SALE OF FRIGATES

Press, Volume C, Issue 29566, 15 July 1961, Page 10

SALE OF FRIGATES

Taupo And Tutira fN.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 14. Two of the Royal New Zealand Navy's reserve fleet frigates, H.M.N.Z.S. Taupo and Tutira, are being offered for sale by tender. There have already been inquiries both in New Zealand and from overseas.

The disposal of the. ships resulted from the Navy’s reequipment programme, said the Minister of Defence <Mr Eyre) tonight. They had been replac ’d by the frigates Otago and Taranaki, and they were past the stage where it was economic, or even possible to keep them in the state of preparedness that was essential today, even for ships in reserve, he said.

“They were built in 1944 and saw war service in the Atlantic with the Royal Navy as the Loch Shin and the Loch Morlech,” said Mr Eyre “We bought them as part of a group of six in 1948 and gave them their present names. TTiey saw their second war in Korea and they have been worked hard ui the unending routine work that always falls to a frigate. But they are old and tired, and so they have been replaced.

“It is interesting to recall that 13 years ago New Zealand bought the six Loch class ships for £1367.000 Today a single Otago class frigate costs £5 sm. "The comparison is not. of course, quite fair The Lochs were not new and they were surplus. The Otago would be new, built specially for us, and far more effective than ships built during the war.”

All armament had been removed from the 1400-ton ships. Radio and radar equipment had been returned to store and they had been "cannibalised” to provide spares for the four remain-, ing Loch-class ships. They could not be sailed under their own power. Part of the terms of sale would be that they should be towed away from the Devonport naval dockyard, said Mr Syre,