New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy | |
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Active | 1921–1941 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Navy |
Type | Fleet |
Engagements |
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.
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. [7]
Historic ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy |
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Alphabetical list |
Sortable list covering the period from the inception of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in 1921 to the formation of the Royal New Zealand Navy on 1 October 1941.
Name | Pnt | Type | Class | Commissioned | Decommissioned | Notes | |
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HMS Achilles | 70 | Cruiser | Leander class | 1936 | 1941 | 1941–1946 was HMNZS Achilles in the RNZN | |
HMS Auckland | L61 | Convoy sloop | Egret class | 1938 | 1939 | Nominated only. | |
HMS Chatham | Cruiser | Town class | 1920 | 1924 | Replaced by Dunedin in 1924 | ||
HMS Diomede | D92 | Cruiser | Danae class | 1926 | 1935 | Replaced by Achilles in 1936 | |
HMS Dunedin | D93 | Cruiser | Danae class | 1924 | 1937 | Replaced by Leander in 1937 | |
HMS Laburnum | T48 | Convoy sloop | Acacia class | 1922 | 1935 | Flower-class sloop | |
HMS Leander | Cruiser | Leander class | 1937 | 1941 | 1941–1944 was HMNZS Leander in the RNZN | ||
HMS Leith | L36 | Convoy sloop | Grimsby class | 1934 | 1939 | Acquired by the Royal Danish Navy in 1949 and renamed HDMS Galathea. [8] Circumnavigated the world in 1950–52 doing deep-sea oceanographic research. | |
RFA Nucula | L61 | Fleet oiler | 1924 | 1937 | oil hulk 1937–1947 | ||
HMS Philomel | Cruiser | Pearl class | 1921 | 1941 | "Cradle of the Navy." 1914–1921 was HMS Philomel in the NZ Naval Forces. 1941–1947 became HMNZS Philomel in the RNZN | ||
HMS Puriri | T02 | Minesweeper | Converted merchant ship | 1941 | 1941 | 14 May 1941 struck a German mine nine miles (14 km) northeast of the Whangarei heads and sank with the loss of five crew members. [9] [10] | |
HMS Torch | Convoy sloop | 1921 | 1924 | 1914–1921 was HMS Torch in the NZ Naval Forces. Also called a gunboat. Wrecked in Chatham Islands. | |||
HMS Veronica | T67 | Convoy sloop | Acacia class | 1920 | 1934 | Flower-class sloop | |
HMS Wellington | U65 | Convoy sloop | Grimsby class | 1935 | 1947 | Survives as a museum ship moored on the River Thames, London. | |
HMS Wakakura | T00 | Minesweeper | Castle class | 1926 | 1941 | 1941–1945 was HMNZS Wakakura in the RNZN |
Officers who commanded the New Zealand Division/Station include: [11]
Rank | Name | Term began |
---|---|---|
Commodore | Alan Hotham | March 1921 |
Commodore | Alister Beal, CMG, DSO | August 1923 |
Commodore | George Swabey, DSO | 18 June 1926 |
Commodore | Geoffrey Blake, CB, DSO | 19 July 1929 |
Rear Admiral | Fischer Watson, DSO | 26 February 1932 |
Rear Admiral | The Hon. Edmund Drummond, MVO | March 1935 |
Commodore | Irvine Glennie | June 1938 |
Commodore | James Rivett-Carnac | December 1938 |
Commodore | Henry Horan, DSC | December 1939 |
Commodore | Edward Parry | May 1940 |
When Britain went to war against Germany in 1939, New Zealand promptly declared war and expanded its naval forces. In recognition that the naval force was now largely self-sufficient and independent of the Royal Navy, the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) in 1941.
In 1941 there were: [12]
The prefix "royal" was granted by King George VI on 1 October 1941, and ships thereafter were prefixed with HMNZS (His/Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship).
HisMajesty's Ship, abbreviated HMS and H.M.S., is the ship prefix used for ships of the navy in some monarchies. Derivative terms such as HMAS and equivalents in other languages such as SMS are used.
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 acquisition 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 in December 1939 HMS Achilles fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate against the German ship, Graf Spee.
HMNZS Leander was a light cruiser which served with the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of light ships, the Leander-class light cruiser and was initially named HMS Leander.
HMS Royalist was a Bellona-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) during the Second World War and early Cold War.
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.
The Australia Station was the British, and later Australian, naval command responsible for the waters around the Australian continent. Australia Station was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station, whose rank varied over time.
HMNZS Waikato (F55) was a Leander Batch 2TA frigate of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN). She was one of two Leanders built for the RNZN, the other being the Batch 3 HMNZS Canterbury. These two New Zealand ships relieved British ships of the Armilla patrol during the Falklands conflict, freeing British ships for deployment.
His or Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship (HMNZS) is the ship prefix used to identify warships and shore facilities commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN).
HMNZS Canterbury (F421) was one of two broad beam Leander-class frigates operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) from 1971 to 2005. She was built in Scotland and launched in 1970. Commissioned in 1971, Canterbury saw operational service in much of Australasia and other regions like the Persian Gulf. She undertook operations such as supporting UN sanctions against Iraq and peace-keeping in East Timor. With her sister ship HMNZS Waikato she relieved the Royal Navy frigate HMS Amazon in the Indian Ocean during the Falklands War. Early in HMNZS Canterbury's career, in 1973, she relieved the frigate HMNZS Otago, as part of a unique, Anzac, naval operation or exercise at Moruroa during anti-nuclear protests, supported by a large RAN tanker, providing fuel and a large platform for Australian media. This was due to F 421 being a more modern RNZN frigate, with then current Rn surveillance radar and ESM and a more effectively insulated frigate from nuclear fallout, with the Improved Broad Beam Leander steam plant, for example, being remote controlled and capable of unmanned operation and therefore the ship provided a more effective sealed citadel for operations in areas of nuclear explosions.
HMNZS Moa (T233) was a Bird-class minesweeper of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) that served during World War II.
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.
HMNZS Philomel is the main administrative base of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Originally a training base on board the cruiser from which it takes its name, it is part of the Devonport Naval Base on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand.
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).
HMNZS Puriri (T02) was a coastal cargo ship which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper. She was sunk by a German naval mine 25 days after she was commissioned.
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.
Operation Neptune was a programme of commemorative events and activities held in New Zealand throughout the year 2016 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941.
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.