AUXILIARY CRUISER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 81, 2 October 1940, Page 15

AUXILIARY CRUISER

NEW ZEALAND'S OWN

TRIAL IN HAURAKI GULF

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, October 1.

New Zealand's first auxiliary cruiser did a full-power trial in the Hauraki Gulf on Monday. She is of that intermediate class of merchantman—neither too large nor too small—which, for various reasons, among which are her speed, her sea-keeping qualities, and her ability to stay on patrol for long periods at a time without refuelling, refitting, or reprovisioning, makes her suitable for working in a combination of circumstances where it would not always be desirable to use battleships or cruisers. She can be .used, too, for releasing these types of ships from patrol work for other duties. Details may not be given of her speed and armament, but the care which has |been lavished on each has not had the purpose of enabling her to do her fighting running away. Like all ships of the Royal Navy, and unlike vessels of the Nazi navy, she has no big guns specially mounted to fight aft. Though it may be thought in some quarters that this ship has been a long time in the making, she is to all appearances a heartening job of work. She has been completely fitted with traps, combings, and doors, dividing her into a large number of watertight compartments. Again, extra space in her double bottoms, formerly used for cargo stowage, has been fitted with thousands of empty oil drums v shored up and sealed, so that even more watertight divisions have been created. The completion of this system alone has been a long job. Apart from the innumerable installa. tions that have been necessary to convert this former Pacific and Tasman trader into a fighting machine, the ship has been so changed inside that people who have travelled in her would find difficulty in recognising her. In most places she has been stripped right down, her former comforts and luxuries giving way to naval utility. The only public room which seems to retain its identity is the music room, now the wardroom, and even that has lost its ceiling. The cruiser did two hours' fullpower trial on Monday. The captain, first lieutenant, and some of the key men of both quarterdeck and lowerdeck are long-service Royal Navy men. Many of the others are from the Merchant Navy, others are from the • Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and others again ex-naval men from the Royal Fleet Reserve.