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HMNZS Fairmile Q400 later“Dolphin / Sayandra”

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An original black and white photograph of Fairmile Q400 in Rangitoto Channel, leaving the harbour, flying signal flags, crew fallen in on deck. On reverse “Auckland 1943” “65”
An original black and white photograph of Fairmile Q400 after disposal from the Royal New Zealand Navy, at Queen’s Wharf, Wellington. Starboard side view of a small warship alongside a wharf. Q400 is painted on the bow. Side of ship in left foreground with buildings and cranes in the background. There is a buoy in front of the ship. On the reverse are the notes “85%” “Q400”. Wellington, 1946?
An original black and white photograph of Fairmile Q400 in Calliope Basin. Port side view of 9 warships alongside in 3 groups. Other ships (left to right) HMNZS KIWI, HMNZS PHYLLIS, Q02 (MARISTELLA) with Q07 (TE RAUPARAHA) coming alongside T32 (WAIPU). Another castle class vessel, patrol launch and FAIRMILE (Q405?). On reverse “58” and list of ships as in Brief Summary
HMNZS Fairmile Q400
Q400 – later“Dolphin / Sayandra”– Burned and sunk, Gt Barrier Is. 1980.

Fate – Q400 of the Royal New Zealand Navy –Renamed Dolphin and later Sayandra, wooden motor launch
After catching fire when off Green Island, on the west coast of Great Barrier Island on 9 March 1980, the Sayandra was badly damaged before the fire was put out by the crew of a passing yacht. Two launches then towed the Sayandra to Rarohara Bay, Port Fitzroy, and beached her near Quoin Island, where she sank next day. She became at total loss, subjected to vandalism and pilfering. In 1982, the Marine Division, Ministry of Transport, Auckland, took steps to have the partly submerged vessel removed.
Built at Auckland in 1942, the Sayandra was 34m long, 5.5m beam and powered by twin-screw diesel engines. Owned by Mr B.Pirret of Auckland.
The Sayandra was originally the Fairmile anti-submarine patrol launch Q400 of the Royal New Zealand Navy and had been severely damaged twice before, by fire and stranding in the Solomon Islands in 1944, and in February 1947 when struck by the bow of the Picton ferry Tamahine at Queen’s Wharf, Wellington.
Source: “New Zealand Shipwrecks 200 Years of Disasters at Sea” by Lynton Diggle, Edith Diggle and Keith Gordon. 2007.

News item –

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USN LCVP Landing Craft

A U.S. Navy LCVP Landing Craft

(COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR)

The Manavex Incident

At the height of the Pacific war, a joint U.S.-New Zealand amphibious exercise turned tragic in the face of rain, wind, and heavy swells.

By Murray Dear

August 2023

Naval History Magazine

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On 19 June 1943, the U.S. Navy transports Hunter Liggett (APA-14), American Legion (APA-17), Crescent City (APA-21), and George Clymer (APA-27), comprising Transport Division 8, sailed from Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, for an amphibious exercise at Paekakariki, on the west coast north of Cook Strait. The Royal New Zealand Navy antisubmarine escort (and control craft) for this  exercise, codenamed “Manavex,” was made up of the auxiliary minesweeper HMNZS Rata, a converted coastal steamer, and the Fairmile motor launches ML400 and ML403. While the submarine risk was considered low, it is now known that three Japanese boats had previously passed through Cook Strait, the last being I-10 in mid February 1943.1 

The landing force comprised elements of the 2nd Marine Division, then based at Mackays Crossing (now Queen Elizabeth Park) between Paekakariki and Paraparaumu. The objectives were to give experience in boat work and shore landing without any subsequent tasks ashore. Following the Division’s movement from Guadalcanal to New Zealand, it was deemed that the Marines needed to refresh their amphibious warfare skills. Once initial proficiency was obtained, full-scale opposed landings involving the live firing of machine guns and field artillery were planned to follow. Air support for the landings on 20 June was to be provided by four squadrons of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, with P-40 Kittyhawk fighters, Vickers Vincent light bombers, T-6 Harvard trainers, and Hawker Hind army cooperation aircraft.2 

Everything went wrong with the exercise right from the start. The weather on 20 June was miserable, with cold rain and gale-force winds. There was a heavy swell, and the sea temperature was only 40degrees. The beach party from the American Legion was first away in LCVP (landing craft, vehicle, personnel) PA17-6, but this grounded 100 feet from shore. The beach at Paekakariki deepens gradually, and the tide was going out. When the beach party finally made it ashore, they “were cold, numb, wet and in a very foul mood.”3 Things only got worse as another 34 LCVPs ended up on the beach with propellers stuck in the sand. These 34 LCVPS eventually were returned to the water with the assistance of a local civilian contractor who provided bulldozers and other heavy equipment. 

The beach party was the last to leave on the incoming tide, but by then the motor on LCVP PA17-6 was dead. Another LCVP attempted to tow the stricken landing craft, but the 1-inch line kept snapping with the heavy load. It was another two hours before an LCM (landing craft mechanized) arrived with an 8-inch hawser and proceeded to tow LCVP PA17-6 stern first back to the American Legion through waves 8 to 10 feet high. About 200 feet from shore, the LCVP was hit by a large breaker and the landing craft took on water. Attempts were made to signal the LCM to slow down, but these were not received. Some five to seven minutes after the tow commenced, LCVP PA17-6 capsized when hit by another breaker at 2317. It wasn’t until the LCM came alongside the American Legion with the upside-down LCVP still in tow (which immediately sank) that it was realised what had happened. The exercise was immediately canceled with a general alarm sounded for all available boats to be launched to search for survivors. 

Chief Bosun’s Mate Mulcahy and Signalman Frank Zalot Jr. ended up in the water together, and as Zalot came up for a second time Mulcahy yelled, “Hang on, Zalot—we’ll make the beach.”4  All around them they could hear men screaming, “Help! Help! I can’t swim!”5 Mulcahy and Zalot struggled to get to shore, but the now-outgoing tide was too strong and they found themselves drifting out to sea. It wasn’t until midnight that Mulcahy and Zalot were rescued from the frigid water. Mulcahy was subsequently to be awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for saving Zalot’s life. Ten men were to drown that night: Ensign Herbert C. Winfrey, Boatswains Mate First Class Alva L. Skoog, Seamen First Class Howard J. Britton, Dale G. Cox, Joseph P. Lorbietski, William D. Roundtree, Kenneth G. Snow, Aiden P. Thatcher, Charles F. Vetter, and Walter J. Yanghis. The body of Seaman Thatcher was never recovered. On 8 May 2012, a memorial was unveiled at Queen Elizabeth Park to mark this tragedy. Among those who attended the ceremony was Frank Zalot Jr. 

A board of inquiry subsequently was formed on board the American Legion to investigate the incident. The board chairman pressured Zalot to place all the blame on the lieutenant (junior grade) who had been the officer in charge of the beach party. Zalot insisted that the lieutenant was not responsible. The inquiry’s findings concluded that no one person in particular was responsible for the disaster; rather, it had just been a series of events where everything went wrong. One positive outcome from the inquiry was that, in the future, all members of a beach party had to wear life jackets while in the LCVP. In hindsight, the responsibility for the tragedy lies with the unknown officer who authorized “Manavex” in such poor weather and sea conditions. 

After the exercise, U.S. Navy Captain G. B. Ashe wrote to the New Zealand Naval Board, “The Commander of Transport Division 8 reported that the new Zealand boats had performed in a most satisfactory manner—acted as control vessels for boat groups in several landing exercises, reacted correctly to changes in schedules, been prompt responding to signals and kept good positions on patrol—all indications of small, efficient, well-run and well-commanded ships.”6 

Subsequent amphibious exercises were to be conducted in Hawke Bay on the more sheltered east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. And what was the point of these exercises? Exactly five months after “Manavex,” the 2nd Marine Division stormed ashore on a small island in the Central Pacific called Tarawa. 

THE LIFE STORY OF MOTUNUI – (WAITANIC) – EX R.N.Z.N. WWII FAIRMILE Q406 –

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Some more information

Based on data & some images, from Daniel Michael’s input, on Facebook, with modifications & additions by Ken Ricketts. Other images ex Ken R. & Google – KEN R

Q406, is the last Fairmile (to D.M’s. knowledge) left in NZ.

She was used during WW2, as a N.Z. coastal patrol boat, & later used in the Solomons.

Once she and the other Fairmiles, returned back to Auckland, in 1945, they were decommissioned.

Q406 was offered as a tender, and purchased by Rodney Farry, who fitted 2 x Graymarine marinised, GM Detroit 6-71 diesel engines, and converted her into a passenger ship.

She operated around the Otago harbour, until she ran aground on a sandbar, causing Rodney to lose interest in the concept.

She was renamed New Venture in 1949, & sailed back to Auckland, under command of a temporary crew.

While sailing back, she struck a violent storm off the Castlecliff Coast, with the inexperienced sailors clinging near the coast.

In 1950, she was sold to Waiheke Shipping Co., & had her name changed to Motunui and was used as a passenger ferry, transporting people to & from Auckland to Waiheke, Great Barrier & Motuihi Islands.

When Waiheke shipping was sold to North Shore Ferries Ltd. Motunui would continue operating under them until 1984, when she was sold into private ownership.

Over the next 20 years she would switch ownership multiple times, one of these being to the late Ken Brown, an old friend of Ken R., who converted her to pleasure craft use, in the 1980s, & kept her at the bottom of his garden, on the water’s edge, in the Tamaki River, (Image attached).

There were plans in 1997 to have her brought to survey standards in time to be used as a sightseeing boat, for the America’s Cup.

This was abandoned, when relations between the joint owners, (& several suppliers) soured. Even though much work was done by then (including fitting an original wheelhouse taken from Fairmile Kahu).

She was sold again in 2001, and 2006, when she took one final voyage to Tauranga, so her machinery could be removed, along with her superstructure.

Her final owner was Barry Woods, who operated Woodlyn Park Motel, at Waitomo.

Motunui was hauled onto land, and converted into a motel, now advertised as the “Waitanic.”

As Q411, (Kahu), was scrapped last year, she seems to be the last Fairmile left in New Zealand, built during WWII., according to Daniel M. – KEN R

HMNZS Fairmile Q406 Later renamed RODNEY FARRY, NEW VENTURE and MOTONUI.

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HMNZS Fairmile Q406
HMNZS Fairmile Q406 at sea off Russell Island, Solomon’s 1944.
Fairmile Q406 awaiting disposal. Q406 was later renamed RODNEY FARRY, NEW VENTURE and MOTONUI. There are two groups of six men standing on the wharf, with one man in each group in naval uniform. A larger ship is partly visible moored around the corner. There are city buildings in the left background. Written in the lower right corner is “3442” in black pen. On the reverse is attached a typed museum caption. Below are two handwritten captions, one written by museum staff member Monica Tregurtha, the other by Jack Churchouse. Wellington, 9 Dec 1947
Q 406 as the RODNEY FARRY
This is the Waiheke ferry Motunui, 6 November 1956, in a NZ Herald image (1370-122-8, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries). One with a strange fate …
The vessel started out as ML406, a Fairmile B boat in service to the RNZN duiring WWII. “One of twelve identical boats built in Auckland (numbered ML 400-411), she had just been completed by Associated Boatbuilders using the world’s finest boatbuilding wood – native New Zealand kauri. Fitted with a pair of V12 Hall-Scott Defender petrol engines, the narrow 112 foot boat could achieve 20 knots (37km/h) flat out, and was fitted with guns fore and aft, twelve depth charges and an ASDIC sonar device. Crews consisted of sixteen sailors. The image of these craft patrolling in formation, v12’s at full stink, peaked caps visible on the exposed bridge, all weapons manned and Rangitoto Island in the background, is still a stirring one.”
ML406 was commissioned in 1943, and was outfitted in early 1944 for transfer to Pacific Island operations. Back in Auckland after the war, and with V12 engine removed, ML406 was auctioned off by the War Assets Realisation Board, and sold to Rodney Farry (and named after him) in October 1946, then renamed New Venture in 1949.
Motunui was her name from 1950, owned first by Waiheke Shipping Co, then North Shore Ferries, until 1984. There was a succession of owners, until the latest owner, one Barry Woods of Woodlyn Park down at Waitomo. There, with a 1950s Bristol Freighter, she serves as motel units, forever land bound.
Motunui ex ML406 that I referred to in post#38.This is how she looked as a Waiheke Island, (Auckland)ferry in 1960’s.She was later (1980’s)fitted with original Fairmile wheelhouse from Kahu
Q406 Motonui
MV Ngaroma (402)(foreground) & MV Motonui Q406(left background), Auckland 1980’s.
The World War II patrol boat was originally a Fairmile Ship built in 1942. It’s now the latest motel attraction. This boat is part of New Zealand’s history as 12 were built for anti-submarine patrol in the Islands during WWII and only a couple survived including this one: The Motunui, now renamed as The Waitanic.

Last Port of Call – The Strange Fate of Fairmile 406

November 3, 2014 / By SproutOnline Admin / Travel & Tourism

July 5th, 2006, Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand. The long slender hull of a World War II submarine chaser is hoisted by a pair of cranes and hangs, blackened by mildew and marine growth, raining putrid bilge water onto the dockside. Hours later, settled upon a monstrous steerable trailer, she was ready to begin the 150km (94 mile) two day journey inland to her final destination in Waitomo for conversion to a novelty motel unit. So ended the seagoing career of ML406, naval patrol boat and long-time Auckland ferry.

Design and Construction

At the outbreak of the second world war, the Royal New Zealand Navy relied entirely on requisitioned private motor boats for coastal patrol, harbour defence and minesweeping activities. However, these were mostly small, slow, inadequately armed, and of very limited threat to the enemy. To defend our ports from the perceived threat of Japanese submarine attacks it was considered vital that fast, purpose-built craft be commissioned, and after much consideration the British Fairmile B design was chosen. Among its advantages was its kitset construction, whereby frames and bulkheads could be prefabricated by furniture makers, or any other commercial woodworking firms, and shipped anywhere in the world to be completed by local boatbuilders. Once the frames were erected on the slipways, planking would be done using local timbers. This enabled the boats to be constructed quickly and easily, requiring fewer skilled labourers, as these were in short supply.

Fairmile B boats a different stages of construction.
Fairmile B boats a different stages of construction.

July 1943, Waitemata Harbour, Auckland. Sea trials completed, ML406 is commissioned into service in the RNZN. One of twelve identical boats built in Auckland (numbered ML 400-411), she had just been completed by Associated Boatbuilders using the world’s finest boatbuilding wood – native New Zealand kauri. Fitted with a pair of V12 Hall-Scott Defender petrol engines, the narrow 112 foot boat could achieve 20 knots (37km/h) flat out, and was fitted with guns fore and aft, twelve depth charges and an ASDIC sonar device. Crews consisted of sixteen sailors. The image of these craft patrolling in formation, v12’s at full stink, peaked caps visible on the exposed bridge, all weapons manned and Rangitoto Island in the background, is still a stirring one.

Q401 Sea Trials
Sister ship ML401 undergoing sea trials on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, March 1943.

Naval Service

fairmile pacific voyage
Voyage of ML406 from New Zealand to the Russell Islands, 1944. Click to enlarge.

Once all twelve boats were launched and commissioned the fleet was divided into two flotillas, 80th and 81st, with the 81st flotilla initially sent south to Wellington to protect the Cook Strait and port approaches. Being part of the 80th flotilla, ML406 remained Auckland-based, patrolling coastline as far north as Whangerei. Unfortunately, due to bureaucratic delays and material shortages, by the time the Fairmile building program was completed the likelihood of submarine attacks seemed to have passed. This realisation led to Admiral Halsey, US commander of the South Pacific Allied Forces, ordering both flotillas to make passage to Renard Sound in the Solomon Islands, where they would serve under the command of the US Navy, performing anti-submarine patrols and relieving American destroyers and patrol craft for other duties.

In early 1944 all ships and crew were urgently outfitted for service in tropical climates, and ML406 was in the first batch of boats to leave New Zealand. On February 7th, 1944, she and four other Fairmiles departed Auckland on what was to prove a punishing journey, with a final farewell and refuel at Whangaroa Harbour, then on to Norfolk Island, Noumea, and Espiritu Santo, before finally reaching Renard Sound in the Russell Islands on March 9th.

Patrols went without enemy contact for the sixteen months the boats were stationed in the Solomons, however the crews were kept busy with the great deal of maintenance required of these light, fast vessels. Minor accidents such as stranding on reefs were recorded by some Fairmiles, and there was always the extreme danger of petrol explosions, but all the NZ boats lived out the war relatively unharmed. Returning to Auckland in July 1945, the fleet of “little ships” was decommissioned and mothballed on moorings at Greenhithe (then called Pine Island) in the upper reaches of the Waitemata Harbour. All eventually had their V12 engines removed, and all but one (ML411) were sold off in 1946-47 by the War Assets Realisation Board.

Motunui

Offered up for tender in October 1946, ML 406 was purchased by Dunedin car dealer, auctioneer, and entrepreneur Rodney Farry, who fitted twin Graymarine 6-71 diesels and converted her into a passenger vessel. Modestly christening her Rodney Farry, she operated chartered cruises around Otago Harbour until she ran aground on a sandbar, causing Rodney Farry the first to lose interest in the concept.

Re-named New Venture in 1949, she was steamed back up to Auckland in a near tragic voyage. Свою популярность онлайн казино в России начали получать в начале нулевых. В Европе и США виртуальные игорные заведения были распространены достаточно широко. Россия еще не имела качественного покрытия интернета, поэтому многие игроки не могли играть в online casino на реальные деньги. Однако после улучшения ситуации с интернетом, все больше игроков начали переходить в виртуальный мир. Чтобы пользователи могли выбрать безопасное и надежное казино, был разработан специальный рейтинг онлайн казино России. Он предоставляет объективную и достоверную информацию по каждому казино. Under the command of a temporary crew, she struck a violent storm off the Castlecliff Coast, near Whanganui. Rather than heading out to sea, the terrified and inexperienced sailors chose to hug the coastline, with very nearly fatal consequences for both men and ship.

Motunui, 50s
Motonui, 1950’s.

Re-named yet again in 1950, this time as Motunui, she was acquired by the Waiheke Shipping Co. and set to work as a passenger ferry from Waiheke Island to downtown Auckland ferry terminal, plus fishing excursions around the Hauraki Gulf. In February 1965 Waiheke Shipping, with assets including the ferries Motunui and Baroona, was bought by North Shore Ferries Ltd., and following a refit the Motunui continued its daily trudge from Auckland to Waiheke Island, blending in with the other workhorses on the Waitemata. Thirty-something years of service as an Auckland ferry finally ended when North Shore Ferries sold her into private ownership in 1984.

As with many boats of this size and age, the succession of owners over the next twenty years found they had bitten off more than they could chew. By 1997 plans to have her brought to survey standards in time to be used as a sight-seeing boat for the America’s Cup were abandoned when the relationship between the joint owners (and several suppliers) soured. Although much work was done – including fitting an original wheelhouse salvaged from ML411 – major issues were avoided, as the rates for hauling or slipping a 34 metre ex-warship pile up quickly. The twin diesel engines really needed overhauling. Pitted prop shafts, worn propellers, all expensive items. Damage to the starboard bow had resulted from decades of contact with the wharves during docking, and freshwater leaking down through the deck joint had rotted the inner layer of planking, leaving her only fit for sheltered waters.

I was aboard her in her latter days afloat, for sale in the old Viaduct Basin when the place still ponged pleasantly of fish and diesel, and then visiting a new owner on the Tamaki River, where she dwarfed all the private launches. She was cared for well enough then, but was sold on again in 2001 and took up residence in Mercury Bay, Whitianga, where the decline seemed to continue apace. In June 2006 she found yet another buyer, and made one final voyage, one last lazy daytrip, idling gently down the coast to Tauranga so that her machinery could be removed, and the butchered, buggered superstructure chainsawed away in preparation for the big lift.

Motonui lift

Waitanic

The final buyer was Barry Woods, a.k.a. Billy Black, who operates the curious Woodlyn Park accommodation in Waitomo. At the time, his motel units included a railway carriage, a Bristol Freighter airplane, and two “Hobbit Holes”. They now include a WWII patrol boat, which is advertised as the “Waitanic”, containing five separate units.

If you’re passing through and do decide to book a “room”, you can lie in bed and conjure up the long-dead khaki figures, hands working absently at well-drilled tasks, wise-cracking at 20 knots in a haze of hot exhaust and blazing Pacific sunshine. Or you may prefer to imagine the hundreds of less dashing men, women and children, who trod the diagonally planked kauri decks every day on the Auckland-Waiheke service, and who will always remember her as the Motunui.

woodlyn-park-NZ-1

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HMNZS Taranaki (F148) was a modified Rothesay-class frigate in service with the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1960 to 1982.

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HMNZS Taranaki at Sydney 28 October 1966 after Exercise Sword Hilt. All the small ships went up under the bridge and around Cockatoo Island while the carriers berthed.
HMNZS Taranaki alongside in Pusan, Korea
HMNZS Taranaki
HMNZ Taranaki at a buoy
HMNZS Taranaki – being cut up and scrapped

Along with her sister ship Otago, the pair of ships formed a core part of the RNZN escort force throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She was named after Taranaki Province.

Construction and delivery[edit]

Taranaki‘s first crew arrived in Cowes on 27 March 1961 after a full military march from Plymouth; the ship commissioned into the RNZN a day later. The new frigate had been fitted out with an impressive amount of fine worked wood panelling in the ward room and other joint facilities. She was formally handed over on 29 March after completing her final sea trials. She was however a dated design, compared to the Tribal-class frigate, HMS Eskimo, being built alongside it with its fast starting gas turbines.[2] and the Tribal-class frigate’s pad and hangar for the Westland Wasp helicopters that were being trialled for torpedo attack at maximum sonar range – beyond the Limbo anti-submarine mortars’ capabilities.

Service[edit]

Limbo ASW mortar on HMNZS Taranaki c1963

The first decade of Taranaki‘s existence saw her take part in regular deployments to the Far East, to Hawaii, Australia and the Pacific for exercises with ships of other navies, and ‘show the flag’ tours.

Between 1974 and 1978, Taranaki was usually laid up due to a shortage of naval personnel. During this period while her hull and propulsion system remained in reasonable order, there was a substantial deterioration in the reliability of her combat systems and they ceased to be entirely viable. On the occasions that she was at sea she was mainly protecting New Zealand’s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ).

On 23 January 1979, she was fully recommissioned after refitting for a training and fisheries role. The Seacat missile system and heightfinding radar had already been removed and during the next three years, Taranaki experienced considerable problems with her steam turbines, which saw her in the Devonport dockyard for months. Extensive plans were made and approved by the Government for her conversion to gas turbine propulsion, for long ranged resource protection patrols of New Zealand’s newly declared 200-mile EEZ, reputed to be the fourth largest in the world. Sensors would have been partly updated for this purpose with new fire control and radar. A helicopter landing pad and hangar would have been incorporated. Originally the Government had approved a new OTO Melara 76 mm gun to be fitted in the reconstruction, but the Navy insisted the 4.5-inch twin gun mount be maintained, but were stuck with the ordered fire control intended to the 76 mm gun.[citation needed]

There were some questions about the gearing and coupling arrangements for the gas turbines, and eventually with rapidly escalating cost estimates of $72 million for the reconstruction in a UK shipyard, the whole project was cancelled in favour of buying second hand RN Leander-class frigates available after the 1981 UK defence cuts. It was perceived they would be cheaper to refit and the deal was sealed when the RNZN was made the exclusive offer of HMS Bacchante, a similar vintage broad beam Leander to HMNZS Canterbury, as well as HMS Dido which was being offered on the world market to any buyer, acceptable to the UK, partly to pay off the $50 million (23m pounds UK) cost of Dido‘s 1975-78 modernisation which had required an enormous amount of very expensive hull repair work on the then 15-year-old frigate. The cost of its refit was as high as that of the greater scale conversion of later Leanders to Exocet missile and Lynx helicopter operation and appeared to match that of the final new Type 21 frigates. Enormous refit costs were beginning to convince the UK Treasury against modernisation of steam powered Leanders. Many RNZN officers, believed the hull of the Taranaki had been better maintained and would have more viable long term.[citation needed]

Decommissioning and fate[edit]

On 14 June 1982, Taranaki set out on her last voyage from New Plymouth (her home port and chief city of her namesake province) to Auckland for decommissioning. During 16–17 June, her ammunition was safely removed and her boiler ceremonially doused out.

Taranaki was officially decommissioned on 18 June 1982. She was sold to Pacific Steel Ltd in August 1987 and her breaking up was completed in March 1988.