CORVETTE BACK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 6

CORVETTE BACK

ARRIVAL OF ARBUTUS

YACHTSMAN COMMANDER

The second New Zealand ship to return from service with the British Pacific Fleet, the corvette Arbutus, berthed at the Devonport naval base this afternoon. She is commanded by Lieutenant Nigel Blair, R.N.Z.N.V.R., formerly a wellknown Wellington yachtsman and a winner of the Sanders Cup.

The first New Zealand ship to return from Pacific service was the Achilles, which recently sailed for Tokyo, and the next will be the Gambia. Both the Arbutus and the Arabis, which are sister ships, were given to New Zealand last year by the British Government, and the Arbutus arrived at Auckland last October after a voyage from the Fiji Group, where she struck a submerged shoal off Viwa Island and damaged her stem and rudder.

Lieutenant Blair, who is a member of both the Evans Bay and the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Clubs, was twice a member of the crew of the Wellington Sanders Cup contestant Lavina before he skippered Kitty to win the cup for Wellington in 1938 at Dunedin.

Shortly after the outbreak of war he joined the Navy and went to England with the New Zealand naval draft in September, 1940. After completing a preliminary course at the King Arthur Naval Depot, he was appointed second officer of the minesweeper Araby, which was engaged on patrol duty between Iceland and Scotland.

He remained in the Araby until appointed first officer of the New Zealand sweeper Scarba, in which he returned to New Zealand in 1943. He was next appointed to the command of the Castle class sweeper Waipu and later commanded the Scarba, finally taking charge of the Araby. After a preliminary voyage, he brought back to the Dominion the Government supply steamer Matai and later was transferred to the command of the Arbutus.