NAVAL ACTIVITIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 151, 28 June 1934, Page 6

NAVAL ACTIVITIES

NEW ZEALAND EXTENSION SMALL STEAMER DUCHESS TO BE USED AS MINE-SWEEPER. ( Per Press Association ). AUCKLAND, June 27. An extension of naval activities in New Zealand is to take place shortly with the chartering of the small steamer Duchess by the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy tor use in inine-sweeping trials and training during the winter months. The steamer will probably be taken over by the Navy next week, and will operate under charter until the end of September. In the summer she will revert to her normal occupation as a pleasure steamer. Mine-sweeping work has not figured largely in the training given to New Zealand naval ratings, chiefly because only one vessel, the Admiralty trawler Wakakura, is ready fitted for the work. While mine-sweepers normally work in pairs, the Duchess in her new guise as a naval mine-sweeper will co-oper-ate in mine-sweeping trials with the Wakakura, cruising probably as far south as Wellington, and will provide training for members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, as well as men from the cruisers. Tins aspect is particularly important, as mine-sweep-ing is one of the chief duties of the ieserve. The Duchess is said to be well suited for her new task. Only minor alterations will have to be earned out. She will be brought to the naval base next Monday from'her moorings to have new winches fitted. She will be manned by a naval crew of 16 ratings drawn from the various ships of the division, and commanded by Lieutenant Buckley, of the Dunedin, who has been retained at the naval base for this purpose while the Dunedin is on her annual Island cruise. The Duchess is a steel steamer of oOb tons gross. She was built in 1896 and was specially designed for the Wellington Harbour service. During the • years she was at Wellington, she made thousands of trips across the harbour and carried hundreds of thousands of passengers.