A drawing showing battery of 64 pounders rifled muzzle loaders on Mount Victoria, Devonport, arranged in the open as a result of the Russian scare of 1885-6. The last two were moved to Windsor Reserve in May 1911
Curious Cove
Kahikatea Bay is named for the giant trees which once grew there, down to the shoreline.
Aerial view of RNZAF recreation camp in Curious Cove. Defence Department image
The land was first offered for sale to settlers in 1859, and was probably bought then by Donald McCormick, who had arrived with his family from Scotland in 1855 and first settled in Maraetai (Tory Channel). Over the next few years he gradually acquired all the land between there and Karaka Point, which includes Kahikatea Bay.
Once the McCormick family had built their homestead in Whatamango, they sold off their other blocks, first to someone claiming to be an English baronet called Sir Charles Forbes, thought to be a remittance man, and almost certainly a fraud. The McCormick’s also retained about one acre of land on the left hand side of the cove, on the flat, and built a substantial bach there in about 1957, which is now probably part of Kiwi ranch.1
By 1880 two men, Wachsmann and Bush, were on the Kahikatea land. Bush was drowned in a boating accident,2 and the land came on to the market in 1890. It was passed in, eventually going to the Landall family at the upset price of one penny an acre. Later, John Landall was also drowned from his boat,3 so there was an unlucky succession of owners.
The first time the name Curious Cove appeared in the press was in 1905, when it was mentioned in the NZ Illustrated Magazine.4 It was not until motor launches came into use that the bay was accessible as a holiday destination.
Until the Second World War started it was used for club camps, and when the Americans entered the War they developed it as a potential convalescent base, but never actually used it. The RNZAF then took it over for use as a holiday and recreation site, until it was bought by A.C. Manning who advertised it in December 1945 as a ‘modern, well-equipped Holiday Camp.’
The land from there to Karaka Point was bought at the same time by Fred Musgrove for forestry. During the 1960s Curious Cove was the venue for the annual university students’ summer gathering, with a somewhat riotous reputation. Since then it has changed hands several times, but, still under the name of Kiwi Ranch, it continues to offer youth and family vacation opportunities.
This story was first written by Loreen Brehaut for the Seaport Scene Picton paper
She was the fifth ship of that name and served with the Royal Navy. After her commissioning in 1890, she served on the Cape of Good Hope Station and later with the Mediterranean Fleet.
In 1914, she was loaned to New Zealand for service with what would later become the Royal New Zealand Navy. During the early stages of the First World War she performed convoy escort duties and then carried out operations in the Mediterranean against the Turks. She later conducted patrols in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
By 1917, she was worn out and dispatched back to New Zealand where she served as a depot ship in Wellington Harbour for minesweepers. In 1921 she was transferred to the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland for service as a training ship. Decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1947, her hulk was scuttled in 1949.
HMS Philomel was laid down on 9 May 1889 at HM Naval Dockyard in Devonport, Plymouth. Her name is derived from Philomela, in Greek mythology the daughter of Pandion I, King of Athens,[1] and was the fifth ship to be so named.[2]
The ship had an overall length of 278 feet (84.7 m), a beam of 41 feet (12.5 m) and a draught of 17 feet 6 inches (5.3 m). She displaced 2,575 long tons (2,616 t). Propulsion was through 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, driving two shafts, which produced a total of 7,500 indicated horsepower (5,600 kW) and gave a maximum speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).[1] She was also rigged for sail and when installing the foremast, workmen noticed it was stamped “Devonport Dockyard 1757”.[3] Her main armament consisted of eight QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns with a secondary armament of eight 3-pounders. As well as four machine guns, the ship also mounted two submerged 14-inch (360 mm) torpedo tubes.[1]
Philomel was launched on 28 August 1890, and completed the following March.[1] After completing sea trials, she was commissioned in the Royal Navy on 10 November 1891. Commanded by Captain Charles Campbell, she was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Station although fitting work and working up trials meant that Philomel did not arrive in South Africa until June 1892.[3]
For six years, Philomel served on station, intercepting slave traders along the coast of Africa. In 1896, she participated in the Anglo-Zanzibar War, during which rebels murdered the Sultan of Zanzibar and seized his palace. Along with the three gunboats and HMS St George, she bombarded the palace fortress and the only ship of the Zanzibar Navy, HHS Glasgow. This action lasted less than an hour and resulted in the routing of the rebels.[3] The following year, Philomel was transferred to the West Africa component of the Cape of Good Hope Station and participated in the Benin Expedition.[4]
A refit was completed in 1898 after which Philomel returned to Cape of Good Hope Station. She served throughout the Second Boer War. Some of her complement of 220 men served in the field with the Naval Brigade. Two of her 4.7-inch guns were disembarked and used in the Battle of Colenso. After the war, she returned to Devonport and was paid off on 22 March 1902.[4][5] She was laid up in the Firth of Forth for several years before a refit was carried out in 1907 at Haulbowline Dock in Ireland. During her tow to Ireland she went adrift for a night in the North Sea when the rope to the towing vessel, HMS Hampshire, broke.[1]
Philomel was recommissioned in February 1908 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of Captain John Seagrave. She provided assistance in the wake of the earthquake at Messina in Sicily. The following year she served with the East Indies Station, running patrols from Aden in the Persian Gulf for two years and served in operations off Somaliland, 1908–1910.[6]
In 1913 the Admiralty agreed to lend Philomel to New Zealand as a seagoing training cruiser to form the nucleus of the newly established New Zealand Naval Forces, which was a new division of the Royal Navy. This was in response to the desire of the New Zealand Minister of Defence at the time, James Allen, who wanted to establish a local naval force which would co-operate with the fledgling Royal Australian Navy.[7]
Philomel was recommissioned in October 1913 in Singapore and later sailed for New Zealand to join HMAS Psyche and HMAS Pyramus, both Pelorus-class cruisers serving in New Zealand waters. Philomel was commissioned for New Zealand service on 15 July 1914, under the command of Captain Percival Hall-Thompson. Although mainly crewed by Englishmen, she was the country’s first warship.[1]
Philomel was on a short shakedown voyage to Picton on 30 July 1914, prior to taking on its first complement of New Zealand cadets, when it was recalled to Wellington Harbour in anticipation of the outbreak of war. Largely crewed by personnel from the Royal Navy, volunteers were brought on board to bring the ship up to full strength and after stocking up with supplies, she departed for Auckland to await further instructions.[8] On 15 August 1914 she formed part of the ocean escort for the New Zealand forces that were dispatched to occupy German Samoa (now Samoa). The escort would have been unlikely to offer much resistance to the German cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau that were known to be in the area. Fortunately, the convoy did not encounter the German ships. Philomel then steamed for the Kingdom of Tonga to deliver news of the hostilities with Imperial Germany before returning to New Zealand.[9]
By now the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, formed for service overseas, were ready to embark from Wellington on a convoy for the Middle East. Philomel escorted the convoy as far as Western Australia. Then, along with Pyramus, she sailed northeastwards for Singapore in search of the German cruiser SMS Emden, which was then carrying out raids in the Indian Ocean. The two ships, which would have been outgunned by the more modern Emden, had reached Christmas Island when they received news of Emden‘s sinking by HMAS Sydney. They arrived in Singapore on 12 November from where Philomel continued onto Port Said, escorting three French troopships.[10]
From late 1914, Philomel, needing maintenance and an update of equipment, was berthed at Malta and underwent an overhaul. This was completed by late January 1915 and she then started operations in the Mediterranean against the Turks.[11] On 8 February she landed an armed party in Southern Turkey where a large force of Turkish soldiers were encountered, resulting in three seamen being killed and three wounded. This action marked the first deaths in the war of New Zealanders serving with a New Zealand formation.[12]
Subsequently, Philomel was deployed in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf for much of the remainder of the year. In December 1915 she sailed to Bombay for maintenance work but was back in the Persian Gulf in January 1916,[13] continuing her patrolling. By the end of the year, her engines were giving trouble and her stern glands were worn out. A lengthy and costly refit was required and rather than incur this cost for a ship which was nearly at the end of her operational life, the Admiralty decided to give her to New Zealand and dispatched her home to be paid off. She duly arrived in Wellington Harbour in March 1917. A large portion of her Royal Navy crew were returned to England to be assigned to other berths.[14] Armament removed, Philomel was recommissioned as a depot ship in Wellington, supporting minesweeping operations until May 1919.[1]
In March 1921, on the creation of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, Philomel was recommissioned as a training base. She steamed from her berth at Wellington to the dockyard at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland. Moored alongside the training jetty, she was operated as a training facility for new recruits to the naval service, under the command of a series of officers from the Royal Navy including, for nearly six months in 1923, Commander Augustus Agar VC.[15] Training armament was installed and in 1925, her boilers and engines were removed to create more accommodation space. Further accommodation, in the form of wooden cabins, was later constructed on her deck. In October 1941, on the creation of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Philomel was recommissioned as the training base HMNZS Philomel.
Philomel was paid off and decommissioned on 17 January 1947 and her name transferred to the Devonport Naval Shore Establishment. On the day of her decommissioning, the New Zealand Naval Board sent a signal to Philomel which stated:
“…their regret at the passing from the service of the first of His Majesty’s New Zealand Ships, a ship that has meant so much to all who served in her. She goes as many good ships have gone before her, but when HMNZS Philomel’s colours are hauled down at sunset this evening, the tradition which she has established during her long career will live on in the depot to which she has given her name.”[16]
The hulk of Philomel was sold to Strongman Shipping Company, based in Coromandel. She was towed and deliberately ran aground in Coromandel harbour, near the wharf. After her fittings and parts were removed, she was towed out to sea and sunk in 100 fathoms near Cuvier Island on 6 August 1949, when sunk she was just 22 days shy of 59 years afloat. Much of the teak timber and some fittings went into a newly built coaster named Coromel, an amalgamation of Coromandel and Philomel.[1] Her crest is mounted to the gate of the Devonport Naval Base and her builders plate is on display in the William Sanders building which serves as the administrative Head Quarters of the shore establishment.[16] Additionally her mast has been used as a flag pole at HMNZS Tamaki and is now situated infront of the parade ground on the Jim Tichener Parade side of the base.
NZ Service – Leith was ordered on 1 November 1932 under the 1931 Programme. She was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 6 February 1933, launched on 9 September 1933 and commissioned on 10 July 1934. She was initially assigned to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, manned by the Chatham Port Division. Leith arrived at Auckland on 13 November 1934, and was deployed in the Pacific and locally in New Zealand waters.[1] She was recommissioned in December 1936 in order to continue to serve with the New Zealand Division and was again in July 1939. She had an active career in the Pacific, making numerous visits to Colonial possessions, and on one occasion taking Salote Tupou III, Queen of Tonga on a visit to outlying islands
HMS Leith Pae Koroki, Tauranga 1937.
The outbreak of the Second World War saw Leith still in the Pacific. In September 1939 she sailed to Singapore to carry out contraband control duty on the China Station. During the passage she called at Jervis Bay, Australia. Leith was deployed at Penang to carry out contraband control, and also to carry out surveillance on enemy ships in Dutch East Indies ports.[1] She was recalled from these duties in November and was ordered to sail to the UK to carry out convoy defence duties in Home Waters. She sailed from Penang on 7 November, travelling via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. She arrived at Gibraltar, where she was diverted to go to Freetown to join as an escort for an Atlantic convoy. She joined Convoy SL 14 at Freetown on 26 December, escorting it to the UK.[1] On arrival Leith was deployed to escort convoys. On 10 January she was diverted to join the sloops HMS Aberdeen and Bideford, and the destroyers Vidette, Wanderer, Warwick and Witch in escorting the inbound Convoy HG 14 into Liverpool. Leith was detached on 12 January and took passage for a refit at Penarth. The following day she was taken in hand by a commercial shipyard.[1]
After the completion of the refit in February she was nominated to serve with the Western Approaches Command. She joined the command at Liverpool on 2 February. On 11 February she joined the outbound Convoy OG 18 with HMS Bideford, and the destroyers HMS Active and Versatile. Leith and Bideford were detached on 17 February and joined the inbound Convoy HG 19, until 27 February. This pattern of convoy escort duties was followed throughout March to July. In July she was transferred to the Rosyth Escort Force for convoy defence in the North Western Approaches and North Sea.[1] She was soon withdrawn from operational service to attend to a fault in her No 1 Boiler. She was repaired at Belfast. After post-repair trials she resumed services with the Western Approaches Command on 12 August with the 41st Escort Group based at Liverpool. Here she covered the final stages of convoys between Gibraltar and Freetown.[1] On 28 August she picked up 27 survivors from the Finnish merchant Elle which had been sunk north-east of Ireland by German submarine U-101.[2]
In October she deployed with the sloop HMS Folkestone and the Flower-class corvettes Bluebell and Heartsease for the defence of the Atlantic convoys during the journey to the dispersal point of the outward convoys and for the final stage of the passage of the inward convoys. On 13 October she joined the outbound Convoy OB 228 from Liverpool to its dispersal point. On 16 October U-93 attacked Leith. She sighted the submarine on the surface and forced her to submerge. Leith then carried out an unsuccessful search for her attacker with HMS Heartsease.[1] The escorts were detached from the convoy on 17 October and sailed to join the inbound Convoy SC 7. On 18 October she rescued 19 survivors from the Estonian merchant Nora which had been torpedoed and sunk on 13 October by U-103.[2] Together with the sloops HMS Scarborough and Fowey and the corvettes Bluebell and Heartsease they attempted unsuccessfully to fight off the wolf pack attacks of a number of U-boats. Leith rescued survivors from three torpedoed merchant ships including Assyrian and Soesterberg before joining the inbound Convoy HX 79 which had also come under heavy U-boat attack. Leith gathered up three merchant ships and brought them into port.[1]
She made a full transatlantic crossing and return in November, escorting an outbound and inbound convoy, before returning to her usual pattern in December, covering the Freetown and Gibraltar convoys. On 9 December she was part of the escort for convoy OG 47 on its way to Gibraltar. The convoy came under attack on 20 December by the Italian submarine Mocenigo, which sank the merchant Manchester General.[1] Leith was detached from the convoy on its arrival on 25 December and sailed with an inbound convoy to Liverpool on 29 December. On her arrival she returned covering the convoys through the Western Approaches throughout January to April 1941. On 17 April she began a refit at Avonmouth which lasted until May, when she was nominated for convoy defence based in Newfoundland.[1]Leith sailed to join the Newfoundland Escort Force based at St. John’s on 6 June. She deployed with them throughout July and into August. She returned in August to redeploy with the Western Approaches Command. On 20 August she deployed with the destroyers HMS Gurkha and Lance, and the corvette HMS Zinnia and the other corvettes of the 5th Escort Group in the defence of the outward Convoy OG 71, consisting of 21 ships from Liverpool on passage to Gibraltar.[1] The Norwegian destroyer HNoMS Bath had been sunk the previous day, along with three merchants. The convoy continued to be attacked after the reinforcements arrived, despite constant anti-submarine operations. HMS Zinnia and four other merchants were sunk on 22 August. The rest of the convoy arrived at Gibraltar on 25 August.[1] Leith returned to Liverpool in September, escorting Convoy HG 72.
In October Leith was at Belfast, before joining the 43rd Escort Group for escort of convoys between UK and Freetown, being based at Londonderry Port. She spent the next couple of months escorting convoys before sailing on 28 November as an escort for a convoy to West Africa. She returned in January 1942 and from 17 January underwent repairs to her underwater equipment at Londonderry Port.[1] She returned to service on 31 January. Further escort duties took Leith along to African coast to Bathurst and back again. Her next major engagement came in August, when she was part of Convoy SL 119, consisting of 29 merchants. The convoy was detected and its position reported by U-214 on 25 August. The Wolf pack Blücher was ordered to carry out a concentrated attack. Leith carried out searches for U-boats and rescued the crew of the torpedoed merchant SS Zuiderkerk. After the arrival of the convoy, Leith underwent the replacement of her underwater dome for her sonar outfit at Greenock. After this was completed by October, she returned to Belfast.[1]
Also in October Leith was nominated to escort the military convoys for the allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch). She escorted a stores convoy late in October and spent November and December escorting convoys through the western Mediterranean. She carried these duties out until March 1943 when she return with her group to the UK. 1943 and the first half of 1944 she spent on the Freetown route.[1] In August she returned to the Mediterranean, undergoing an extensive refit at Gibraltar in September owing to her deteriorated condition after an extended period in active service in the Atlantic. The refit lasted until December, and in January 1945 she returned to the UK and joined the 38th Escort Group based at Portsmouth. She escorted convoys through the English Channel in February and March, and in April escorted the Dutch minelayer Van der Zaan as she laid mines in the English Channel.[1] After VE Day in May Leith was nominated to be reduced to the reserve fleet. She sailed to Rosyth in June where she was paid off, and laid up the following month.[1]
Leith was placed on the disposal list and sold in 1946 into merchant service.[1] She was renamed Byron, and later Friendship in 1948.[2] She was then acquired by the Royal Danish Navy in 1949 and renamed HDMS Galathea.[3] She undertook the second Galathea expedition, which circumnavigated the world in 1950–52 while doing deep sea oceanographic research, and was sold to be scrapped at Odense in 1955.
Gisborne Herald – 25 Mar, 2025 11:18 AM4 mins to read
SaveShare
HMNZS Manawanui in its home port of Gisborne. The vessel ran aground and sank off Samoa last year and will not be replaced by the Royal New Zealand Navy. Photo / Gisborne Heald
Defence Minister Judith Collins says the Samoan Government is about to announce the fate of Gisborne’s home ship HMNZS Manawanui, which sank off Samoa’s coast in October.
But the vessel, which could be salvaged or left in the sea, will not be replaced by the Navy.
Collins was in Gisborne to meet local National Party members with the next general election about 18 months away.
Manawanui is Gisborne’s third home ship after the frigate HMNZ Blackpool, which served in the Royal New Zealand Navy from 1965 to 1971, and the hydrographic vessel HMNZS Resolution, which served in the Navy from 1997 to 2012. On the Blackpool’s last visit to Gisborne in 1971, past and present crew members gave $5000 to endow a scholarship to assist the education of a Gisborne boy or girl each year.
Manawanui, a 100m hydrographic and deep diving support vessel commissioned in 2019, was officially welcomed for the first time at Gisborne on November 27, 2020.
Advertisement
Advertisement
A Commission of Inquiry is due to be released shortly although an interim report attributes the Manawanui incident to a series of human errors when the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been.
Collins said it was up to the Navy to decide when another ship would have Gisborne as its home port.
The loss of the Manawanui, which currently is lying on its side under 30 metres of water, meant frigate HMNZS Otago would now have a crew.
Advertisement
Three navy vessels were in “care and custody”, which “essentially means being tied up because of a lack of crew”.
But the Otago was almost ready to return to sea.
“We’ll have a crew for it now (from Manawanui). It will be great to see Otago back at sea as a proper warship. Our people need to be deployed. They get to do what they want to do.”
Collins said there had been “a massive hollowing out of our defence work in the critical trades”.
That lack of defence staff had not been a long-term issue but happened “around Covid” under the previous Government.
The “massive” problem had basically been resolved. Attrition rates had fallen from about 15.5 to about 6.7%. The staffing issue was not about numbers, but the critical trades.
Collins said it would take billions of dollars to reach the much-discussed 2% level for defence expenditure. The current defence spend was close to 1%.
The Defence Force (NZDF) did not have enough people in uniform, able to be deployed, or enough equipment or “platforms” (such as vehicles or facilities used to deploy equipment or personnel).
Many platforms needed to be replaced — every navy ship, bar one, needed to be replaced by 2030. The Government had gone out for tender on replacements for the Boeing 757s.
Collins said she did not want to get into specifics, financial- or time-wise, about future defence spending. She would not do that until the Defence Capability Plan, which was before Cabinet, was released.
The plan will describe specific investments planned for major capabilities within the air, maritime, land and information systems for the next 15 years. Electronic warfare, including drones, will also be covered.
“It’s a lot of money and it needs to be spent.”
When asked if such increased defence spending would result in less spending elsewhere, Collins replied: “There’s no security without national security. Anyone who thinks that we can continue our lives doing nothing is mad”.
Asked about the possibility of having troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement, Colins said discussions were ongoing with Britain and other countries about what could be done to support Ukraine. But it was premature “because we’re all waiting to see what happens”.
Since Collins spoke to the Gisborne Herald, the NZDF has announced proposed cuts of 374 civilian positions.
Collins told RNZ the job cuts were an operational matter for the NZDF.
“I trust the NZDF is ensuring taxpayer dollars are being spent to achieve maximum effect while prioritising military outputs.”
She was in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy from 11 March 1922 to 11 February 1935, where she exercised with cruisers, toured New Zealand ports, took part in ceremonial occasions, and went on annual Pacific Island cruises. This was in conjunction with her sister ship Veronica which was similar, but with small differences as they came from different commercial shipyards.
She left Auckland on 1 February 1935 for Singapore, where she was paid off to become a drill and training ship for the Straits Settlement Naval Volunteer Reserve.
HMS Laburnum was a Royal Navy Acacia-class sloop built by Charles Connell and Company, Scotstoun. She was scuttled during the fall of Singapore in 1942.
[edit]
She was laid down at the Scotstoun yard of Charles Connell and Company in February 1915, launched on 10 June 1915 and completed in August 1915.[1] The Acacia-class fleet sweeping sloops were adapted for escort work, minesweeping and as decoy warships.
[edit]
[edit]
Laburnum joined the First Sloop Flotilla on commissioning.[2] On 4 September 1915, the passenger liner Hesperian was torpedoed without warning by the German submarine U-20 southwest of Queenstown (now called Cobh) in the south of Ireland with the loss of 32 lives. Laburnum was one of several ships, also including the seaplane carrier Empress and the sloops Marigold and Veronica, to go to Hesperian‘s aid. Attempts to tow Hesperian to port failed, with the stricken liner sinking on 6 September.[3][4][5] The sinking of the Hesperian, which occurred despite an assurance to US President Woodrow Wilson from the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg that no passenger liners would be sunk without warning, provoked protests from America that resulted in the submarine campaign against merchant shipping in British waters being suspended for several months.[6][7]
On 24 April 1916, the Easter Rising, an armed rebellion by Irish republicans against British rule, began. Laburnum was ordered to Galway to defend the port on 25 April, arriving there on 26 April. On hearing reports that a group of rebels were advancing on the port, the Captain of Laburnum ordered her to open fire, with 10 shells being fired in the direction of the rebels and at a road on the outskirts of the city. On 28 April, Laburnum escorted a transport carrying troops to Galway.[8]
On 8 February 1917, the German submarine U-81 torpedoed the passenger steamship Mantola 143 miles (230 km) WSW of Fastnet Rock, causing Mantola‘s crew to abandon ship. U-81 remained in the vicinity until chased away by Laburnum when she arrived on the scene 2+1⁄2 hours later. Laburnum rescued 176 survivors of Mantola‘s passengers and crew (seven crewmen had been killed by a capsizing lifeboat) and tried to tow the steamship by the stern, but was unable to make headway. Mantola sank on 9 February.[9][10][11] On 17 February 1917, the Q-ship Farnborough was torpedoed by the German submarine U-83, but after a “panic party” faked abandoning ship, U-83 surfaced near Farnborough and was sunk by shellfire from the Q-ship. Farnborough herself was badly damaged by the torpedo, and was taken into tow by Laburnum and the sloop Buttercup after the destroyer Narwhal had taken off most of Farnborough‘s crew. Farnborough was beached at Mill Cove.[12][13] On 25 February 1917 Laburnum was patrolling to the west of the Blasket Islands, off the west coast of Ireland, when she was ordered to meet up with and escort the liner Laconia which was Liverpool-bound from the United States. Uncertainty about Laconia‘s location delayed the rendezvous between the ships, with the result that Laconia was torpedoed by the German submarine U-50 before Laburnum could arrive on the scene. While Laburnum could not prevent Laconia sinking, she did manage to rescue 292 passengers and crew. Twelve passengers and crew were killed.[14]
[edit]
She was in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy from 11 March 1922 to 11 February 1935, where she exercised with cruisers, toured New Zealand ports, took part in ceremonial occasions, and went on annual Pacific Island cruises. This was in conjunction with her sister ship Veronica which was similar, but with small differences as they came from different commercial shipyards.
She left Auckland on 1 February 1935 for Singapore, where she was paid off to become a drill and training ship for the Straits Settlement Naval Volunteer Reserve.
[edit]
As drill ship, Laburnum was equipped with independent wireless equipment, and housed a number of naval offices including Captain, Auxiliary Vessels and Captain, Extended Defences Office. Laburnum had her engines removed shortly after her arrival in Singapore in order to augment her accommodation. Hence she could not be fully utilised when war broke out in the Far East. With the evacuation of Penang, Laburnum also played host to the RNVR Penang Division, headed by Commander C C Alexander.
[edit]
Labernum was scuttled on 15 February 1942 when Singapore fell to Japanese forces. Her wreck was raised about 1946, and sunk off East Lagoon, Singapore, as part of an existing breakwater of old hulks, and finally removed and scrapped about 1967.
