Category Archives: Converted Merchant Ships –

Converted Merchant Ships – HMNZS Hawera (T16)

This is after HMNZS Hawera was taken out of service and laid up after WW2, sat there for many years gradually being scrapped. Here she is on the left in 1952, bridge gone HMNZS Hawera (T16) updated HMNZS Hawera (T16) (carried the name of a town without a port and without naval associations.)World War IIContinue reading “Converted Merchant Ships – HMNZS Hawera (T16)”

HMNZS Breeze (T02) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper.

Heat proved to be one of the toughest challenges for crews in the wartime Pacific. War artist Russell Clarke painted crew members cleaning the boilers on HMNZS Breeze, a similar-sized vessel to the Bird-class ships Moa, Kiwi and Tui. Breeze was owned by the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company. She was taken up on 3 March 1942, under protest, to replace the Puriri whichContinue reading “HMNZS Breeze (T02) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper.”

HMNZS Gale (T04) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper. She was the first New Zealand vessel to go into action against Japan.

Gale was owned by the Canterbury Steam Shipping Company. She was one of four ships requisitioned as a consequence of the German auxiliary cruiser Orion‘s minefield and the loss of the liner Niagara, the others being Matai, Puriri and Rata. She was taken over on 10 October 1940 and handed to the dockyard for conversion. She was a sister ship to Breeze. OperationalContinue reading “HMNZS Gale (T04) was a coastal cargo boat which was requisitioned by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and converted into a minesweeper. She was the first New Zealand vessel to go into action against Japan.”