U.S. DESTROYER’S VISIT

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 4

U.S. DESTROYER’S VISIT

Arrival At Auckland Next Monday PURELY INFORMAL CALL TO PORT (Special to The Times) AUCKLAND, October 24. One of the most modern vessels of her type in the UniJed States fleet and the most recently-launched warship to visit New Zealand, the 1500-ton destroyer Maury is due to arrive at Auckland from Pago Pago next Monday. She will remain in port until November 9, when she will leave on her return voyage to San Francisco. The Maury’s visit to Auckland is part of a long-distance cruising programme which she has been carrying out in association with other vessels of the United States Navy in the Pacific. It is also the first extended ocean cruise which she has made since her launching this year. 1 This will be the third occasion in the last two years that Auckland has received a visit from units of the United States Navy. At the beginning of last year the destroyers Preston and Smith paid a short call and earlier this year the heavy cruiser Louisville was in port for some days. The Maury’s visit will be purely an informal one and although it is expected that she will be berthed on the city side of the harbour it is not yet known whether members of the public will be invited to inspect her. Lieutenant-Commander E M. Thompson is in command of the destroyed and he has under him a complement of about 190. The ship’s armament consists of five sin guns, eight 12in torpedo tubes and eight machine-guns. Her speed is about 36J knots. The Maury takes her name from a famous figure in United States naval history, Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, who last century did more for American naval, meteorology, oceanography and hydrography than any other American. Early in the century he was a midshipman in the United States warship Vincennes, which made a historic circumnavigation of the globe. Later he was partially crippled and was given charge of work which resulted in the development of the United States Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office. It was also Commander Maury who drew the attention of the world to the necessity for combined action in ocean meteorology. On the outbreak of the American Civil War Commander Maury threw in his lot with the South. After the war he was forced to leave the country and as Imperial Immigration Commissioner for the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico he attempted to found a Virginian colony in that country. The attempt failed and for a time Commander Maury lived in England until the American authorities were persuaded to allow him to return to the United States, when he obtained a position as a professor of meteorology.