New Zealand Division of the Royal NavyHMS Dunedin and HMS Diomede in Wellington, 1928HMS Dunedin – http://www.hmsdunedin.co.uk/new_zealand.htmHMS Diomede – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Diomede_(D92)http://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1929-I.2.3.2.5&e=——-10–1——0–
She was launched from the yards of Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19 November 1918 and commissioned on 13 September 1919. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Dunedin (named after the capital of Scotland, generally Anglicised as Edinburgh).
In early 1940 Dunedin was operating in the Caribbean Sea, and there she intercepted the German merchant ship Heidelberg west of the Windward Passage. Heidelberg‘s crew scuttled the ship before Dunedin could take her. A few days later, Dunedin, in company with the Canadian destroyer Assiniboine, intercepted and captured the German merchant ship Hannover near Jamaica. Hannover later became the first British escort carrier, Audacity. Between July and November, Dunedin, together with the cruiser Trinidad, maintained a blockade off Martinique, in part to bottle up three French warships, including the aircraft carrier Béarn.
On 15 June 1941, Dunedin captured the German tanker Lothringen and gathered some highly classified Enigmacipher machines that she carried. The Royal Navy reused Lothringen as the fleet oiler Empire Salvage. Dunedin went on to capture three Vichy French vessels, Ville de Rouen off Natal, the merchant ship Ville de Tamatave east of the Saint Paul’s Rocks, and finally, D’Entrecasteaux.
Dunedin was part of the escort of Convoy WS 5A when it was attacked by the German heavy cruiserAdmiral Hipper.on 25 December 1940. The attack was repulsed by other ships of the escort, without losses to the convoy.[1]
Dunedin was still steaming in the Central Atlantic Ocean, just east of the St. Paul’s Rocks, north east of Recife, Brazil, when on 24 November 1941, at 1526 hours, two torpedoes from the German submarine U-124 sank her. Only four officers and 63 men survived out of Dunedin‘s crew of 486 officers and men.
HMS CHATHAM 1923 Lord Jellicoe’s inspection of Navy Personnel 1923. After the war, Chatham was lent to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy from 1920 to 1924.
Capturefile: D:\glass neg raws\Allen C. Green
Design and description
The Chatham sub-class were slightly larger and improved versions of the preceding Weymouth sub-class.[1] They were 457 feet (139.3 m) long overall, with a beam of 49 feet (14.9 m) and a draught of 16 feet (4.9 m). Displacement was 5,400 long tons (5,500 t) normal[2] and 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) at full load. Twelve Yarrow boilers fed Chatham‘s Parsonssteam turbines,[1] driving four propeller shafts, that were rated at 25,000 shaft horsepower (19,000 kW) for a design speed of 25.5 knots (47.2 km/h; 29.3 mph). The ship reached 26.1 knots (48.3 km/h; 30.0 mph) during her sea trials from 26,247 shp (19,572 kW).[3] The boilers used both fuel oil and coal, with 1,200 long tons (1,219 t) of coal and 260 long tons (264 t) tons of oil carried, which gave a range of 4,460 nautical miles (8,260 km; 5,130 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[2]
Chatham remained part of the Mediterranean Fleet at the outbreak of the First World War, and was initially employed in the search for the German battlecruiser Goeben and cruiser Breslau, searching the Straits of Messina on 3 August.[6] After the two German ships avoided the British forces and reached Turkey, Chatham was detached for operations in the Red Sea on 13 August 1914.[7]
On 20 September that year, the German light cruiserKönigsberg sank the old British cruiser Pegasus in Zanzibar harbour. In response, Chatham was ordered to East Africa to join up with sister ships Weymouth and Dartmouth and take part in the hunt for Königsberg, with Chatham‘s Captain, Sidney R. Drury-Lowe commanding the operation. Chatham arrived at Zanzibar on 28 September, but her participation in the search was delayed when she ran aground off that port on 1 October. While Chatham was only lightly damaged, she was under repair at Mombasa from 3 October to 15 October[8]
Präsident
On 19 October Chatham‘s boats found the German steamer Präsident 3.5 miles (5.6 km) upriver from the coastal town of Lindi, German East Africa (now Tanzania). While the Germans claimed that Präsident was a hospital ship, the British found no medical equipment on board and had not been notified of the German ship’s status and found documents aboard Präsident indicating that she had acted as a supply ship for Königsberg. The German ship was claimed as a Prize of war, but as Präsident‘s engines were broken down, Chatham permanently disabled Präsident‘s machinery before continuing the search for Königsberg.[9][10]
Somali after being burnt out by shellfire from Chatham.
On 30 October Chatham found Königsberg and the supply ship Somali up the Rufiji River, but owing to the shallowness of the river delta, could not closely approach the two German ships.[11] On 7 November Chatham hit Somali with a shell, causing a fire that destroyed the supply ship, while on 10 November the British scuttled the collierNewbridge in the main channel of the Delta, blocking Königsberg from escaping to sea.[12]Chatham left East African waters on 2 January 1915 for the Mediterranean.[13]
In 1916 she returned to home waters and joined the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. On 26 May 1916, Chatham struck a mine off the Norfolk coast and had to be towed to Chatham for repairs. The ship was placed in reserve in 1918. After the war, Chatham was lent to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy from 1920 to 1924,[5][17] She proceeded via the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortresscolony of Bermuda (home base of the 8th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station), before cruising to the West Indies and becoming the first Royal Naval vessel from Bermuda to pass through the Panama Canal in December, 1920 (the geographic limits of the station controlled from Bermuda had grown over the preceding century from the western North Atlantic to absorb the area of the Jamaica Station, and following the first World War would absorb the former areas of the South East Coast of America Station and, utilising the canal, the Pacific Station, demonstrating the amity and the convergence of national interests between the United Kingdom and the United States).[18] During late June 1921, she carried out a search for the missing steamer SS Canastota.[19]
In 1922, the crew of Chatham donated a cup to the New Zealand Football Association. This became the Chatham Cup, New Zealand’s local equivalent of the FA Cup, and its premier knockout football trophy
In 1914, she was loaned to New Zealand for service with what would later become the Royal New Zealand Navy. During the early stages of the First World War she performed convoy escort duties and then carried out operations in the Mediterranean against the Turks. She later conducted patrols in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
HMS Philomel berthing at the Ferry Wharf in Wellington 1917
Philomel was launched on 28 August 1890, and completed the following March.[1] After completing sea trials, she was commissioned in the Royal Navy on 10 November 1891. Commanded by Captain Charles Campbell, she was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Station although fitting work and working up trials meant that Philomel did not arrive in South Africa until June 1892.[3]
For six years, Philomel served on station, intercepting slave traders along the coast of Africa. In 1896, she participated in the Anglo-Zanzibar War, during which rebels murdered the Sultan of Zanzibar and seized his palace. Along with the three gunboats and HMS St George, she bombarded the palace fortress and the only ship of the Zanzibar Navy, HHS Glasgow. This action lasted less than an hour and resulted in the routing of the rebels.[3] The following year, Philomel was transferred to the West Africa component of the Cape of Good Hope Station and participated in the Benin Expedition.[4]
A refit was completed in 1898 after which Philomel returned to Cape of Good Hope Station. She served throughout the Second Boer War. Some of her complement of 220 men served in the field with the Naval Brigade. Two of her 4.7-inch guns were disembarked and used in the Battle of Colenso. After the war, she returned to Devonport and was paid off on 22 March 1902.[4][5] She was laid up in the Firth of Forth for several years before a refit was carried out in 1907 at Haulbowline Dock in Ireland. During her tow to Ireland she went adrift for a night in the North Sea when the rope to the towing vessel, HMS Hampshire, broke.[1]
Philomel was recommissioned in February 1908 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Captain John Seagrave. She provided assistance in the wake of the earthquake at Messina in Sicily. The following year she served with the East Indies Station, running patrols from Aden in the Persian Gulf for two years and served in operations off Somaliland, 1908–1910.[6]
Transfer to New Zealand
In 1913 the Admiralty agreed to lend Philomel to New Zealand as a seagoing training cruiser to form the nucleus of the newly established New Zealand Naval Forces, which was a new division of the Royal Navy. This was in response to the desire of the New Zealand Minister of Defence at the time, James Allen, who wanted to establish a local naval force which would co-operate with the fledgling Royal Australian Navy.[7]
Philomel was recommissioned in October 1913 in Singapore and later sailed for New Zealand to join HMAS Psyche and HMAS Pyramus, both Pelorus-class cruisers serving in New Zealand waters. Philomel was commissioned for New Zealand service on 15 July 1914, under the command of Captain Percival Hall-Thompson. Although mainly crewed by Englishmen, she was the country’s first warship.[1]
Captain P. Hall-Thompson, who commanded HMS Philomel for most of the First World War
Philomel was on a short shakedown voyage to Picton on 30 July 1914, prior to taking on its first complement of New Zealand cadets, when it was recalled to Wellington Harbour in anticipation of the outbreak of war. Largely crewed by personnel from the Royal Navy, volunteers were brought on board to bring the ship up to full strength and after stocking up with supplies, she departed for Auckland to await further instructions.[8] On 15 August 1914 she formed part of the ocean escort for the New Zealand forces that were dispatched to occupyGerman Samoa (now Samoa). The escort would have been unlikely to offer much resistance to the German cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau that were known to be in the area. Fortunately, the convoy did not encounter the German ships. Philomel then steamed for the Kingdom of Tonga to deliver news of the hostilities with Imperial Germany before returning to New Zealand.[9]
By now the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, formed for service overseas, were ready to embark from Wellington on a convoy for the Middle East. Philomel escorted the convoy as far as Western Australia. Then, along with Pyramus, she sailed northeastwards for Singapore in search of the German cruiser SMS Emden, which was then carrying out raids in the Indian Ocean. The two ships, which would have been outgunned by the more modern Emden, had reached Christmas Island when they received news of Emden‘s sinking by HMAS Sydney. They arrived in Singapore on 12 November from where Philomel continued onto Port Said, escorting three French troopships.[10]
From late 1914, Philomel, needing maintenance and an update of equipment, was berthed at Malta and underwent an overhaul. This was completed by late January 1915 and she then started operations in the Mediterranean against the Turks.[11] On 8 February she landed an armed party in Southern Turkey where a large force of Turkish soldiers were encountered, resulting in three seamen being killed and three wounded. This action marked the first deaths in the war of New Zealanders serving with a New Zealand formation.[12]
Subsequently, Philomel was deployed in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf for much of the remainder of the year. In December 1915 she sailed to Bombay for maintenance work but was back in the Persian Gulf in January 1916,[13] continuing her patrolling. By the end of the year, her engines were giving trouble and her stern glands were worn out. A lengthy and costly refit was required and rather than incur this cost for a ship which was nearly at the end of her operational life, the Admiralty decided to give her to New Zealand and dispatched her home to be paid off. She duly arrived in Wellington Harbour in March 1917. A large portion of her Royal Navy crew were returned to England to be assigned to other berths.[14] Armament removed, Philomel was recommissioned as a depot ship in Wellington, supporting minesweeping operations until May 1919.[1]
Slaves rescued by HMS ‘Philomel’, April 1893, Many of the children received by the Universities Mission.
In March 1921, on the creation of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, Philomel was recommissioned as a training base. She steamed from her berth at Wellington to the dockyard at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. Moored alongside the training jetty, she was operated as a training facility for new recruits to the naval service, under the command of a series of officers from the Royal Navy including, for nearly six months in 1923, CommanderAugustus AgarVC.[15] Training armament was installed and in 1925, her boilers and engines were removed to create more accommodation space. Further accommodation, in the form of wooden cabins, was later constructed on her deck. In October 1941, on the creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Philomel was recommissioned as the training base HMNZS Philomel.
HMNZS Q1186, HMNZS Paea Ex Q1184, HMNZS Tarapunga Ex Q1187 alongside HMS Philomel – the original Philomel and HMNZS Inchkeith on opposite side of jetty
Philomel was paid off and decommissioned on 17 January 1947 and her name transferred to the Devonport Naval Shore Establishment. On the day of her decommissioning, the New Zealand Naval Board sent a signal to Philomel which stated:
“…their regret at the passing from the service of the first of His Majesty’s New Zealand Ships, a ship that has meant so much to all who served in her. She goes as many good ships have gone before her, but when HMNZS Philomel’s colours are hauled down at sunset this evening, the tradition which she has established during her long career will live on in the depot to which she has given her name.”[16]
The hulk of Philomel was sold to Strongman Shipping Company, based in Coromandel. She was towed and deliberately ran aground in Coromandel harbour, near the wharf. After her fittings and parts were removed, she was towed out to sea and sunk in 100 fathoms near Cuvier Island on 6 August 1949, when sunk she was just 22 days shy of 59 years afloat. Much of the teak timber and some fittings went into a newly built coaster named Coromel, an amalgamation of Coromandel and Philomel.[1] Her crest is mounted to the gate of the Devonport Naval Base and her builders plate is on display in the William Sanders building which serves as the administrative Head Quarters of the shore establishment.[16] Additionally her mast has been used as a flag pole at HMNZS Tamaki and is now situated infront of the parade ground on the Jim Tichener Parade side of the base.
It was the precursor to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally, the Royal Navy was solely responsible for the naval security of New Zealand. The passing of the Naval Defence Act 1913 created the New Zealand Naval Forces as a separate division within the Royal Navy.
Admiralty House, Auckland, used from 1902 to 1903 when it became the Glenalvon Hotel: it was demolished in 1915
At its establishment in 1848, the Australia Station encompassed Australia and New Zealand.[1] Under the Australasian Naval Agreement 1887 the colonial governments of Australia and New Zealand secured a greater naval presence in their waters, agreed that two ships would always be based in New Zealand waters and agreed contributions to funding that presence.[2]
In 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia became independent of the United Kingdom. The Australian Squadron was disbanded in 1911 and the Australia Station passed to the Commonwealth Naval Forces. The Australia Station was reduced to cover Australia and its island dependencies to the north and east, excluding New Zealand and its surrounds, which was transferred under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, China and called the New Zealand Naval Forces.[3]
On 1 January 1921, the New Zealand Naval Forces, which had formerly been under the command of the China Station, were renamed the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.[4] Funded by Wellington and increasingly manned by New Zealanders, it operated 14 ships over a period of 21 years, including the cruisers HMS Achilles and HMS Leander, the training minesweeper HMS Wakakura, and the cruiser HMS Philomel which was recommissioned as a base training establishment.[5]
The Commodore’s appointment was abolished and forces brought directly under the New Zealand Chief of the Naval Staff from October 1940.[6] The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1 October 1941, in recognition of the fact that the naval force was now largely self-sufficient and independent of the Royal Navy
Mine sweeper – Hananui II. She entered service very late in feb 1919
This was owned by Messers Jagger and Hardy of Auckland and a Charter Agreement, similar to those for the other two vessels (Simplon and Janie Seddon) was drawn up.
Unlike the other vessels, there were no naval personnel on board for sweeping operations, probably because of a lack of suitable personnel in Philomel.
Hananui II began operations in the latter part of February 1919.
Having swept the field without finding any mines it returned to Auckland at the end of April, landing the minesweeping equipment at Devonport and was returned to its owners.”
