HMNZS Achilles was a Leander-classlight cruiser, the second of five in the class. She served in the Royal New Zealand Navy in the Second World War. She was launched in 1931 for the Royal Navy, loaned to New Zealand in 1936 and transferred to the new Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. She became famous for her part in the Battle of the River Plate, alongside HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter and notable for being the first Royal Navy cruiser to have fire control radar, with the installation of the New Zealand-made SS1 fire-control radar in June 1940.[2]
After Second World War service in the Atlantic and Pacific, she was returned to the Royal Navy. She was sold to the Indian Navy in 1948 and recommissioned as INS Delhi. She was scrapped in 1978.
PACIFIC OCEAN (Aug. 18, 2020) Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui (A09) transits the Pacific Ocean during a division tactics exercise during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2020. Ten nations, 22 ships, 1 submarine, and more than 5,300 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from Aug. 17 to 31 at sea around the Hawaiian Islands. RIMPAC is a biennial exercise designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships, critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The exercise is a unique training platform designed to enhance interoperability and strategic maritime partnerships. RIMPAC 2020 is the 27th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class John Luke McGovern)
Some of these new and enhanced capabilities include a 100-tonne salvage crane, a remotely operated vehicle and a contemporary dynamic positioning system, which will allow Navy’s specialist divers to achieve greater levels of effectiveness and safety, in a greater range of conditions. Powered by four diesel-electric engines driving two azimuth propulsion systems, the 5,700-tonne vessel can reach a top speed of 13 kt. The new vessel, which is also fitted with a diving chamber and a helicopter flight deck, can accommodate a core crew of 39, with 27 more bunks for mission-specific personnel. The modern design and systems of the dive and hydrographic vessel will provide improved capacity, speed, safety, and capability over the previous vessels.
She was initially named HMNZS Manawanui (A09),[1] the second of soon to be four diving tenders with this name to serve in the New Zealand Navy. As a diving tender she participated in the exploration and salvage work of the wreck MS Mikhail Lermontov in March 1986.[1]
On 17 May 1988, she was renamed Kahu (A04) and recommissioned as the basic seamanship and navigation training vessel attached to the Royal New Zealand Naval College. Kahu is the second boat with this name to serve in the New Zealand Navy. (The name comes from the Māori-language kāhu – the name for the native swamp harrier hawk.) The ship was replaced in her role as a diving tender by HMNZS Manawanui (A09).
She remained in service for seamanship, Officer of the Watch training and as a backup diving tender until her decommissioning on 30 October 2009. The ship was sold for use as a pleasure craft on 18 February 2010.[2]
Kahu was distinguished from other boats of the Moa class by the gantry on her quarterdeck and lack of funnels.
Post RNZN Career After leaving the Royal New Zealand Navy she was sold to Peter White-Robinson and renamed Kahu. In 2011 she underwent a year long refit at Fitzroy Yachts in New Plymouth, converting her to a ‘family ship’. In 2013 she was sold.[3]
In 2021 the vessel was involved in a £160,000,000 drugs bust when she was intercepted by HMC Searcher 130 km off the coast of Plymouth.[4] 1 British Citizen and 5 Nicaraguan citizens were arrested. 2000kgs of Cocaine was reported to be onboard.
Manawanui is the third ship with this name to serve in the New Zealand Navy. Manawanui is a Māori word meaning “to be brave or steadfast”.
Manawanui has a capability to hold station over a fixed position. She has a triple lock recompression chamber, a crane with 13 tonne lifting capacity, wet diving bell and a small engineering workshop. She also has limited deck cargo carrying capacity.
The divers of the New Zealand Navy who work onboard Manawanui are trained for deep diving with mixed gases, underwater demolition and unexploded ordnance disposal.
An ROV operated from the Manawanui returned photos of the wreck of the MV Princess Ashika, which sank near Ha’apai, Tonga on 5 August 2009.[2]
The vessel was decommissioned at Devonport Naval Base on February 23, 2018.[3][4]
In July 2018 the ship was sold to the Major Projects Group, an Australian demotions company, and has been renamed as the MV Ocean Recovery.[5] The ship will be used by the Major Projects Foundation[6] (which was founded by the company) as a research and education vessel, with a focus on investigating and preventing oil spills from sunken ships in the Pacific.[7][8]
The new owners, Paul and Wilma Adams, plan to base the ship at Carrington, part of the Port of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. They plan for the ship to be the diving base for work in Chuuk Lagoon (Truk) and more generally in the Federated States of Micronesia, where the US Navy conducted Operation Hailstone in 1944 and sank numerous warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy along with merchant ships. They plan for cathodic protection to be applied to the wrecks, to reduce the chance of further discharge of bunker oil into the lagoons
HMNZS ManawanuiHMNZS Manawanui – diving tenderHMNZS Manawanui at Paeroa
HMNZS Manawanui She was converted to a diving tender in 1953 and served out her time in the RNZN in this role, before being decommissioned in 1978 and sold to the Paeroa Historic Maritime Park. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNZS_Manawanui_(1948)
Ordered from Henry Robb, Leith, on 24 July 1942 as a River-class frigate, the order was changed, and ship laid down on 14 September 1943, and launched by Mrs. A.V. Alexander, wife of the First Lord of the Admiralty on 23 March 1944 and completed on 11 August 1944.[1] After the war she was transferred to the Royal New Zealand Navy and renamed HMNZS Pukaki. As Pukaki (F424) On 15 October 1948 Pukaki sailed from Portland with three other Loch-class frigates, arriving at Auckland in January 1949 to join the 11th Frigate Flotilla for patrols and exercises.[1]
On 25 June 1950 Pukaki was placed at the disposal of the UN Forces in Korea. In August Pukaki and sister-ship Tutira arrived at Sasebo to join the UN naval command. Initially attached to Task Group 96.5 for escort duties between Japan and Korea, in September she was transferred to Task Group 90.7 to support of landings by the US 1st Marine Division at Inchon, rejoining Task Group 96.5 in October to protect minesweeping operations prior to the landings at Wonsan. In November she was relieved by the frigate Rotoiti and returned to Auckland to refit, after which she was placed in reserve.[1]
Recommissioned in December 1952 for service in the 11th Frigate Flotilla, Pukaki was assigned to detached service with the Royal Navy’s Far East Fleet 4th Frigate Squadron based at Singapore in September 1953. In January 1954 the frigate was deployed in the Yellow Sea for trade protection and as back-up to UN forces in Korea if required. In May she was transferred to Singapore for anti-terrorist operations in the Malayan Emergency, returning to Auckland in September.[1]
She rejoined the 4th Frigate Squadron in the Far East Fleet in June 1955, for trade protection and Korean coast guard ship duties, while also carrying out joint exercises with United States Navy ships, returning to Auckland in May 1956. In December she escorted the supply vessel Endeavour during the initial stage of the journey to McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.[1]
In 1957 and 1958 the ship was deployed as a weather reporting ship during the “Operation Grapple” nuclear tests at Christmas Island. Between 1959 and 1962 she once more joined the Far East Fleet for SEATO exercises and patrols. From 1963-1965 she supported the United States “Operation Deep Freeze” Antarctic operations.[1] Pukaki alternated with an American Edsall-class DER picket frigate operating from Dunedin in summer months to track United States Navy Lockheed C-130 Hercules deployments and other flights from Harewood airport in Christchurch to McMurdo Base in the Ross Dependency, offering the potential for search and rescue in the Southern Ocean and service to the weather station on Campbell Island. Sea conditions probably shortened by two years the service life of Pukaki and the other surviving Loch-class frigate, Rotoiti. This forced the United States Navy to deploy two Edsall-class DERs to Dunedin for the final three deployments in 1966-68.[citation needed]
Built for the Royal Navy by Fleetlands Shipyard of Portsmouth, the minesweeper was launched on 18 August 1955 and commissioned as HMS Santon. She was named after a small village in North Lincolnshire.
The minesweeper was commissioned in the RNZN from 1965 to 1966, when she was returned to the United Kingdom. She was later transferred to the Argentine Navy, and operated as ARA Chubut (M3) New Zealand Early in 1965, Indonesia was employing a policy of confrontation against Malaysia. New Zealand agreed to assist Malaysia by deploying two Royal Navy minesweepers then in reserve at Singapore. These were commissioned into the RNZN on 10 April 1965 and joined the Royal Navy’s 11th Minesweeping squadron (also Ton class), taking part in anti-infiltration patrols in Malaysian waters. Lieutenant Lincoln Tempero, later Chief of Naval Staff, was appointed Commanding Officer.[1] Tempero was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander on 16 February 1966, and suffered a hard head that evening![2]
In her first year Santon, together with her sister ship Hickleton, carried out 200 patrols, with 20 incidents involving intruding Indonesians, often taking as prisoners those aboard the intercepted craft.
In April 1966, Santon assisted in the rescue of the crew of the wrecked Panamanian freighter Carina. By the time the Indonesian confrontation policy ended in August 1966, Santon had steamed 67,400 miles. Following the withdrawal of Commonwealth ships from the anti-infiltration patrols, the RNZN crew took her back to England, where she paid off in reserve at Portsmouth in November 1966.
Otago Had just fired a salvo of 6 live Limbo mortar bombs Directly ahead and was “hard a starboard” to avoid running over the top of them. A second salvo was to be fired immediately but when the bombs were being loaded the ones from the Port Magazine ran back in to the Handling room and so the second salvo was not fired. Royalist and Pukaki were in company for this operation “Shop Window” and most of Parliament were aboard the ships. From memory, we, Otago had Walter Nash , and the Minister of Defence, and CNS Rear Admiral Sir Peter Phipps on board. When the mortar bombs detonated, the Royalist went “dead in the water” for about 45 minutes.
Displacement: 2144 tons, length 370ft overall, beam 41ft, draught 17ft. Complement: 250 Armament : 1 quadruple Seacat missile launcher, 2 x 4.5in guns in twin turret, 2 limbo 3 barrelled depth charge mortars, 8 x 21in. later replaced by 6-12.75 in. AS torpedo tubes Machinery: two sets geared turbines, two shafts, 30,000 shp. Spd.: 30 kts. Pennant No.:F111
Completed as Rothesay Class frigate to specific NZ modifications, HMNZS Otago commissioned at Southampton, 22 June 1960 and arrived in NZ in 1961. She was fitted with the Seacat sea-to-air missile system in 1963. During her long service OTAGO took part in regular deployments to the Far East, to North America, Hawaii, Australia and the Pacific Islands for multi-national exercises. In NZ waters she took part in ceremonial occasions, SAR, royal tours and supply duties to outlying islands. In 1973 Otago was sent by the NZ Government to protest against French atmospheric nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll. On 28 June, OTAGO sailed from NZ bound for the test zone. The first bomb took place on 21 July and the frigate flashed news of the explosion to the world. OTAGO finally decommissioned on 7 November 1983 and was subsequently scrapped in Auckland
New Zealand has inaugurated a new Reserve Operating Base in Greymouth on the South Island to “re-establish” its military presence in the region.
The installation houses communications equipment, storage facilities, and utility vehicles on the West Coast.
In addition, the site supports a 25-person Local Emergency Response Group to assist troops during states of emergency.
The facility will be staffed by troops from the New Zealand Army’s 2nd/4th Battalion South Island Reserves. In future military exercises in the region, the base will also provide temporary accommodation for the Regular Force.
‘Step Forward’ for Greymouth
According to Wellington, the Greymouth base will enhance military assistance to the area compared to previous years, as elements had to be transported from other regions such as Nelson, Cromwell, Burnham, or Blenheim.
Vehicles stationed at the new facility will also mitigate logistical risks due to Alpine fault earthquakes and extreme weather conditions that could block mountain passes.
At the opening ceremony, Greymouth Mayor Tania Gibson stated that the launch of the West Coast base “was an encouraging step forward for the region.”
“Having defence personnel back on the Coast will be a positive for the community,” Gibson said.
Aiding West Coast Emergencies
New Zealand Army Commander Lt. Col. Gareth Seeds commented on the project’s “significant impact” for the service when responding to emergencies.
“Given the West Coast’s exposure to extreme weather events, it is no surprise that the West Coast’s Civil Defence Emergency Management organisations are very capable and well-practised.”
“The [New Zealand Defence Force] has been called on to assist West Coast communities before and it is likely that military assistance will be requested again.”
Enlistment Follows
To further amplify Wellington’s strategic plans in Greymouth, an army recruiting office was established on the town’s main street to enlist new warfighters.
“Our Reserve Force personnel… provide a direct link to the communities in which they serve, with this facility enabling the battalion to build a stronger presence with the local community,” Seeds stated.
JCs Royal New Zealand Navy Ships and New Zealand Defence 