Author Archives: Currin Family

HMS Torch was an Alert-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched in 1894. She served in Australia and New Zealand and was transferred to New Zealand as a training ship in 1917, being renamed HMS Firebrand at the same time. She was sold in 1920 and converted to a refrigerated ship with the new name Rama. She ran aground in the Chatham Islands in 1924 and was abandoned.

 In August 1914 she became part of the New Zealand Division of the Pacific Station. HMS ‘Torch’ and armoured cruiser HMS ‘Euryalus’, Farm Cove, Sydney, 1904-1905, Glass plate negative of Royal Navy’s sloop HMS ‘Torch’ and armoured cruiser HMS ‘Euryalus’, Farm Cove, Sydney, 1904-1905, MadeKerry and CoSydneyNew South Wales Australiac. 1884-1917 This image from a glass plate negativeContinue reading “HMS Torch was an Alert-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Sheerness Dockyard and launched in 1894. She served in Australia and New Zealand and was transferred to New Zealand as a training ship in 1917, being renamed HMS Firebrand at the same time. She was sold in 1920 and converted to a refrigerated ship with the new name Rama. She ran aground in the Chatham Islands in 1924 and was abandoned.”

HMNZS Thomas Currell (T11) – HMNZS Thomas Currell, auxiliary minesweeper , RNZN 1939-1945, is this week’s RNZN Ship Of The Week.

  This is another of those little ships where I suspect there is probably a lot of local knowledge out there somewhere, but not easy for a distant outsider the access. Originally constructed as a Strath Class minesweeper for the Royal Navy in 1919, the 204 tons gross trawler Thomas Currell was one of threeContinue reading “HMNZS Thomas Currell (T11) – HMNZS Thomas Currell, auxiliary minesweeper , RNZN 1939-1945, is this week’s RNZN Ship Of The Week.”