FULL POWER TRIAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 261, 2 October 1940, Page 7

FULL POWER TRIAL.

FIRST AUXILIARY CRUISER,

WAR AGAINST RAIDERS.

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Oct. 1

New Zealand's first auxiliary cruiser did a full power trial in Hauraki Gulf on Monday. She is fit to take lier place with those many other freshly-guiscd merchantmen which, since the first watches.of the war, have been playing an invaluable and heroic part in cementing Britain’s blockade of the Axis Powers and in holding the seas against furtive enemy raiders. The task of the new armed merchant cruiser is not that of a raider. She is openly and proudly a warship. The White Ensign flies where the “Red Duster” used to stream before the wind; guns point where passengers used to walk; and uniformed officers and men plainly indicate her purpose. She is of that intermediate class of merchantman —neither too large nor too small—which, for Various reasons, among which are her speed, her seakeeping 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 natural circumstances where it would not always be desirable to use battleships or cruisers. Another value which she possesses is that she can be used for releasing these types of ships from patrol work for other duties.

Slie is .not intended to stand in battle against anything upward of a light cruiser,‘though there is no doubt that, like the Rawalpindi, she would do so. But New Zealand, may be confident that she is equipped to deal with any raider that began life as a merchantman.

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 tall ships of the Royal Navy, and unlike vessels of the Nazi, Navy, she has no big guns specially mounted to fight aft.

RECONSTRUCTION WORK

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. Those who planned and supervised her reconstruction may justly be proud of the result, and it is a pity that wartime makes it impossible for the country which is giving her to the Navy to see how fit she is to stand alongside any auxiliary cruisers that have been converted in other parts of the world. Such conversion cannot be the quick job that many might expect. For instance, in the usual naval manner, she has been completely fitted with traps, combings, and doors, dividing her into a large number of watertight compartments. .Again, extra space in lifer double bottoms, formerly used for cargo stowage, has been fitted with thousands of empty oil drums, shored up and sealedj so that even more watertight divisions have been created. The completion of this system alone has been a long joj>. Apart from the innumerable installations that have been necessary to convert the one-time peaceful Pacific and Tasman trader into a fighting machine, the ship has been so changed inside that her former passengers 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 a two hours’ full power trial on Monday, with the water screaming fast along her flanks. The captain, the first lieutenant, and some of the key men of both quarterdeck and lower-deck are long-service Royal Navy men. Many of the others are from the Merchant Navy, others from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and others are ex-naval men from the Royal Fleet Reserve.