The ferry Duchess (The future HMNZS Duchess), alongside the H.M.S. New Zealand, Nelson, June 1913. Probably taking visitors out to view NZ’s gift to UK
The ferry Duchess
Converted Merchant Ships – HMFS Viti (T373)
HMFS Viti (T373) 1941 December 16 Came under the control of the Royal New Zealand Navy
Ship Details:
Type: Minesweeper, patrol, anti-submarine vessel
Pennant No.: T373 (from 16/12/1941)
Commissioned: 17 April 1941 ad HMFS Viti– NZNB control from 16 December 1941
End of Service: As minesweeper ended service June 1944
As supply ship decommissioned 7 November 1945
Displacement: 676 tons (687 tonnes)
Dimensions: 48.5 x 9.6m
Owner: Fiji Government
Based: Suva
Built: Taikoo Dockyard and Engineering, Hong Kong
Machinery: two diesel engines 1100bhp = 12 knots
Pre-war use: passenger/cargo and supply ship
Complement: 56 officers and ratings
Armament: 1 x 4-inch (102mm) gun, 2 x 3-pdr guns, 2 x light machineguns, 4 x depth charges, ASDIC, 1 x 20mm Oerlikon fitted in 1943 – unofficial
Ship’s History
RCS (Royal Colonial Ship) Viti was built and launched at Hong Kong in late 1939 and was fitted out as a ‘minor combatant ship. However she was not fitted with any weapons and was used for administrative duties in the Western Pacific including Fiji. Viti first arrived in Auckland in January 1941. She was to be equipped to train Fiji’s volunteer naval forces in minesweeping. This was a common practice during the war. Most Volunteer Reserve personnel were given training in minesweeping and posted to minesweepers or other small vessels rather than major warships.
To formalise the command structure, Viti was commissioned on 17 April 1941 as His Majesty’s Fijian Ship (HMFS) Viti under Fijian control. In November 1941 the New Zealand Government advised the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs that New Zealand could not be responsible for the defence of Fiji unless the Viti was placed under the control of the New Zealand Naval Board for ‘uninterrupted employment in Fijian waters.’ In December 1941 she was placed under Admiralty control and it appears at this time she changed her prefix to HMS. From 16 December the New Zealand Naval Board was given operational control of the vessel. HMFS/HMS Viti spent her war service in Fijian waters and would return annually to New Zealand for refitting. On her first refit visit in December 1941, she was equipped with ASDIC. All refits were undertaken during the New Zealand winter at Lyttleton between 1943 and 1945.
She was tasked with carrying out patrol, escort and minesweeping work. With the American entry into the Second World War there were changes to the defence responsibilities in the Pacific. From late 1942, the American Navy took over the defence of Fiji. Fiji was a target of the Japanese forces in early 1942 until the tactical draw at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 followed by the decisive American victory at Midway in June 1942. Operation control of Viti was passed to COMSOPAC. For five months in 1942 she was in constant operation with aircraft of the RNZAF maintaining anti-submarine patrols and ‘close anti-submarine escort for the increasing number of troop transports and supply ships arriving and sailing from Suva. This monotonous round of duty was scarcely relieved by infrequent and unverified reports of submarines.’ In late 1943 she was escorting vessels to the Solomons and Tarawa Atoll where she lost her ASDIC dome in early 1944.
In the 1944 refit she was partly disarmed, had the minesweeping gear removed and converted back to a supply vessel for the Western Pacific under the control of the High Commissioner Western Pacific (HCWP) based at Suva. She served with the Hawera, Kapuni and the ex-USN Awahou which had been approved for service with the HCWP by the War Cabinet of the New Zealand Government. Until her decommissioning in November 1945, she carried supplies around the Western Pacific for the HCWP and well as passengers and troops. In September 1945 she towed the broken down Hawera from Espiritu Santo to Suva for repairs which was a trip of 700 miles (1127km). She also escorted the RNZN HDML 1184 from Auckland to Suva in November 1944 and after the decommissioning ceremony on 7 November 1945, her last official duty was to escort the HDML 1348 from Suva to Auckland arriving on 18 November 1945. At this time she ended her naval service and returned to the ownership of the Fiji government. She undertook several passenger and cargo voyages between Auckland and the Pacific Islands but put up for sale in late 1946. In 1948 she was sold to the Tasman Steam Ship Co. in Auckland and was to be used for the coastal and trans-Tasman trade. She was laid up in 1961 and then sold again.
In 1955 one of the RNZN’s SDMLs P3555 (HMNZS Tamure) was made available to the Fiji Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (FRNVR) and was renamed HMFS Viti until 1959 when the Reserve went into recess. During her passage to and from Fiji she was accompanied by one of the Loch-class frigates.
HMFS Viti
1941 December 16 Came under the control of the Royal New Zealand Navy
http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/viti.htm
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Danlayers – HMNZS Phyllis (T22)
Built: Seattle Construction Co., USA 1912
Type: Danlayer
Pennant No.: T22
Displacement: 148 tons gross, 67 tons net
Length: 96.1 ft./29.3 m Beam: 19.5 ft./ 5.9 m Draft: 2.8 ft./0.8 m
Propulsion: Steam recip., ihp 350, single screw coal fired
Speed: 9 knots.
Armament: 2 x light MG
Complement: 14
Phyllis was built as a whale chaser built for the Norwegians named Star III, and worked from Stewart Island. She was laid up there in 1929, sold to a NZ buyer, renamed Phyllis and used as a trawler.
The ship was purchased from the Canterbury Steam Trawling Co. Ltd.of Christchurch on 3 September 1942 and fitted out at Lyttelton as a danlayer, the intention being to employ her at Auckland. A danlayer is a small vessel employed in minesweeping operations to lay dan-buoys to mark the limits of the channels swept through a minefield.
She was commissioned on 11 January 1943 as HMNZS Phyllis and sailed for Auckland but was delayed by engine trouble in Wellington. Inspection at Auckland revealed numerous defects and she prove unsatisfactory as a danlayer. Repairs were not completed and little or no use was made of Phyllis: she paid off in 28 February 1944 and was sold.
http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4073&page=9
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Danlayer and Examination Vessel, Ikatere, 1940-45, 150 bhp diesel, 8 knots (15 km/h) Based in Auckland – obscured is HMNZS Hautapu.
Danlayers employed by the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II
HMNZS Waipu (T32)
HMNZS Coastguard (T12)
HMNZS Ikatere
HMNZS Kaiwaka (T14)
HMNZS Nora Niven (T23)
HMNZS Phyllis T22
HMNZS Waiho (T34)
HMNZS Waima (T33)
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Cruiser – HMS Neptune – Special mention.
Loss of HMS Neptune
HMS Neptune was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy during World War II. Early in 1941 the New Zealand Government responded to an Admiralty request for sailors to man an additional cruiser. Neptune was selected and was expected to leave the United Kingdom for New Zealand in May. However, because of the loss of cruisers during the Crete campaign Neptune was instead attached to Admiral Cunningham’s Force K, based on Malta. On 19 December 1941 she was sunk by mines. Only one crewman survived.[1]
150 of those lost were New Zealanders, 80 of them had served in the Naval Reserve before the outbreak of war. The loss of Neptune was the greatest single tragedy New Zealand Naval Forces have experienced.
The sole survivor, Norman Walton, spent 15 months in an Italian prisoner of war camp. In 1991, Walton travelled to the small city of Nelson, New Zealand, to unveil a memorial to Neptune. Of the 764 that perished, 150 were New Zealand sailors, including four from Nelson.[10] A memorial service to Neptune and her crew is held each year in Nelson.
HMS Neptune was a Leander-class light cruiser which served with the Royal Navy during World War II. Neptune was the fourth ship of its class and was the ninth Royal Navy vessel to carry the name.
Construction and commissioning
[edit]
Built by Portsmouth Dockyard, Neptune was laid down on 24 September 1931, launched on 31 January 1933, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 12 February 1934 with the pennant number 20.
Operational history
[edit]
During World War II, Neptune operated with a crew drawn predominantly from the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. The ship also carried a large contingent of seconded South African personnel.[3]
In December 1939, several months after war was declared, Neptune was patrolling in the South Atlantic in pursuit of German surface raider heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. Neptune, with other patrolling Royal Navy heavy units, was sent to Uruguay in the aftermath of the Battle of the River Plate. However, she was still in transit when the Germans scuttled Graf Spee off Montevideo on 17 December.
Neptune was the first British ship to spot the Italian Fleet in the battle of Calabria, on 9 July 1940, marking also the first time since the Napoleonic Wars that the Mediterranean Fleet received the signal “enemy battle fleet in sight”.[4] During the subsequent engagement, she was hit by the Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi.[5][6] The 6-inch shell splinters struck the aircraft catapult and damaged her floatplane beyond repair, its wreckage being thrown into the sea.[7] Minutes later, Neptune‘s main guns scored three hits on the heavy cruiser Bolzano, inflicting some damage on her torpedo room, below the waterline and the “B” turret.[8] During 1941, she led Force K, a raiding squadron of cruisers. Their task was to intercept and destroy German and Italian convoys en route to Libya. The convoys were supplying Rommel’s Afrika Korps in North Africa with troops and equipment.
Sinking
[edit]
Force K was sent out on 18 December 1941, to intercept a convoy bound for Tripoli, right after the brief fleet engagement at sunset known as First Battle of Sirte.
On the night of 19–20 December, Neptune, leading the line, struck two mines, part of an Italian minefield laid by an Italian cruiser force in June 1941. The first struck the anti-mine screen, causing no damage. The second struck the bow hull. The other cruisers present, Aurora and Penelope, also struck mines.[9]
While reversing out of the minefield, Neptune struck a third mine, which took off her propellers and left her dead in the water. Aurora was unable to render assistance as she was already down to 10 knots (19 km/h) and needed to turn back to Malta. Penelope was also unable to assist.
The destroyers Kandahar and Lively were sent into the minefield to attempt a tow. The former struck a mine and began drifting. Neptune then signalled for Lively to keep clear. Kandahar was later evacuated and scuttled with a torpedo by the destroyer Jaguar, to prevent her capture.
Neptune hit a fourth mine and quickly capsized, killing 737 crew members. Initially some 30 others survived the sinking, but they also died of wounds and exposure in the subsequent days. As a result, only one was still alive when their carley float was picked up five days later by the Italian torpedo boat Generale Achille Papa. The sole survivor, Norman Walton, spent 15 months in an Italian prisoner of war camp. In 1991, Walton travelled to the small city of Nelson, New Zealand, to unveil a memorial to Neptune. Of the 764 that perished, 150 were New Zealand sailors, including four from Nelson.[10] A memorial service to Neptune and her crew is held each year in Nelson.
