H.M.N.Z.S. ARABIS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25391, 14 January 1948, Page 6

H.M.N.Z.S. ARABIS

REFITTING AT NAVAL BASE PART IN CELEBRATIONS AT WAITANGI (P.A.) AUCKLAND, January 13. The corvette Arabis is to be recommissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy on January 27. The ship, which has been in reserve since the last German minefields were cleared from the Hauraki Gulf 18 months ago, is being refitted at the Devonport naval dockyard, and after sea-going trials she will rejoin her sister ship Arbutus in an active role on the station. , The Arabis will be commanded by Commander L. P. Bourke D.S.C., E.D., R.N-Z.N., who has been in charge of H.M.N.Z.S. Tamaki, the new entry training establishment on Motuihi Island Other officers of the ship have yet to be appointed. One of the first duties of the recommissioned ship will be to visit Waitangi in company with the Arbutus and a harbour defence motor-launch for the Navy’s commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6 and for ceremonial hoisting of the Union Jack on the 110-foot flagstaff which the Navy erected in November, 1946. A guard will be paraded by the Tamaki and a band by the Royal Marines of H.M.N.Z.S. Bellona. The salute is to be taken by Commodore G. M- W. Simpson, C.8.E., Chief of the New Zealand Naval Returning, from Waitangi, the corvettes will visit Kawau and one will act as flagship for the Royal Yacht Squadron’s regatta on February 7. They will also accommodate the crews of naval whalers and cutters which are to race from Rangitoto Beacon to Kawau. Similar in design to the Arbutus, which has been retained in commission since the war, the Arabis is a corvette of the 'Flower class, displacing 925 tons. She was commissioned in Britain by the New Zealand Navy and brought to New Zealand in 1944. She served in the Pacific with the 25th ApV'Submarine and Minesweeping Flotilla. At the end of the war she was fitted out as a minesweeper.