Skip to content

John

HMNZS Moa : (T234/P33)

  • by
HMNZS Moa
HMNZS Moa alongside wharf at Leith

HMNZS Moa (T233) was a Bird-class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) that served during World War II.

Construction and design[edit]

The first of three Bird-class minesweepers, 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]

Operational history[edit]

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]

Postscript[edit]

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.

HMNZS Tui (HMNZS Tui (T234) was a Bird-class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

  • by

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.

HMNZS Kiwi (T102/P102) was a Bird class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy.

  • by
HMNZS Kiwi


She was commissioned in 1941 for minesweeping and anti-submarine roles. From 1948 to 1956 she functioned as a training ship.

Damage to the bow of HMNZS Kiwi caused by ramming the Japanese submarine I-1

On 29 January 1943, with her sister ship Moa, Kiwi rammed and wrecked[1] the Japanese submarine I-1. At the time Kiwi was under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gordon Bridson who was awarded the DSC and the United States Navy Cross[2] for this action.

HMNZS Kiwi

Kiwi was the first vessel with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and is named after the national bird of New Zealand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Kiwi_(T102)

HMNZS Endeavour A(11)

  • by

HMNZS Endeavour (A11) was a fleet oiler for the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was named after James Cook’s Bark Endeavour and 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.

June 2009, NAVY, HMNZS ENDEAVOUR, HMNZS Endavour RAS with a Royal Navy logistic support vessel, Wave Ruler and the HMAS SUCCESS during Exercise BERSAMA SHIELD
HMNZS Endeavour (A11) at Chowder Bay, Sydney.
Ships from left to right HMNZS CANTERBURY, HMNZS ENDEAVOUR, HMAS ARUNTA, HMAS ANZAC, HMNZS TE KAHA, HMNZS HAWEA, and HMNZS TAUPO.
HMNZS Endeavour departs Wellington Harbour. Possibly HMNZS Rotoiti entering harbour
HMNZS Endeavour refuels HMNZS Te Kaha and ROKS Choi Young.
HMNZS Endeavour at anchor in Jervis Bay, New South Wales, during Exercise Ocean Protector.
HMNZS Endeavour visits Wellington

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, and decommissioned on 15 December 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Endeavour_(A11)

HMNZS Endeavour (A184)

  • by


USS Namakagon (AOG-53) was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker built for the United States Navy during World War II. 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 (A184) 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.

Service history
United States Navy career
Namakagon was laid down on 1 August 1944 by Cargill, Inc., Savage, Minnesota and was launched on 4 November 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Alfred J. Scobba. The ship was commissioned on 18 June 1945.

The gasoline tanker Namakagon completed her U.S. Gulf Coast shakedown and, having filled her tanks at Baytown, Texas, departed for the Pacific Ocean, 19 July 1945. She arrived at Pearl Harbor as hostilities in the Pacific ceased and on 20 August continued on to Midway Island. Based at Pearl Harbor, she carried fuel to various islands of the Pacific, including Johnston Island, Canton Island, Marcus Island, Truk, Guam, Saipan, Okinawa, Peleliu, and Kyūshū, for over 18 months, then returned to the U.S. West Coast.

In early June, 1947, she completed overhaul at San Pedro, California, and on the 9th steamed north to her new homeport, Kodiak, Alaska. From there and from ports in Washington, she carried passengers and mixed cargo as she operated a gasoline provisioning shuttle to naval bases and stations on the coast and in the Aleutians. Detached from Kodiak in 1953, she returned to Pearl Harbor, whence she operated until June 1957. She then sailed to Mare Island, California, where she decommissioned on 20 September 1957, and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Royal New Zealand Navy career
On 27 June 1962, custody of Namakagon was transferred to the Commandant, 12th Naval District for activation, following which she was transferred, under the Military Aid Program, to the Royal New Zealand Navy, on 5 October 1962. Commissioned as HMNZS Endeavour (A184), an Antarctic supply ship, she delivered fuel to research bases on the seventh continent, bringing over 1 million gallons each year to McMurdo Sound alone, since 1963.

HMNZS Endeavour ll – US Icebreaker Edisto
Taken in 1963 an unbroken white expanse of the frozen sea. In the far distance through the crystal-clear air, there is the volcanic outline of Mt Discovery, and the snow-capped peaks of the Transantarctic Mountains. The New Zealand ship Endeavour II, a fleet oiler, is being towed into frozen McMurdo Sound behind the powerful US Icebreaker Edisto. An earlier ship, Endeavour I, was the supply ship that carried people and materials to build Scott Base in 1956, in support of New Zealand’s contribution to the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.”
HMNZS Endeavour in
Lyttleton

Endeavour was decommissioned and returned to U.S. custody in 1971.

Republic of China Navy career
The former Namakagon was leased to the Republic of China Navy in 1971 and renamed ROCS Lung Chuan (AOG-515).[1] Her pennant number was later changed to AOG-507. Although Lung Chuan remained in the custody of the Republic of China Navy, the vessel was returned to the U.S. on paper in 1976, struck from the American Naval Vessel Register on 15 April, and sold back to the Republic of China. Lung Chuan was decommissioned on 1 April 2005 at Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her final disposition is unknown.

Military awards and honors
Namakagon’s crew was eligible for the following medals:

American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal
Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia Clasp)
National Defense Service Medal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Namakagon