The Isles-class naval trawlers were 164 feet (50.0 m) long, displaced 740 tons full load, and could manage 12 knots (22 km/h). They had a complement of 40 and were armed with one 12-pounder gun, three 20 mm Oerlikons in single mounts and depth charges.
HMNZS Sanda (T 160) MS Trawler of the Isles class Navy The Royal New Zealand Navy Type MS Trawler Class Isles Pennant T 160 Built by Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd. (Goole, U.K.) : Amos & Smith Ordered 22 Jul 1940 Laid down 23 Dec 1940 Launched 12 Jul 1941 Commissioned 4 Nov 1941 End service History Sold in 1958. Commands listed for HMNZS Sanda (T 160) Please note that we’re still working on this section. Commander From To 1 Lt.Cdr. (retired) Norman Leggatt Mackie, RNR 30 Oct 1941 9 Nov 1944 2 Lt.Cdr. Henry Alfred Dunnet, RNR 9 Nov 1944 https://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/13524.html
The ship was named after an island near the Mull of Kintyre. Sanda was commissioned into service with the RNZN on 30 October 1941. On 31 December 1943, Sanda along with her sister ships were deployed to sweep the independent minefield in the Bay of Islands.
HMNZS Sanda
By the end of February 1944, 249 mines had been swept and destroyed from the field of 258 mines laid in October 1942.
Three Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) officers are among the lucky few honing their trade aboard three Australian Anzac-class warships.
07 MAY, 2024
Sub Lieutenants Taylor Bell-Booth, Ben Sterritt and Aron Mago completed their introductory engineering course in Australia in HMAS Cerberus. Now, posted to frigates HMA Ships Perth, Stuart and Warramunga, they are completing their training as assistant marine engineering officers and have given the experience high praise.
“It is an incredible opportunity to work alongside New Zealand’s closest ally and ‘bigger brother’,” Sub Lieutenant Sterritt said.
“To meet the people and learn from the way that the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) operates is an experience that I will be able to take back to New Zealand and share.”
Sub Lieutenant Bell-Booth echoed Sub Lieutenant Sterritt, sharing the eagerness to pass on their experience to other RNZN officers.
“Being involved with the RAN has given me a diversity of experience and a deeper understanding of how the RAN operates,” Sub Lieutenant Bell-Booth said.
“I can take this back to the RNZN and provide a better perspective when our navies work together.”
Each officer has found it easy to work alongside his Australian shipmates, remarking on the similar cultures, lifestyles and perspectives on service they all share. There was the occasional hiccup, however.
“We share very similar lifestyles, although the only difference has been the Aussies getting used to my Kiwi accent,” Sub Lieutenant Mago said.
SUB LIEUTENANTS BEN STERRITT (LEFT), ARON MAGO (CENTRE) AND TAYLOR BELL-BOOTH (RIGHT)
The importance of the Anzac tradition is not lost on the officers, and neither is the significance of their time aboard an Anzac class frigate.
Each officer has already marked an Anzac Day alongside RAN members, and Sub Lieutenants Mago and Sterritt looked forward to the rare opportunity of marking it at sea.
“I looked forward to marking Anzac Day on board. It has been a very cool experience serving in an Anzac-class frigate with the Australians,” SLT Mago said.
Sub Lieutenant Bell-Booth participated in a dawn service and parade with his shipmates before taking time to share experiences and stories with other members and veterans – something close to his heart.
“My grandfather fought in Italy in the Second World War as a member of the 5th Field Artillery Regiment. He had some incredible stories. He passed away a couple of years before I joined the RNZN. He was a fantastic role model,” Sub Lieutenant Bell-Booth said.
“I am grateful every day that we serve under vastly different circumstances to those that he endured.”
Australia and New Zealand share a deep bond of military cooperation and friendship that is expressed through the exchange program.
While their experiences differ greatly, the Anzac spirit is alive and well with Australians and New Zealanders working together at sea, said Sub Lieutenant Skerritt.
“While not even close to comparable to our ancestors, I too have had a taste of the Anzac relationship in the armed services first-hand and it is something that will always stay with me. It is a privilege to be a part of and one that I will never forget.”
The first of three Bird-classminesweepers, Moa displaced 607 tons standard and 923 tons at full load. She was 168 ft (51 m) long overall, had a beam of 30 ft (9.1 m) and a draught of 15.3 ft (4.7 m). She had a top speed of 13 knots (24 km/h) and a crew of between 33 and 35 personnel. Moa‘s main armament was a single 4-inch Mk IX naval gun, which was supplemented by anti-aircraft guns. She also carried minesweeping equipment and 40 depth charges for anti-submarine operations.[3][4]
Commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy on 12 August 1941, Moa was the first of two vessels with this name to serve in the RNZN and was named after a native bird from New Zealand.[5][6]
On 29 January 1943, in concert with her sister ship Kiwi, Moa helped to ram and wreck the Japanese submarine I-1.[7] At the time Moa was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Peter Phipps, later to become a vice admiral.[7][8]
In February 1943, Moa participated in Operation Cleanslate, the occupation of the Russell Islands. However, when the Moa put the forces ashore, local natives informed them that the Japanese had left ten days before.[9]
On 7 April 1943 Moa was refuelling from the USS Erskine M. Phelps at Tulagi Harbor when Japanese aircraft attacked.[10][11]Moa sustained two near misses and two direct hits from 500-pound (230 kg) bombs, one that passed through the ship before exploding in the water abeam to starboard,[12][13] the other passed through the captain’s cabin into the boiler room, where it exploded, effectively “breaking the ship′s back.”[14][15][12][13]Moa sank bow-first within about four minutes.[8] Five ratings were killed and seven were seriously wounded, including Phipps.[7][8] At some point in the interim following the sinking of the submarine I-1 and her own sinking, the Moa crew had acquired and mounted a 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun on her very bow, with which the crew used against their attackers before they sank.[16] This 20mm gun could still be seen on her wreck in 2002.[17]
I-1‘s gun on display at the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum
Seventy-one years after her sinking, Moa‘s name plate was recovered by divers and is being restored for eventual display at the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum in Auckland, New Zealand.[4] The Torpedo Bay Naval Museum already has on display the main deck gun recovered from the wreck of the I-1.
She was commissioned in 1941 for minesweeping and anti-submarine roles. Tui was the first of two ships with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and was named after a native bird from New Zealand. In March 1942 in Scotland, Tui and the four Isles-class trawlers, Killegray, Inchkeith, Sanda and Scarba had been newly built for New Zealand. They were formed into a flotilla and departed from the River Clyde with a convoy bound for Canada. The trawler flotilla then left for Auckland, arriving there in August.
In Auckland, Tui was assigned to the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla and sailed for Suva to replace Matai. In December she joined her sister ships Kiwi and Moa at Nouméa. The 25th Minesweeping Flotilla had been offered to COMSOPAC, and by early December Tui, Moa, and Kiwi with Matai as flotilla leader, were all together at Nouméa ready to move north. They sailed for the Solomons, escorting a convoy some of the way. Making Tulagi their base they began anti-submarine screen patrols on 19 December 1942 off Tulagi and Lunga Point, Guadalcanal.
Landing barges On 21 January 1943, Tui and Moa came across four Japanese landing barges stopped close inshore. When Tui and Moa closed in, those aboard the barges opened fire with machine guns and small arms, and got under way. At close range Moa fired on the leading barge, but a fluke shot passed through the 4-inch (102 mm) gun aperture, ignited a cordite charge and injured all seven in the gun crew. Moa managed to silence the first barge and sink the last in line with 20 mm (0.79 in) gunfire, then withdrew and attended to the cordite fire and injuries. Tui then opened fire on the barges, sinking one with her 4-inch gun, and the remaining two escaped inshore in the darkness.[1]
Submarine I-17 On 19 August 1943, while escorting a convoy from Nouméa, Tui picked up a submarine contact. She made an initial run over it without using depth charges, a second run dropping two depth charges, and a third run throwing another two depth charges. Contact was lost and Tui signaled some US seaplanes who joined the search. A plane indicated that Tui should investigate smoke on the horizon. The submarine was sighted on the surface and Tui opened fire at maximum range, scoring one and possibly two hits. Aircraft then dropped depth charges and the submarine sank at 23°26′S 166°50′E. She was the Japanese submarine I-17, 2,190 tons, 108 metres (354 ft) long, built in 1939. Ninety-seven crewmen were lost. Tui picked up six survivors who said that Tui’s depth charge attacks had damaged the submarine and forced it to the surface.
The commanding officer and anti-submarine control officer on Tui had doubted whether the contact was really a submarine, so the depth-charge attacks were not properly carried out. A later Naval Board report concluded that “had the proper procedure been followed and a full depth-charge pattern fired in the original attack, there is little doubt but that the submarine would have been destroyed then and there.”[2]
I-17 was the first Axis ship to shell the United States mainland when she shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara on 23 February 1942.[3]
Other service COMSOPAC released the New Zealand ships in June 1945, and Tui departed the Solomons escorting a group of six RNZN Fairmiles. On her return to Auckland, Tui worked with Kiwi and the 7th Trawler Group on the final clearing of the German minefield in the outer Hauraki Gulf.
Post-war service Tui was put in reserve in June 1946.
Training In 1952 the Navy wanted to free some Loch-class frigates for service in the Korean War. Tui was recommissioned in February 1952 to take over training duties previously undertaken by the frigate Kaniere. This training was carried out for the Naval Volunteer Reserve and included training for compulsory reservists as well as volunteer reservists and sea cadets.
She was also used part-time by the DSIR and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).
HMNZS Tui
Oceanographic research In October 1955 Tui was docked for conversion to an oceanographic research ship. On 5 March 1956, the now disarmed Tui was recommissioned and reclassified as a fleet auxiliary. She made many scientific cruises for the DSIR and NRL to places around New Zealand and Pacific islands. She investigated shipwrecks, notably MV Holmglen off Timaru in 1959 and MV Kaitawa off Cape Reinga in 1966.
Fate Tui was decommissioned for the last time on 22 December 1967. She was stripped of her equipment and sold in December 1969 to Pacific Scrap Ltd who demolished her. She was replaced in 1970 by a purpose-built oceanographic ship with the same name.
