Vanguard Too Big For Most Ports In New Zealand

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26849, 13 August 1948, Page 6

Vanguard Too Big For Most Ports In New Zealand

P.A. AUCKLAND, Aug. 12. Few New Zealand ports will be capable of accommodating H.M.S. Vanguard when she brings the Royal Family to New Zealand early next year. The battleship will be the largest warship to visit the Dominion, and her size and the expense of maintaining a vessel of her class at sea will automatically restrict her movements in New Zealand waters. The draught of the Vanguard is still a secret, but comparisons of displacement and design indicate that she requires considerably more water than the battle cruiser Hood. The latter drew 33 feet when she led a special service squadron of the Royal Navy into Auckland in 1924. With a standard displacement of 42,500 tons, the Vanguard is also larger and heavier than both the Howe and the Renown, two other capital ships which have berthed at Auckland. Even the Auckland Harbour, which is considered certain to be included in the Vanguard’s itinerary, offers no handsome margin of water for the battleship. With the advantage of the tide, however, she would have no difficulty in crossing the shallow part of the channel in the vicinity of the North Head, and the deepest berth at the Princes wharf would not require much additional dredging to comply with her requirements. De France, a 45,000-ton ship with a draught of over 35 feet, was accommodated at this wharf.