CRUISER GAMBIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25046, 9 November 1944, Page 4

CRUISER GAMBIA

ARRIVAL IN AUCKLAND

WELCOME AT DOCKYARD

IMPRESSIONS OF THE SHIP

The cruiser Gambia, most powerful ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy, entered Waitemata Harbour yesterday on her first visit to Auckland, and berthed at the Devonport naval dockyard. Skies which had been leaden throughout the morning began to break into blue as she rounded North Head shortly before midday, and she came slowly into her berth with her many guns, heavy superstructure and towering masts limned sharply against a gleaming background. From the ship came three gay airs played by the ship's band of Royal Marines, smartly clad in blue battledress and berets. From the landing jetty, where there was a small but vociferous crowd of next-of-kin, mostly wives and mothers, there rose the excited cheers and greetings of relatives long separated from their menfolk. Auckland is by now well accustomed to war reunions, but there is still something about the arrival of sailors home from the sea which no station platform can completely capture, and the welcome at the dockyard had this indefinable and thrilling undercurrent. A Wile's Anxiety A young woman probably struck the note." In vain she had searched the faces of all the men peering down from the cruiser. "Whoever said sailors do not look alike?" she complained despairingly, and took direct action to discover her own. "Jimmy, where art thou? Jimmy, love, come up from below. Will somebody please find Jimmy for me and send him down here quickly!" Eventually Jimmy was found and rather self-consciously withstood the attention attracted by the storm of enthusiasm with which his wife greeted his appearance. There were bound to liq beards among men home from foreign service, but none of those on shore had ever seen a better or a finer display than that sported by a petty-officer. Surmounting it, like the last tier on a wedding-cake, were two waxed spikes, fully two and a-half inches long. The petty-officer ran the gauntlet of many comments, admiring and otherwise, but it was not until the shout went up: "Oh, look at Henry the Eighth," that he fled to safer parts. Bewildering Maze of Devices From the shore the Gambia looks what 6he is, a well-armed, fast, cleancut warship in which everything has been subordinated 1o her pre-eminent purpose —that of fighting. She has an amazing collection of weapons and special items of equipment, and everywhere the glance goes there is something which shouts that she has been on the serious and dangerous occasions of war.

But if this impression is created h.v her external appearance, how much more is it emphasised on board. So soon as the visitor plunges into her interior, he is constantly lieing reminded that the Gambia is a warship, laid down, constructed and launched for the protection of herself and her own and for the destruction of all things of the enemy's which she may find. She is a bewildering maze of devices, contrivances, weapons and arrangements which cannot be described. Oats and Tortoises However, no sailor ever went to sea, either in peace or in _ war, without taking something with him which stirs memories of the shore and the softer things of life. With the Gambia, as with many other warships, the reminder comes from pets, photographs, a host of little tics with home. Naturally the pets include cats—father, mother and sole survivor of two families of kittens. The others succumbed to the exigencies of service at sea. There are also tortoises, or there were until most of them went ashore yesterday and found their way in due time to various naval homes. Once they numbered 20, from some no bigger than a man's palm to a big fe'low about 12 inches long. Thev were kept in a locker on the main deck and one or two perished when a heavy sea found its way into their home and placed them in an element which was not their own. Some of the members of the ship's company would dearly have liked to bring strange monkeys from India, but fortunately for some of Auckland's suburbs they were not brought on board. Service in Every Sea The officers and crew are a happy mixture of British and New Zealand men. Between them, they have fought the Japanese, the Germans and the Italians in the last five years, and have sailed into almost every sea in the world on active service. A warrant-officer was decorated in the famous destroyer Cossack during one of her exploits on,the coast of Norway; an officer, son of an admiral who visited New Zealand in the cruiser Powerful early in the century, won the D.S.C. in another destrover; and officers and men, in whatever ships thev have served, have seen much of the war at sea. An English town of the Midlands, Huddersfield, adopted the Gambia, and reminders of this adoption are to be found in two pianos presented to the ship. Gift by Indian Prince Another piano came from India, from His Highness Prince Hanwant Singhji of Jodhpur, and bears a plate to that effect as it stands in one corner of the severely Spartan wardroom. This plainness is to be found throughout the cruiser. There is nothing which is not necessary, save for the little things which officers and men have kept to remind them of the homes which they have in a hundred parts of Britain and New Zealand, and even Australia, and everything is subordinated to the demands of a ship at sea in wartime. But, notwithstanding this, the Gambia, even after tropical service, is a clean ship and obviously a happy one, and a magnificent addition to the strength of the Royal New Zealand Navy and to the contribution which it is busily making to the plans of the Allies.

NATIONAL RECREATION MINISTER'S INTENTIONS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday A statement that later in the year lie intended to present to Parliament his plans and ideas for the future development of national recreation in the Dominion was made by tho Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Parry, in addressing the annual meeting of the New Zealand Council of Sport. At present tho main concern, he said, Was to assist in bringing the war to a successful conclusion, and to that end they would have to devote all the available materials and labour. The year that lay ahead, however, would bo of supreme importance in planning post-war projects for recreation. Among matters specifically mentioned by Mr Parry was the development of beaches with supervised playgrounds and patrols for children, so that tired mothers could enjoy a rest. DANGEROUS MAGPIES Near a sheep station in tho North Island is a well-known avenue of pine trees, half a mile long, that has to be avoided by schoolchildren on account of the magpies present there, states the Forest and Bird Protection Society. Shepherds and drovers have had their hats knocked off by the birds, and dogs will not go near the place unless accompanied by their owners, and even then they keep close to the men. CARGO PILLAGING Goods valued at £.164 have been pillaged from ships, and in transit between the North and South Islands, during the Inst three months, according to the report of an importer made to the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association. It is possible that some of the goods were lost on their way to New Zealand. The goods were consigned to several firms*