Relic of Pacific war returns

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 32

Relic of Pacific war returns

A 44-year-old piece of New Zealand naval history returned home last week in the frigate H.M.N.Z.S. Canterbury. A brass porthole from the New Zealand warship H.M.N.Z.S. Moa, sunk by Japanese bombers in the Solomon Islands in 1943, has been recovered and is now destined for the Naval Museum at Devonport H.M.N.Z.S. Canterbury collected the item during a two-day visit to Honiara. The captain of the frigate,

Commander John Granville, said the brass porthole was in surprisingly good condition. Its glass is cracked, a legacy of the air attack that sank the 838-ton ship on April 7, 1943. H.M.N.Z.S. Moa and her sister ship Kiwi were both in the Solomons in January, 1943, when they made an attack against the Japanese submarine I1. The Kiwi rammed the. submarine several times' but had to return to Auck-

land for repairs. The Moa survived the action but was sunk when a big Japanese bomber force attacked Tulagi Bay three months later. The Moa sank in four minutes with the loss of five crew. Seven other sailors were seriously injured in the attack. The porthole, known in naval jargon as a scuttle, will be displayed in the Naval Museum at Devonport as a reminder of New Zealand’s naval role in the Pacific war.