ADMIRALTY OIL TANKER

Southland Times, Issue 23227, 16 June 1937, Page 6

ADMIRALTY OIL TANKER

NUCULA TO BE LAID UP AT AUCKLAND (Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, June 15. When the Admiralty oil tanker Nucula arrived at Auckland last week with a cargo of fuel from San Pedro for the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy she had completed her last voyage in the service of the station. In accordance with the proposal announced last year by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones) it has been decided to lay the vessel up at Auckland, and an inventory of her equipment is now being taken as preliminary to this step. In addition to bringing supplies of oil from the United States for ships of the New Zealand Station the Nucula, in the past, has also been used as a supply ship for some of the warships when they have made their annual cruises to the Pacific Islands, meeting them at some point in the South Pacific and refuelling them for the continuation of their voyages. Such ships as the Veronica, the Leith, the' Diomede and the Dunedin have not had a long enough cruising range for them to undertake long cruises to the islands with no supplies of oil unless they have had the assistance of the Nucula. With the arrival last year of the modem cruiser Achilles and the approaching arrival this year of her sistership, the Leander, it has been found, however, that the Nucula can quite safely be dispensed with, these ships having sufficient cruising range for them to make cruises to isolated islands without difficulty. The Nucula has also been expensive to maintain. When she is finally laid up it is intended to store naval fuel in tanks provided for this purpose at the Devonport naval base.