R.N.Z.N. ANNOUNCES CRUISE PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28178, 17 January 1957, Page 5

R.N.Z.N. ANNOUNCES CRUISE PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, January 16. The Royal New Zealand Navy announced its 1957 cruise programme this afternoon. Most important of its ship movements will be the departure from Auckland, via Sydney, about April of the cruiser Royalist for a year’s service on the Far East station. The Royalist will end her roundNew Zealand cruise at Auckland on March 21 and will then undergo a refit before being recommissioned for the Far East. She will do working-up exercises out of Sydney. Probably in March, the frigates Pukaki and Rotoiti will leave New Zealand for the Christmas Island area to act as meteorological reporting ships for the British hydrogen bomb test. The Rotoiti is refitting at Auckland and will be msSlned by a

crew from her sister ship, Hawea —to be decommissioned. The minesweeper Stawell will carry out her usual training programme. The survey ship Lachlan is finishing her survey of the east coast and will shortly sail to the north coast of the South Island, where she will chart from Cape Farewell to French Pass. While the Lachlan works in South Island waters, one of her survey launches will chart Port Taranaki and approaches, and the other launch will do the same at Nelson. In the winter months, the Lachlan will sail to Tonga to begin surveying Nukualofa harbour. In March, the Endeavour will return from the Antarctic for a refit. She will return to the Antarctic about December.