John
HMNZS Q1189 – Laid up 1945. Left RNZN 1946. Became Sea Scout vessel Alert in Dunedin . Known to be in Milford Sound 1980 on deer recovery. Now located at a marine yard in Kopu, Thames
Q1187 – Q1190 via SS Kootenay Park arrived Wellington 30 April 1943
125th Motor Launch Flotilla
Based: Wellington from May 1943 – disbanded September 1945
HDMLs 1187 transferred from 124th ML Flotilla 1 November
1188
1189
1190
1191 transferred from 124th Flotilla 22 May 1944
1349 recommissioned November 1944 to replace other HDMLs
Patrol Area: Approaches to Wellington Harbour and Cook Strait.
Everett Marine Ways Inc. Everett, Washington.
(Contract Number: D.A.N.O.B. 586)
This Company also built four craft. They were Q1187, Q1188, Q1189, Q1190. They were shipped to Wellington, N.Z. from Vancouver as deck cargo on the ship Kootenay Park arriving Wellington on the 30th April 1943.
Q1187 was commissioned on the 13th May 1943.
Q1188 was commissioned on the 22 May 1943.
Q1189 was commissioned on the 25th May 1943
Q1190 was commissioned on the 28th May 1943
Sixteen Harbour Defence Motor Launches (HDMLs) purchased in the United States were commissioned between March 1943 and March 1944. The launches were 72 feet (22 m) long, displaced 54 tons, and had a complement of 10. Twin Diesels generated 270 hp (200 kW) on each of two shafts for a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h). They were armed with one 20mm Oerlikon, three Vickers GO machine guns and six depth charges.
They operated as the 124th and 125th Motor Launch Flotillas, based on Auckland and Wellington respectively. They maintained anti-submarine patrols inside indicator loops. Though they were not tested by enemy action, the anti-submarine fixed defences at Wellington and Auckland attained a high degree of efficiency.[13]
After the war, twelve were retained, three were sold and one was transferred to the Army. The remaining boats were refitted and re-engined with Foden diesels. These were subsequently used as fishery protection, survey and reserve training boats. All remaining boats were named and given new pendant numbers in 1950.
WII HDML Alert – with modified superstructure — at Waitemata Harbour
AUCKLAND STEAM FERRIES WITH HDML ALERT -waitematawoodys.com
ALERT LYTTLETON 2017 -waitematawoodys.com
ALERT 2018 WAITEMATA waitematawoodys.com
Wellington Harbour Q1189 with Q1188 top
Wellington Harbour
Mor information here including her time at Kopu – https://classicyacht.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Issue-127.pdf
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HMNZS Hawea (P3571), Otago Harbour
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NZGSS Hinemoa was a 542-ton New Zealand Government Service Steamer designed specifically for lighthouse support and servicing, and also for patrolling New Zealand’s coastline and carrying out castaway checks and searching for missing ships. It operated in New Zealand’s territorial waters from 1876 to 1944.
CGS Hinemoa at Port Chalmers
It was instrumental in supplying many of the government castaway depots on the remote subantarctic islands, and rescuing a number of shipwreck victims, including those from the wreck of the Dundonald, the Anjou and the Spirit of the Dawn.
New Zealand Government ship `Hinemoa’ 1894.
The ‘Hinemoa’ in drydock – 1880s
This Hinemoa (1876-1944) was a Government Steam ship of 542 tons, built by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co, Greenock in 1876, for the NZ Government’s lighthouse service and Islands patrol.
She originally had three masts, but the mainmast was removed c1880-1889.
In Dec 1900 – Jan 1901, she was used for a cruise to NZ’s sub-Antarctic islands by the Governor-General, Lord Ranfurly.
Used as a Government survey ship for the Sub-Antarctic Scientific Expedition to Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands in 1907 during which the crew rescued the survivors of the Dundonald.
She was sold to a Southland company in 1925 for pleasure cruises to Milford Sound.
Purchased in 1942 by RNZN and converted into a sullage (waste oil) barge for use by American ships under repair at Wellington.
Dismantled in 1944 and sunk in Pegasus Bay, 60 miles NEof Lyttelton.
History
Captain John Fairchild used the steamer to survey the Bounty Islands and Antipodes Islands in 1886,[1] and the Herekino Harbour and the Whangape Harbour entrance in 1889.[2] In 1891, while under the command of Captain Fairchild, the Hinemoa searched New Zealand’s subantarctic and outlying islands for traces of the missing ships Kakanui and Assaye. While no trace was found of the former, the Assaye was suspected foundered off The Snares.[3]
The Hinemoa provided assistance to the Sub-Antarctic Islands scientific expedition of 1907, a substantial scientific expedition sponsored by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, where important observations on the natural history of the islands were made. They were published as a two-volume work in 1909, edited by professor Charles Chilton.[4]
Captain John Bollons was a notable master of the steamer from 1898; Bollons Island in the Antipodes Islands is named after him. Another to serve aboard the Hinemoa was William Edward Sanders, who won a Victoria Cross during World War I.[5]
It had a sister ship, the GSS Stella, which carried out similar duties over the same time period.[6] After its decommissioning in 1944, it was rejected for scrapping due to an oversupply at the time.[7]
Painting by Frank Barnes of the New Zealand Government Service Steamer (NZGSS) ‘Hinemoa’ off the Kaikoura Mountains (Oil painting, particle board, Dimensions Frame 582 (Height) x 889 (Length) x 40 (Width/Depth) mm; Sight 440 (Height) x 746 (Length) mm; 1911).
A 1919 photo album from the ship was found in a Danish antique shop and brought to Canterbury Museum in 2023. It is unknown how or when the album came to Denmark.
