RFA Nucula
HMS Philomel at the Training Jetty and RFA Nucla (oiler) alongside. Unknown in dock.Devonport Naval Base, Auckland Possibly 1933
The NZ Division, of the Royal Navy. – RFA Nucula, 17 April 1937 at Auckland, New Zealand while going alongside HMAS SYDNEY to refuel her she was caught heavily by a rip tide and hit the cruiser causing damage to HMAS SYDNEY’s port side propeller and forcing her into the wharf causing further damage to her quaterdeck. Nucula was not damaged.1
RFA NUCULA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship) is pictured leaving Sydney on 17 January 1931. This photograph was taken by Frederick Wilkinson while travelling on a ferry between Bradley’s Head and Rose Bay.
RFA Nucula, a tanker was built as the s.s. Hermione and completed in Newcastle by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co in September 1906 for C T Bowring & Co Ltd of London. She was completed as coal burning but converted in October 1907 to oil-fired. By April 1908 she was sold to the Japanese company Toyo Kisen Kaisha and her name was changed to Soyo Maru when Bowring had a new tanker named Hermione completed. She carried oil from California to Japan.
In 1915, she was passed back to British service and the Admiralty gave her the name RN Oiler No.73 and she served as a fleet tanker in European waters. In 1917 she was bought by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum (now known as Shell Oil) who changed her name to Nucula as it was their practice to name their ships after seashells. She remained in commercial service until 1922 when she became a Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the civilian crew were replaced by RFA personnel. RFA Nucula was posted to the China Station as a Fleet Attendant Oiler based at Hong Kong. From September to November 1923 she was based at Nagasaki to act as a base oiler during the earthquake relief operations.
With the change from coal powered to oil-fired warships the New Zealand Division (hereafter NZDiv) of the Royal Navy required replenishment support for its new cruisers HMS Diomede and Dunedin. With the imminent arrival of HMS Dunedin on station in 1924 the New Zealand Government negotiated for an oiler to enable navy controlled supplies of fuel oil. On 27 May 1924 RFA Nucula was transferred to NZDiv control as a Fleet Attendant oiler and hired by the New Zealand government. The formal handover took place at Suva where she had stopped on a voyage from Singapore to Auckland. RFA Nucula arrived at Auckland on 5 June 1924. Due to her design, she could not undertake replenishments at sea or underway oiling. She would act as a supply ship for the sloops HMS Wellington and Leith along with the two cruisers. When they would depart on the island cruises, a feature of the interwar period in the South Pacific, Nucula would refuel the vessels in sheltered ports and anchorages.
Her designated task was to maintain supplies of fuel oil at the naval base at Devonport, Auckland. To do so, she undertook two to three seven-week voyages to California a year to load supplies of fuel. In 1934 three voyages were made to Abadan in the Persian Gulf. Some oil was also supplied to the Royal Australian Navy base at Sydney. In June 1934 during one of the voyages back to New Zealand she nearly sank in huge seas off the south-eastern coast of Australia during a cyclone. She suffered damage to the superstructure that needed extensive repairs upon reaching Auckland.
