HMNZS South Sea (T22/T08) Converted Trawler
John
Thomas Currell (AK1438, AK1, T11, AK3, WN10, WN122) Strath-class trawler
This is another of those little ships where I suspect there is probably a lot of local knowledge out there somewhere, but not easy for a distant outsider the access.
Originally constructed as a Strath Class minesweeper for the Royal Navy in 1919, the 204 tons gross trawler Thomas Currell was one of three requisitioned from Sanford Ltd of Auckland in October 1939, and decommissioned in November 1945. I’ll edit in any further details as I find them, but as one of the smaller auxiliaries I think her duties were confined to local waters – not sure at present.
As for her later career, the one trace I find is this second photo posted by Phil NZ on flickr in 2006, which shows her wrecked but still very recognisable at Port Hutt on Chatham Island. There is a passing reference to her having been a ‘freezer,’ presumably a refrigerated vessel in the fishing fleet.
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4073
SS Thomas Currell was a Strath-class trawler built for the United Kingdom for use as a fishing trawler. She was purchased by Sanford Ltd in 1921 for use in New Zealand. She would be used as a minesweeper during World War II, and is currently wrecked at Port Hutt, Chatham Island.
Early operational history
Originally built as the Enrico, she was built by R Williamson & Son, located at Workington for use as a fishing trawler.[1] In 1921, Sanford was expanding its fleet of fishing vessels, having heard of several trawlers in the United Kingdom, Sanford sent several representatives to look over the vessels.[1] The Enrico seemed to fit the needs of the company and was purchased for £5,500 and had her name changed to Thomas Currell.[1][2] Before her voyage to New Zealand, she received a few alterations and was given spare equipment, including a spare propeller and shaft.[1][2] The voyage to Auckland would take three months, arriving in February 1922, and was put into service shortly after her arrival.[1]
World War II
Thomas Currell as a minesweeper during World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, Thomas Currell was on a usual fishing trip, and was unaware of the declaration of war due to a lack of radios on board, and was unable to be contacted.[2][3] She would return to Auckland, one week after war was declared, she discharged her catch and would be shifted to the Devonport Naval Base, as it had been commandeered by the government.[3] Along with the other Sanford trawlers, James Cosgrove and the Humphrey, they were converted for minesweeping duties and fitted with 4-inch (102 mm) guns, depth charges, and minesweeping equipment, also being given a wireless telephone and telegraph equipment.[3] The Thomas Currell was commissioned for the Royal New Zealand Navy on 10 October 1939, serving at Auckland.[3][4][5] On the morning of 19 June 1940, a distress signal was received from the passenger ship RMS Niagara, reporting it had struck a naval mine between Bream Head, and the Moko Hinau Islands and was sinking.[4] The James Cosgrove and Thomas Currell were ordered to sea, steaming at full speed towards her, arriving at 12:50 PM with minesweeping gear being deployed at 2:48 PM.[4] She and the James Cosgrove would discover two contact mines which had been laid recently, both were destroyed by rifle fire.[4] Thomas Currell would be paid off in September 1944, with work to convert her back into a fishing trawler completed by late 1945
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thomas_Currell
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HMS Puriri (T02) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper. She was sunk by a German mine 25 days after she was commissioned.
https://ianskipworth.com/photo/d7002011/Puriri_memorial/DSC_1102.jpg
The Gale which was a mile and a half or more ahead of us came back and lowered a boat and picked us up. One of the Cruisers (Achilles)was returning to base and she sent over a boat. They transferred most of our people onto her.
On 14 May 1941, the HMS Puriri – a minesweeper working along the coast of New Zealand – struck a mine off Bream Head in the northern approaches to the Hauraki Gulf. As nzhistory.net.nz notes, Puriri was rocked by a violent explosion, and sank so quickly that no lifeboats could be launched. The ship’s commanding officer, two stewards, a stoker and an able seaman – all of them former merchant seamen serving as naval reservists or under temporary (T 124) naval articles – were drowned, and five others were injured. The 26 survivors were rescued from the water by the Gale, another minesweeper. The mine it struck was a German contact mine, part of a 228-mine barrage laid on 13–14 June 1940 by the raider Orion. These mines had claimed their first victim, the trans-Pacific liner Niagara, on 19 June that year, fortunately without loss of life. This newspaper clipping of Puriri comes from a Navy Department file on the sinking, and includes telegrams to the families of those killed. Archives Reference: N1 Box 143/ 6/26/1 archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=21464349 For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ArchivesNZ Material from Archives New Zealand Caption information from www.nzhistory.net.nz/page/nz-minesweeper-sunk-hauraki-gulf
Puriri was owned by the Anchor Shipping and Foundry Company. She was one of four ships requisitioned as a consequence of the German auxiliary cruiser Orion’s minefield and the loss of the liner Niagara, the others being Matai, Gale and Rata. Puriri was taken over on 20 November 1940 and handed to the dockyard for conversion.
On 27 November 1940, Puriri put to sea urgently to assist the cruiser HMNZS Achilles in the search for the raiders Orion and Komet, which had sunk the liner Rangitane. She returned to port three days later and resumed conversion.
She was commissioned on 19 April 1941, and assigned to the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla, which was assigned to sweep German mines in the Hauraki Gulf.
Fate
On 13 May 1941, the launch Rawea attached a buoy to a German mine that had been caught in a fishing net eight miles north-east of Bream Head.[2] Puriri and HMNZS Gale were sent to deactivate it, and arrived in the area the next day. Gale sailed past the mine without seeing it, but Puriri, also not seeing the mine, struck it at 11 am. The explosion caused the ship to immediately sink at 35°46′15″S 174°43′00″ECoordinates: 35°46′15″S 174°43′00″E and now lies at a depth of 98m.[3]
Of the 31 aboard, five (including the commanding officer Lt D. W. Blacklaws) were killed or drowned, and three seamen were injured, one seriously. Gale rescued the 26 survivors, 5 officers and 19 ratings.[4]
The cargo boat Breeze was requisitioned as a replacement for Puriri.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Puriri_(T02)
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HMNZS Muritai (T05)
HMNZS Muritai Minesweeper Converted merchant boat 1940-1946 Training and cable-lifting ship
HMNZS Muritai, auxiliary minesweeper and anti-submarine patrol vessel, is the RNZN Ship Of The Week.
The 462 ton Muritai was a Wellington harbour ferry built for Eastbourne Borough Council in 1922-23, and from a brief scan of some manuscript items in the Borough archives I gather people had warm summer excursions memories of her, in that way people tend to feel about tugboats and ferries,
Muritai was commissioned as a minesweeper in 1940, operating out of Wellington, and was involved in a number of successful minesweeping operations with the local MS flotilla. There was an interruption in her war service in 1943 when she got entangled in the NZ Naval Board’s long search for a minelaying vessel, recounted in S.D. Waters’s New Zealand navy history.
In 1939, the NZ naval authorities had drawn up ambitious plans for extensive anti-invasion minefields to be laid around all its main ports and in some cases within harbours close to important military installations. Most crucial was Auckland for which 422 mines were ordered from Australia, with an agreement that the RAN would send HMAS Bungaree to lay them.
Demands for the services of the RAN’s sole minelayer extended however from the Dutch East Indies to New Caledonia and Noumea, and while the defensive fields into Auckland were finally laid, the experience convinced the RNZN that it needed its own vessel, both for minelaying and maintaining the fields.
A long and fruitless search for a suitable vessel, both within New Zealand and the United States followed, and in the end, with some misgivings, it was decided that the little former ferry HMNZS Muritai would have to be it.
In 1943 she was sent into the Devonport dockyard for the necessary work, but lay there for months with nothing done. The yard was at full stretch repairing US ships coming from the Pacific. In the end, Muritai was simply taken back and resumed duties as a port minesweeping and anti-submarine patrol vessel.
At the beginning of June 1944 HMNZS Muritai was assigned to Tamaki as a seagoing training ship.
She was released from service in 1946, and I’m afraid I can’t readily find trace of what happened to her since.
Again, I’m always impressed by the way the RNZN turns its ships out, and with fewer hulls in the water, how much they pack onto them. HMNZS Muritai here is a good case on both points. I don’t have a reference for her armament fit, but that looks like a TWIN gun installation on the bandstand up front, which would be very unusual for a ship of this size and type.
And finally, of course, she looks just a treat. HMNZS Muritai is the RNZN Ship Of The Week.
And below Muritai in another life
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HMNZS Matai (T01/T372) was a Marine Department lighthouse tender which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper.
Operational history[edit]
Matai was the government’s lighthouse tender servicing the marine lights around New Zealand and offshore islands, and had been used for cable laying in the 1930s. She was named after the native mataī tree.
She was requisitioned on 3 March 1941 and handed over to a dockyard for conversion.
After commissioning on 1 April 1941, Matai took over as the flotilla leader of the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla from Muritai and the flotilla began clearing a German minefield in the Hauraki Gulf.
