DOMINION'S NEW CRUISER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18567, 27 November 1923, Page 5

DOMINION'S NEW CRUISER.

COMING OUT THIS EAR. DESIGN AND ARMAMENTS. [PEOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, f- i. 10. It is proposed in the near future to replace H.M.S. Chatham with an up-to-date cruiser now known as the Dunedin. The Admiralty has consented to this exchange, and the Dunedin will leave for Dominion waters at the end of the year, or possibly sooner. A change of "name is to be made, however, and the cruiser is to be known as H.M.S. New Zealand.

The Dunedin has no war record. Her keel was laid during the war at Messrs." Armstrong's. She was launched on November 19, 1918, arid completed in 1 October, 1919. She has a designed horse-power of i 40,000, the mean horse-power on trial!* being 42,145. Her displacement. is 4650 tons, and she travels, 29 knots .an hour. The cruiser is fitted for oil fuel, and has an oil-carrying capacity of 1050 tons. - In length she is 472 ft. 6in., in breadth 46ft., and her draught fully loaded is 16ft. 9in She carries six 6in. guns, two 3in. guns, four 3-pounders, : two ' 2-pound pompoms, two machine-guns, eight Lewis guns, and four triple revolving torpedo tuDes. . ~'."' Since H.M.S. Dunedin was commissioned she has been practically all the time with the First Light Cruiser Scmadron, as part of the Atlantic Fleet. She is fitted' as a flagship, with extra quarters for admiral and staff." At the : present time she is at Invergordon, on Cromarty Firth, Scotland, and is commanded by the Hon. Alexander Ramsay, who, it will be remembered, married Princess Patricia, daughter of the Duke of Connaught. In all probability a special volunteer crew will ■'■. be selected to take the ship out to New Zea land and to bring H.M.S. Chatham home again. ■-'■ ■ ■-• "^'- ;V ';\'V