VISIT TO BLACK PRINCE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27072, 22 June 1953, Page 13

VISIT TO BLACK PRINCE

LORD FREYBERG AND MR HOLLAND

T/Vew Zealand Press Association; WELLINGTON, June 20. *On the evening of the Coronation naval review at Spithead, the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Holland), Mrs Holland, and Lord and Lady Freyberg visited H.M.N.Z.S. Black Prince, which had taken part in the review. This is reported in a dispatch received by the Navy Department from the Black Prince.

The visit was made after Lord and Lady Freyberg and Mr and Mrs Holland had dined aboard the liner Orcades.

It was the last night aboard for the commanding officer, Captain Q. V. M. Dolphin, D. 5.0., R.N., who has now relinquished his command to Captain J. F. Whitfield. D. 5.0., R.N.

The Prime Minister, addressing the officers, expressed the New Zealand Government’s appreciation of the services rendered to the Royal New Zealand Navy by Captain Dolphin. Mr and Mrs Holland and Lord and Lady Freyberg- remained aboard for about two hours, and spoke informally to many of the ship’s officers. Next morning Captain Dolphin left the ship to the strains of “Now is the Hour,” after the arrival aboard of Captain Whitfield. Soon after 11 a.m. the Black Prince weighed anchor and passed along the seven miles of warships still assembled at Spithead, out into the English Channel.

The Black Prince is now crossing the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean Fleet, with which she will serve for the next two months before returning to New Zealand.