HISTORIC SHIP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23205, 1 June 1937, Page 2

HISTORIC SHIP

PHILOMEL’S CAREER SERVICE IN THE WAR USEFUL DAYS AHEAD For the first time in almost three years, the naval training and depot ship Philomel will be moved on June 12 from her present berth at the old training jetty at the Devonport naval base and towed to the Calliope wharf in Auckland. The Philomel will remain at the Calliope wharf until the demolition of the training jetty is completed. a task which is expected to take about a month, and will then be towed back to a berth on the inside of the new wharf. With the exception of a short period in 1934, when she was berthed alongside the extension jetty at the Devonport end of the sheerlegs wharf, the Philomel (says the New Zealand Herald) has been moored at the training jetty ever since her propellers were removed and her engines dismantled in 1924. Once every three or four years she has been taken into the Calliope dock to have her hull cleaned, and this work will be done again towards the end of the year. Most familiar of the warships which have been attached to the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy in the last 20 years, the Philomel has been used purely as a training and depot ship since March I, 1921, when she was recommissioned for the purpose at Wellington, being taken to Auckland later in the year. In the last 16 years hundreds of New Zealand seamen, boys, and stokers have been trained on her, and to-day her hull is still so sound and her utility so obvious that she is likely to remain on the station for many more years The Philomel is now over 47 years old. She was completed in January, 1890, and commissioned shortly afterwards. The first 10 years of her service was done on the Cape of Good Hope and West African stations, and then for six years she was in English waters. On October 23. 1913, the Philomel was commissioned for the New Zealand station, and she has been in those waters ever since, being one of the veterans of the British Navy and haying the longest record of service in New Zealand waters of any ship attached to the station. During the Great War the Philomel saw varied service. When the Main Body was despatched she went with the‘Minotaur, the Pysche and Ibuki as convoy to the troopships. She parted company with the transports at Albany and after steaming with the Pyramus in search of the German warship Emden. went to Port Said to convoy three French transports to Aden Afterwards she operated in this locality until she was ordered to re turn to Wellington lale in 1916