WARSHIPS AT SEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21982, 13 December 1934, Page 12

WARSHIPS AT SEA

DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH ESCORT FOR THE PRINCE THE SUMMER PROGRAMME All four warships of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy are now absent from Auckland. H.M.S. Dunedin, flagship of Rear-Admiral F. Burgos Watson, H.M.S. Diomede, commanded by Captain Cosmo Graham, and H.M.S. Leith, commanded by Captain Oliver Bevir, sailed for Wellington yesterday, and H.M.S. Laburnum, commanded by Commander A. H. Maxwoll-Hyslop, is on a cruise to. Southern ports. After providing a JRoyal escort for Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, when he arrives from Australia on Saturday, the Dunedin and Diomede will remain at Wellington until December 20, and will return to Auckland on December 22. Early in the' new year the Dunedin will be withdrawn for an extensive overhaul and refit, which will be completed about April. The Diomede will make a-sum-rner cruise to the South, leaving Auckland on February 5 for Gisborne, Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Picton and Wellington, returning to Auckland on March 11.

The Leith will'remain at Wellington until January 5, and will then make an extended cruise to Southern ports, her first cruise in New Zealand waters. From Wellington she will carry out the following itinerary:—Picton, January 5-8; Oamaru; January 9-14; Akaroa, January 14-13; Lyttelton, January 18-21; Dunedin, January 22-28; Bluff, January 29-February 4; West Coast Sounds, February 5-11; Russell, February 14-21; return to Auckland, February 22. The Leith will then remain at Auckland until March 6, when she will leave for Wellington. The sloop will bo at Wellington from March 8 to April 10, and during this period her ratings will undergo musketry training at Trentham. She will return to Auckland on April 12. The Laburnum, which will also bo one of the warships in the Royal escort, will be at Wellington until January 5, when she will leave , for Gisborne and Auckland, arriving at Auckland on January 15.