She was named after James Cook’s Bark Endeavour and is the third ship in the RNZN to carry that name, though if continuity with the Royal Navy ships of the name HMS Endeavour is considered, she is the twelfth. The previous two ships of the RNZN were Antarctic research support vessels. Endeavour was built in South Korea to a commercial design and commissioned on 8 April 1988. Endeavour was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 21 to 24 September 1999, and from 28 January to 23 February 2000.[1] In January 2010, Endeavour was awarded the Chatham Rosebowl, the award for the best performing ship in the RNZN. As a result for all of 2011 she flies the ‘E’ Pennant for efficiency. In 2012 Endeavour attended Exercise RIMPAC. The RNZN is currently searching for a replacement for Endeavour. The ship was previously due to be decommissioned in 2013; however, it was given a double hull during an 18-month refit so that it could continue in serve until 2018. In March 2015 a request for tender for a replacement vessel was released by the New Zealand Ministry of Defence.
In some sources, the ship’s name is also spelled Namakogon. After her decommissioning from the U.S. Navy in 1957, the former Namakagon served as Antarctic supply vessel HMNZS Endeavour (A814) for the Royal New Zealand Navy (1962–1971), and as ROCS Lung Chuan for the Republic of China Navy. Lung Chuan ended active service when she was decommissioned from the Republic of China Navy in 2005.
HMS Philomel at the Training Jetty and RFA Nucla (oiler) alongside. Unknown in dock.Devonport Naval Base, Auckland Possibly 1933
The NZ Division, of the Royal Navy. – RFA Nucula, 17 April 1937 at Auckland, New Zealand while going alongside HMAS SYDNEY to refuel her she was caught heavily by a rip tide and hit the cruiser causing damage to HMAS SYDNEY’s port side propeller and forcing her into the wharf causing further damage to her quaterdeck. Nucula was not damaged.1
RFA NUCULA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship) is pictured leaving Sydney on 17 January 1931. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson while travelling on a ferry between Bradley’s Head and Rose Bay.
RFA Nucula, a tanker was built as the s.s. Hermione and completed in Newcastle by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co in September 1906 for C T Bowring & Co Ltd of London. She was completed as coal burning but converted in October 1907 to oil-fired. By April 1908 she was sold to the Japanese company Toyo Kisen Kaisha and her name was changed to Soyo Maru when Bowring had a new tanker named Hermione completed. She carried oil from California to Japan.
In 1915, she was passed back to British service and the Admiralty gave her the name RN Oiler No.73 and she served as a fleet tanker in European waters. In 1917 she was bought by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum (now known as Shell Oil) who changed her name to Nucula as it was their practice to name their ships after seashells. She remained in commercial service until 1922 when she became a Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the civilian crew were replaced by RFA personnel. RFA Nucula was posted to the China Station as a Fleet Attendant Oiler based at Hong Kong. From September to November 1923 she was based at Nagasaki to act as a base oiler during the earthquake relief operations.
With the change from coal powered to oil-fired warships the New Zealand Division (hereafter NZDiv) of the Royal Navy required replenishment support for its new cruisers HMS Diomede and Dunedin. With the imminent arrival of HMS Dunedin on station in 1924 the New Zealand Government negotiated for an oiler to enable navy controlled supplies of fuel oil. On 27 May 1924 RFA Nucula was transferred to NZDiv control as a Fleet Attendant oiler and hired by the New Zealand government. The formal handover took place at Suva where she had stopped on a voyage from Singapore to Auckland. RFA Nucula arrived at Auckland on 5 June 1924. Due to her design, she could not undertake replenishments at sea or underway oiling. She would act as a supply ship for the sloops HMS Wellington and Leith along with the two cruisers. When they would depart on the island cruises, a feature of the interwar period in the South Pacific, Nucula would refuel the vessels in sheltered ports and anchorages.
Her designated task was to maintain supplies of fuel oil at the naval base at Devonport, Auckland. To do so, she undertook two to three seven-week voyages to California a year to load supplies of fuel. In 1934 three voyages were made to Abadan in the Persian Gulf. Some oil was also supplied to the Royal Australian Navy base at Sydney. In June 1934 during one of the voyages back to New Zealand she nearly sank in huge seas off the south-eastern coast of Australia during a cyclone. She suffered damage to the superstructure that needed extensive repairs upon reaching Auckland.
She subsequently became HMS Monowai, a Landing Ship, Infantry and mostly operated as a troopship. In 1946 she returned to her old trade as a passenger ship.
Civilian career
Monowai In Milford Sound Feb 1933
SS Razmak was built at Greenock yard for P&O by Harland and Wolff, launched in 1924 and completed on 26 February 1925.[1] She was designed for service between Bombay and Aden and spent several years in the Mediterranean Sea. When demand on her original route dried up, she was offered for sale and transferred to the antipodes.
HMNZS Monowai
The Union Steam Ship Company, part of the P & O group, took her on in 1930 as their second SS Monowai and she ran a subsidized service from Wellington to Vancouver via several Pacific stops. From 24 November 1932 she ran mostly from Wellington to Sydney.
Conversion to armed merchant cruiser
Guns suitable for Monowai had been ordered and stored at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. Monowai was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy on 21 October 1939 and was prepared for mounting the guns. Then followed a period of indecision, and in February 1940 work on her was suspended for over four months. After construction was completed in August 1940, she was commissioned.
Monowai was the first of two ships with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was named after the New Zealand glacial lake Monowai. Monowai is a Māori word meaning “channel full of water”.
Conversion to LSI
As surplus, in 1943 she was transferred to Liverpool in the United Kingdom and handed over to the British Ministry of War Transport. Monowai went to Glasgow for conversion to an “Landing Ship, Infantry (Large)” or LSI(L). From June 1943 to February 1944 she was refitted with completely different armament, capacity for up to 1,800 fully equipped troops, and 20 Assault Landing Craft. She was used during the Normandy landings.
In the later period of the war she was used as a troopship transporting soldiers and after the end of the war in repatriation.
On 31 August 1946 she was returned to her owner. She resumed merchant service in January 1949 after extensive repair. In 1960 she was sold for breaking up in Hong Kong.
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