HMNZS Futurist – Built: J.L. Meyer, Germany, 1917

HMNZS Futurist – Built: J.L. Meyer, Germany, 1917
Type: Auxiliary Minesweeper
Pennant No.: T09
Displacement: 234
Length: 128.8 ft./39.3 m Beam: 23.4 ft./7.1 m Draft: 10.1 ft./3.1 m
Propulsion: steam recip., ihp 550 , single screw, coal burner
Speed: 10 knots
Armament: 1 x 4 in., MGs, DCs

Futurist was built as the German minesweeper, Papenburgh in WW1, surrendered in 1920, sold and in use as a Napier trawler. She had been nominated for requisition and was already fitted with basic minesweeping gear whilst still fishing in April 1940. On 20 June 1940, the day after the sinking of the liner Niagara, she was requisitioned and commissioned for permanent service as a minesweeper.

Her first task was to sweep the entrances to Wellington and Lyttelton Harbours. Futurist swept off Wellington for eight hours on 21 June 1940, and then sailed to Lyttelton where she searched the approaches from 23 June till 2 July.

In September she sailed to Auckland where the full conversion to minesweeper was completed. After a tour of duty as the Auckland port MS Futurist was assigned the duty of port MS at Wellington which mainly involved the sweeping of the entrance channel very day.

On the night of 25th./26th. June 1941 Futurist very nearly had an enemy encounter off Wellington Harbour. She was sent to search for a suspicious ship which she did not locate. Post-war it was revealed the the ship had been the German raider Adjutant laying mines with her parent ship Komet.

On 20 June 1942 HMNZS Futurist reported having sighted a suspicious object resembling a submarine six miles south of Island Bay, Wellington. An immediate search revealed nothing further

In August 1943 she was withdrawn from minesweeping, converted into a boom gate vessel and recommisioned for that duty at Wellington. This task required her to open and close the boom gate across the harbour entrance to allow ships to pass through,

She was paid off and returned to her owners in 1945.

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