SUBMARINE AT WELLINGTON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 7 August 1945, Page 4

SUBMARINE AT WELLINGTON

VISIT BY BRITISH VESSEL Wellington, This Daj The first British submarine to ri»it Wellington has arrived in the bsrbonr. Arrangements will be made for the craft to oe berthed at a suitable wharf where it may be seen by the public. The submarine visited Gisborne on its way down to Wellington. The crew were entertained there by the mayor «nd civic authorities. Of about 700 tons, the submarine was built b.v Vickers Armstrong at Barrow and was first commissioned In November, 1043. She sank a total of 13 enemy ships in tJie Aegean Sen. four by torpedoes and nine by gunfire, !>efore the pnd of the war in Europe, resulted in her transfer lo the British Pacific Fleet. The captain is a young Australian, Lieutenant W. E. Littlejohn. D S.C., 8.A.N.V.11.. who before the war was a medical student.

Lieutenant Littlejohn’s first lieutenant is Lieutenant R. A. Hedgecock, R.N., the only regular na««I officer in (he ‘'boat.” as submarines are generally called. The torpedo officer is Lieutenant M. H. Friend, R.X.V.R., who was s student before (he war, and the navigating officer is Sub-Lieutenant G. F. Da. .mbe, R.X.V.K., who was still at school when the war broke out.

New Zealand has seen several American submarines since the war started but they have all been rather larger ihan the British boat. She belongs to a class which, with others of about the same tonnage, did magnificent work in the North Sea and the Mediterra: an. When the submarine was in Auckland recently, the depot ship for her officers and men was the Muritai peace-time Wellington harbour ferry.