The Inverell Prepares For Her New Role

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30808, 21 July 1965, Page 11

The Inverell Prepares For Her New Role

Her hull is coated brown with priming paint, compressed air lines and power cables litter her upper deck, and the blue glare of electric welders hurts the eyes—the minesweeper H.M.N.Z.S. Inverell, now under refit at Auckland, looks anything but a trim warship.

By early August, however, she will be ready to replace the frigate H.M.N.Z.S. Rotoiti as the Navy’s training ship. Wherever possible the habitability of the ship is being improved. Bunks are being provided for chief petty officers and petty officers, but hammocks will remain for the trainees and ship’s lower ratings.

| New kit lockers are to be fitted, and cafeteria messing will replace the old and cumbersome broadside method. In this way ratings draw their meals direct from the galley servery, instead of having the food carried from the galley to their individual messes and served there. Advantages Present plans call for the ship’s company to live in the for’ard mess deck, while the trainees will live aft. This gives obvious advantages both in control and training. Accommodation is not the only item on the ship’s refit. The Inverell has lost her minesweeping gear aft. This has been taken out to make more room for the trainees, and it has also allowed the after deckhouse to be extended to provide more room for stowage.

Both the ship’s 40mm Bofors guns have been removed. Before they are returned to the Inverell they will be overhauled completely. Down Below Down below, the ship’s boilers, engines, and other machinery are being checked carefully. Some ratings, mainly from the paid-off frigate Pukaki. have joined the Inverell, but the majority will come aboard shortly before she commissions. The present training ship Rotoiti will provide the bulk of the Inverell’s officers and ratings. After joining the fleet, the Inverell is expected to sail for sea trials in the Hauraki Gulf before taking on her training role in earnest.— (Royal New Zealand Navy Press Release.)