HMNZS Takapu (Q1188/P3556)Commissioned 22 May 1943 as Q1188Survey Equipment: Fitted to Q1188 when rebuilt 1946-50The USN supervised the construction and then took charge of the finished HDML for allocation to the Allied navy. Both Q1187(Tarapunga) & Q1188(Takapu) were shipped as deck cargo from Vancouver aboard SS Kootenay Park and arrived at Wellington on 30 April 1943. There they were unloaded by floating crane and underwent full commissioning trials.
Q1188 joined the 125th Motor Launch Flotilla based in Wellington. They then carried out routine patrols in their respective areas through to 1945. As the war came to an end in 1945 the launches were concentrated at Auckland to pay off. Q1188 had been cannibalised for parts to keep the other HDMLs that were in service so she had to be rebuilt. This was completed in February 1950 and she was commissioned as SML 1188 and was sent to Wellington in March. After arriving in Wellington, she began a survey of Cook Strait. In April she was given the pennant number P3556.
HMNZS Takapu – taken during Queens Visit, Waitangi Day 1963
From then until 1979 both vessels carried out surveys right across the New Zealand coastline mostly by themselves or as a pair. They would also work with HMNZS Lachlan & Monowai. In November 1979 Takapu arrived at Auckland for paying off and was decommissioned in December.
HMNZS Kahawai, ex HMNZS Takapu looking forlorn – Philomel in the background – Oct 30, 1982
HMNZS Tarapunga flying her paying off pennant after many years service in the Hydrographic branch Survey Equipment: Fitted to Q1187/P3566 when converted in 1950-51
HMNZS Tarapunga as Q1187
Both Q1187 (Tarapunga) & Q1188 (Takapu) shipped as deck cargo from Vancouver aboard SS Kootenay Park and arrived at Wellington on 30 April 1943. There they were unloaded by floating crane and underwent full commissioning trials. It was intended that they would be used for anti-submarine patrols in the port approaches. They would replace the NAPS launches. Q1187 after commissioning joined the 124th Motor Launch Flotilla in Auckland.
As the war came to an end in 1945 the launches were concentrated at Auckland to pay off. Q1187 arrived on 30 June 1945 . A second launch was required for survey duty so that Auckland Coastguard’s Cutter No. 1, formerly Q1187 reverted to the RNZN on 29 May 1950 and was given the pennant number P3566 in October 1950. She was converted to SML in March 1951 and commissioned as a survey vessel on 21 March 1951. In April she proceeded to Wellington to carry out surveys of the Cook Strait. From then until 1979 both vessels carried out surveys right across the New Zealand coastline mostly by themselves or as a pair. They would also work with HMNZS Lachlan & Monowai. At the end of the 1978-1979 survey season Tarapunga was withdrawn from service and paid off in June 1979. Renamed: Tarapunga as Mako 1980
HMNZS Tarapunga and Takapu SML’s parked up alongside Mothership Monowai
Laid up 1945. Lent to Auckland Coast Guard 1947-50, Reserves 1951-80, Survey 1979-83, Wellington. Sold 3/84.
Left RNZN 1983. Reverted to name Tarapunga. Possibly moored Tamaki River. Now in Picton (2008) owned by Steve and Kim who live aboard at Picton Wharf (along with their cat). Destroyed in fire, March 2014
HMNZS Tui, formerly USNS Charles H. Davis (T-AGOR-5), was one of nine Conrad class oceanographic ships built for the United States Navy (USN), that later saw service in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). Serving with the USN from 1963 to 1970, these ships were designed to perform acoustic experiments on sound transmission underwater, and for gravity, magnetism and deep-ocean floor studies.
The ship was recommissioned into the RNZN in late 1970, and as HMNZS Tui served as an oceanographic survey and research ship until her decommissioning in 1997. In 1999, the ship was scuttled as a dive wreck.
In 1970, she was transferred to the RNZN, and was commissioned on 11 September 1970 as HMNZS Tui. Tui was named after the Tūī bird, and was the second of two ships with this name to serve in the RNZN.
After a partial refit and the installation and testing of scientific equipment, Tui began a program of work for the Defence Scientific Establishment in Auckland. For years Tui went unobtrusively about the kind of work she was designed for, primarily underwater acoustics.
Tui worked in Australian, Indian Ocean and South Pacific waters. She worked on Auckland University research, with DSIR scientists, and with other oceanographic ships. Tui also took part in several American research programs. Her acoustic research was mainly to do with the detection and tracking of submarines.
During the 1970s she made an extensive search for the Maria Theresa Reef.
In 1997, Tui was decommissioned and was replaced by the hydrographic ship HMNZS Resolution.
In February 1999, Tui was scuttled 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Tutukaka Heads to serve as a tourist attraction and wreck for divers, following a period of work on her which removed any objects in danger of breaking free and welding shut any areas that may have posed a hazard for wreck divers.[1] Her anchor was presented to the City of Napie
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.
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 underway. 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]
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 signalled some US Kingfisherseaplanes of US Scouting Squadron VS-57, based in New Caledonia, to join the search. One of these indicated that Tui should investigate smoke on the horizon, where a submarine was sighted on the surface and Tui opened fire at maximum range, scoring one, possibly two hits. The aircraft then dropped depth charges and the submarine sank at 23°26′S 166°50′E.
The submarine was the Japanese submarine I-17, 2,190 tons, 108 metres (354 ft) long, built in 1939. Ninety-one crewmen were lost and 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.”[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]
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.
In 1952 the Navy wanted to free some Loch-classfrigates 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).
In October 1955 Tui was docked for conversion to an oceanographicresearch 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.
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.
She was built by 1980 by the Whangarei Engineering and Construction Company as a version re-engineered for use as an inshore survey vessel.
After decommissioning, she was purchased by North American owners and can be seen in Harper’s Island Episode 1, as the charter boat that brings the wedding party to the island.[1] Can also be seen in season 2, episode 9, of Psych, from 2007
