H.M.S. LEITH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVX, Issue 268, 12 November 1934, Page 8

H.M.S. LEITH.

ARRIVES TO-MORROW.

MODERN IMPERIAL SLOOP.

REPLACING VERONICA.

H.M.S. Leith has reported that she expects to arrive in port at 6 o'clock to-morrow evening from England. She replaces H.M.S. Veronica as a sloop of the Imperial division of the Royal Navy on the New Zealand station.

Captain Oliver Bevir is in command, and has with him the following officers: Lieutenant C. H. C. Singleton, Lieutenant C. A. C. Montgomery, Surgeon-Lieu-tenant C. D. D. de Labilliere and SubLieutenant N. Scott-Elliott.

The captain was originally a gunnery officer, and received his seniority on September 21, 1932. He has served for considerable periods with the Navy in '.he Far East.

H.M.S. Leith, which is on her first commission, was joined by a crew from Chatham Depot on July 10 this year, and left Portland on July 23 to pay a visit to her name port, Leith, so well known to officers and men of the Grand Fleet during the war. Only one previous ship of the Navy appears to have been named the Leith, and that was more than a century ago, in the sailing days.

The new sloop returned to Chatham from August 1 to August. 13, whence she sailed for New Zealand, via Gibraltar (August 19-22), Malta (August 27-29), Port Said (September 2-3), Aden (September 9-13), Colombo (September 22-26), and Singapore (October 3-7). From there the sloop called at other ports in the Dutch East Indies, Thursday Island and Brisbane. She left the Queensland port on November 8 for Auckland direct.

On arrival here she will berth at oitlier the Sheerlegs wharf or the old training jetty. Official calls on the civic, Harbour Board and military representatives will probably be made on Wednesday. The Leith is one of the most modern type of sloop. 'Her tonnage is estimated at 1060, and her engines develop 2000 h.p. Fuel oil is used for the furnaces. Her armour consists, of two 4.7 in, one 3in and four three-pounder guns. Her designed speed is 10 knots. After a few days at Devonport cleaning up after her trip,' and subsequent to landing supplies for the New Zealand station, the Leith will proceed to the Hauraki Gulf for exercises. At present it is expected that she Avill act as part of the escort for H.M.A.S. Australia between December 15 and January 15, on the occasion of the visit of H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester.