RIMU LAUNCHED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 213, 9 September 1941, Page 6

RIMU LAUNCHED

CEREMONY TO-DAY

SECOND OF FLEET

CITY-BUILT MINESWEEPER His Majesty's Minesweeper Rimu . slid smoothly down the slipways at . the Marine Department's construc- j tion yard at Auckland this morning j to join her sister ship Hinau. i launched only a fortnight ago. in the j sparkling waters of the Waitemata. j The ceremony was performed by • Mrs. Parry, wife of the chief of the j naval staff. Commodore W. E. Parry, j C.8.. R.N., who sent the stout little . ship down to the sea with her bows shining with New Zealand wine and the invocation: "May God bless her and all who serve in her." All was ready at 9 o'clock, when the workmen started removing the 800 wedges that held the Rimu from her natural element. Starting slowly, she gradually gathered way down the greased slips. The Papakura camp band played the National Anthem and the New Zealand Ensign, Union Jack and White Ensign were broken out as the ship, with a huge splash, made contact with the water, to be quickly picked up lav launches and later towed to her fitting-out berth. Commodore Parry, who expressed regret at the unavoidable absence of the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, congratulated all connected with the construction of the ship and those associated with her successful launch. "Even in the Royal dockyards. where ships are launched almost daily, ships sometimes refuse to move when they should," he said. "There was also the case of a ship which launched herself and the lady performing the ceremony had a struggle to reach the bottle in time.

Admiralty Design After referring to the various preliminaries and the general operations involved in the building of a ship, Commodore Parry' said the Rimu was of an Admiralty design that had been modified to accommodate the machinery in the Dominion. :.\?o the use of New Zealand timber. It was a mystery to him. he added, that there were not more firms engaged in the building of ships in New Zealand. Since steel had superseded wood in the construction of ships the industrv appeared to have languished for some reason. The Dominion's life blood was dependent on ships, yet it was necessary to go abroad to have them built.

Shortage of steel was said to be the trouble, said the commodore, but there was plenty in Australia, where a fine ship-building industry was being established. Now a start had beer, made in New Zealand with the building of naval ships it was hoped that there would be a rapid expansion. The absence of iron was not a bar, for Japan had achieved impressive results and no iron was produced there.

•■I feel that there is a wonderful opportunity for enterprising firms, and I feel that the opportunity will be taken," h5 added. ""The next ships to be built in Auckland will be steel minesweepers. Australia is building corvettes and destroyers. We would be pleased if we could have this type of ship built here also, and we may get them yet. After the war there will be a great need of ships and it would be a fine thing if New Zealand could build ships for her own use. I feel sure that the development of shipbinlding is inevitable in this great Dominion."

Powerful Machinery Speaking on behalf of the contractors, Senior Foundry and Shipbuilders, Limited, Mr. E. Rhodes referred to the many schooners, barques and barquentines for trade with the Islands and Australia that had been built on the Waitcmata in the past and stated that, with the use of Australian steel, it should be possible to build fine ships in New Zealand again.

The Rimu would be propelled by the machinery of the well-known coa -tal ship Rarawa and would have more power than was usual in a minesweeper of this class, he said. The speaker referred in particular to the work of Mr. Charles Bailey, oldest master shipwright in Auckland. who had laid out the lines of the Rimu.

At the conclusion of the ceremony Mrs. Parry was presented with a young rimu tree to mark her important part in the ceremony. Official guests were later entertained by the Government at morning tea. (Sec picture on Page 5.1