REFITTING OF SLOOPS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 50, 22 November 1932, Page 9

REFITTING OF SLOOPS

Work Done at Devonport

JOBS FOR CIVILIANS Dominion Special Service. Auckland, Nov. 14. The refit of the sloops Veronica and Laburnum at the Devonport naval base was completed on Saturday. The sloops undergo an annual overhaul and refit, but the result of the latest repairs, which have extended over six weeks, will be to make them sound and seaworthy, with adequate maintenance, until they are relieved, in 1934 and 1935 respectively, by the latest type of oil-burning vessel. The refitting of the sloops at the naval base has always proved efficient in the past and may have influenced the Admiralty in its decision to have H.M.S. Diomede, flagship of the New Zealand Division, refitted here next year, instead of having her make the long trip to England and back. During the last six weeks constant employment has been given to over 100 men at the naval base. Part of the refit work on the sloops has, of course, been done by naval ratings, but the work' is so extensive that they could not hope to carry it out unaided in reasonable time.

Civilian labour is engaged and controlled by Engineer-Commander O. Marchant, R.N.R., engineer officer at the base, and to the workmen who have been engaged on the refit of the sloops an average weekly sum of nearly £450 has been paid out in wages.

Workmen of various trades have been given employment at the base. During the past 12 years Commander Marchant has selected his own team of craftsmen, numbering in all over 200. and he has nothing but praise for their work. “The standard of labour is quite as high as it is at the Naval Dockyards in England,” he said. While the sloops have been undergoing refit shore labour has been employed in overhauling and repairing boilers, engines, decks, electrical equipment, plating, and generally in “spring cleaning” the ships from stem to stern. Plumbing work has had to be done, decks have had to be re-caulked and cabins renovated and, in the case of the Veronica, it was necessary to replace three plates in the hull. Many of the men engaged by Commander Marchant for the work are former employees at city foundries and other workshops who have been, thrown out of regular employment as a result of trade depression.