HIS EXCELLENCY SAILS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 219, 12 April 1933, Page 7

HIS EXCELLENCY SAILS

Departure from Auckland i VISIT TO ISLANDS j Press Association. —Copyright. ; Auckland, April II. —W.illi a hand j i playing, seaplanes soaring overhead j | and naval guns booming out a salute j I from (he Calliope dockyard H.M.S. i Diomede left. Auckland this afternoon, i taking the Governor-General and Cany ■ Bledisloe on an official visit lo the Pacific j Islands. A large crowd cheered as the | cruiser left the wharf. Five minutes before sailing time a i postal van drew up to the warship's side and mail for the islands was hurriedly put aboard. The cruiser made a striking picture as she swept out into the stream, her grey sides spick and span under a new coat of paint, polished brasswork dashing in the afternoon sun and her flags fluttering in the breeze. As she passed the end of the wharf a sevenflag signal was hoisted to the masthead asking the Philomel to mount her guns in preparation for the naval salute. Two seaplanes from the Hobsonvillo air base appeared on the scene at that moment *and. flying low over the warship’s masts, soared upward in salute.

The cruiser had turned and was moving at good speed down the harbour when j the guns from the Philomel laundered | out their salute. As the last of the ID guns reverberated from shore to shore i the Diomede turned North Head and disl appeared from view, the seaplanes like I white sea birds outlined against the j sombre heights of Rangitoto alone marking her hidden progress down the ehan--1 ne^ I The Diomede's first port of call will be (Nukualofa, where she is due on Saturi flay. She will return to Auckland on Mav 5.