![]() HMS Philomel in New Zealand service | |
History | |
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Name | Philomel |
Builder | HM Naval Dockyard, Plymouth |
Launched | 28 August 1890 |
Commissioned | 1890 |
Decommissioned | 1941 |
Fate | Formally transferred to Royal New Zealand Navy |
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Commissioned | 1941 |
Decommissioned | 1947 |
Fate | Sunk at Coromandel 1949 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Pearl-class cruiser |
Displacement | 2,575 long tons (2,616 t) |
Length | 278 ft (84.7 m) |
Beam | 41 ft (12.5 m) |
Draught | 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) |
Installed power | 7,500 ihp (5,600 kW) on forced draught |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Complement | 220 |
Armament |
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HMS Philomel, later HMNZS Philomel, was a Pearl-class cruiser. She was the fifth ship of that name and served with the Royal Navy. After her commissioning in 1890, she served on the Cape of Good Hope Station and later with the Mediterranean Fleet.
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.
By 1917, she was worn out and dispatched back to New Zealand where she served as a depot ship in Wellington Harbour for minesweepers. In 1921 she was transferred to the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland for service as a training ship. Decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1947, her hulk was scuttled in 1949.
HMS Philomel was laid down on 9 May 1889 at HM Naval Dockyard in Devonport, Plymouth. Her name is derived from Philomela, in Greek mythology the daughter of Pandion I, King of Athens, [1] and was the fifth ship to be so named. [2]
The ship had an overall length of 278 feet (84.7 m), a beam of 41 feet (12.5 m) and a draught of 17 feet 6 inches (5.3 m). She displaced 2,575 long tons (2,616 t). Propulsion was through 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, driving two shafts, which produced a total of 7,500 indicated horsepower (5,600 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). [1] She was also rigged for sail and when installing the foremast, workmen noticed it was stamped "Devonport Dockyard 1757". [3] Her main armament consisted of eight QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns with a secondary armament of eight 3-pounders. As well as four machine guns, the ship also mounted two submerged 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo tubes. [1]
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]
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]
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 which was dispatched to occupy German 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 gift 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]
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, Commander Augustus Agar VC. [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. [1]
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 the 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 near Cuvier Island on 6 August 1949. 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. [16]
HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-class light cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War. She was launched in 1931 for the Royal Navy, loaned to New Zealand in 1936 and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.
The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent purchase of the cruiser HMS Philomel, which by 1921 had been moored in Auckland as a training ship. A slow buildup occurred during the interwar period, and then perhaps the infant Navy's most notable event occurred when HMS Achilles fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate against the German ship, Graf Spee, in December 1939.
New Zealand Naval Forces was the name given to a division of the Royal Navy. The division was formed in 1913 and it operated under this name until 1921, when it became the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.
Devonport Naval Base is the home of the Royal New Zealand Navy, located at Devonport, New Zealand on Auckland's North Shore. It is currently the only base of the navy that operates ships, and has been in use as a navy base since 1841. The base consists of HMNZS Philomel, the Fleet Support Organisation, and the Fleet Personnel and Training Organisation.
The history of the Royal New Zealand Navy leads back to early New Zealand-based gunboats used in controlling the British interests in the new colony, as well as to the strong linkages to the British Navy itself.
HMS Gambia was a Fiji-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was in the service of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) as HMNZS Gambia from 1943 to 1946. She was named after the then Crown colony of the Gambia, and has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
HMNZS Wakakura (T00) was originally a First World War Castle-class naval trawler built in Canada. Ordered by the Admiralty, the vessel, named TR 1, was loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy for use on the East Coast of Canada. She was purchased by New Zealand in 1926 and transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy when it was established in 1941.
HMS Loch Achray was a Loch-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Smith's Dock Co. Ltd. in South Bank-on-Tees and launched on 7 July 1944. After service in World War II, she was sold to the Royal New Zealand Navy and renamed HMNZS Kaniere (F426) in September 1948. After service in the Korean War, she was used as a training ship from 1957. She was sold in 1966 for breaking up in Hong Kong.
HMNZS Tui (T234) was a Bird-class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was commissioned in 1941 for minesweeping and anti-submarine roles. Tui was the first of two ships with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and was named after a native bird from New Zealand.
The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy also known as the New Zealand Station was formed in 1921 and remained in existence until 1941. 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.
HMNZS Philomel is the main administrative naval base of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally a training base on board the cruiser it takes its name from, it is part of the Devonport Naval Base in North Shore City, Auckland, New Zealand.
HMNZS Monowai (F59) was a former Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) merchant vessel. At the outbreak of World War II she became an armed merchant cruiser of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). She subsequently became HMS Monowai, a Landing Ship, Infantry and mostly operated as a troopship. In 1946 she returned to her old trade as a passenger ship.
Vice Admiral Sir Peter Phipps, was a senior officer of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from the 1940s to 1960s.
The Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNZNVR) is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
Admiral Percival Henry Hall-Thompson was a Royal Navy officer who played a key role in the development of the New Zealand Naval Forces and also served in the First World War as commander of HMS Philomel. He went on to be First Naval Member and Chief of the Australian Naval Staff.
Commodore George Raymond Davis-Goff was a senior officer in the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
The Torpedo Bay Navy Museum is the official museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy. It opened in 2010, to replace an earlier naval museum. The museum is in Devonport, Auckland.
The Royal New Zealand Navy Band is the musical arm of the Royal New Zealand Navy, serving its musical needs from its headquarters at HMNZS Philomel on Devonport Naval Base, North Shore City, Auckland.