NEW SLOOP DUE

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 14

NEW SLOOP DUE

FIRST VISIT OF HJ.S. LEITH A MODERN VESSEL On her first visit to Dunedin. H.M.S. Leith is due at 8 o'clock to-night, and will bo berthed at ilie Rattray street wharf, where she will remain till January 2S. when she will sail for Bluff and the West Coast Sounds. She is a new vessel in the Loyal Navy and replaces H.M.S. Veronica on the Now Zealand station.

Tlu Leitli arrived at Auckland on November 13 after a three-months’ voyage from England, calls being made at Gibraltar. Malta, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Dutch East Indies ports, Thursday Island, and Brisbane. At Colombo the sloop was in company, for several days, wilh H.M.S. Sussex, in which the Duke of Gloucester travelled to Australia. Classed as a convoy sloop, ihe Leith was built at Dcvonport Dockyard, England. and was launched on September 9, 1933. Her completion occupied nine months, and she was commissioned in .1 nly, 1934.

The ship’s complement totals 104, including Captain O. Bcvir and the following six officers : —Lieutenant C. H. C. Singleton, Lieutenant C. A. C. Montgomery (navigating officer). Sur-geon-Lieutenant C. D. D. do Labiliere, Snh-Licntcnaut N. Scott Elliot. Gunner B. H. Brett, and Warrant-Engin-eer C. G. Kcrsvrill. None of the officers has been on the Now Zealand station before, but several of the ratings have been here on other Imperial ships.