shifting rock into a shallow iron box which they slid under the edge of the diving bell to be hauled to the surface and removed. The men worked in shifts of four to six hours. After this stage, a diver worked to position piles and join pieces together. Concrete was mixed in a boat on the surface and sent underwater down a tube with a canvas hose at the end so that the diver could direct the concrete to where it was needed. The workers underwater could only work in good weather conditions: in a southerly the current was strong enough to lift a diver off the sea floor. This was the first large-scale underwater construction in New Zealand. A jetty was also erected to improve communication with ships. Along with the winch houses and boiler rooms associated with the slipways were houses, a store, inspector’s office and carpenter’s shop, a messroom and a blacksmith’s shop.
On 2 May 1873 the 316-ton barque ''Cyprus'' was the first ship to use the slipway. If necessary, two ships could use the slip at the same time. The first ship would be raised up and then chocks put under it so that the cradle could be released and sent down to pull up a second ship. A small vessel could be raised up the slip in about 20 minutes, and a larger ship could be raised at a rate of 15 or 16 feet (4.5 m) per minute. Ships of 2000 tons or more could be winched up the slip, but without the expected big Panama liners, most ships were smaller and less profitable. In 1908 Wellington Harbour Board purchased the assets of the Wellington Patent Slip Company and leased the operation to the Union Steam Ship Company, with conditions that a second slip be built. This was constructed in 1922. In 1961 the Union Steamship Company decided not to renew its lease. The Harbour Board took over running both slips until 1969, when slipway No. 1 was taken out of service and slipway No. 2 was upgraded. The slipway finally closed on 31 July 1980. The site was demolished and various equipment scrapped, sold or given to museums, and land was filled in for a new housing subdivision.
The site was listed as a Category 2 Historic Place in 1982. In 2003 Wellington City Council applied to rezone the site as a heritage area, and the area is now known as Cog Park.
Incidents at the slip
Over the many years of operation there were several significant incidents at the Patent Slip.Gallery
References
{{Reflist Wellington Harbour History of the Wellington Region Demolished buildings and structures in New Zealand Transport buildings and structures in the Wellington Region NZHPT Category II listings in the Wellington Region