DIOMEDE’S CRUISE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 8

DIOMEDE’S CRUISE

Alterations in Itinerary NAVAL RESERVE TRAINING By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, January 11. Alterations have been made in the itinerary for the summer cruise to New Zealand ports by H.M.S. Diomede. The former programme consisted of visits to North Island ports with the exception of Pieton and Nelson, but the amended itinerary includes southern centres ami provides sea training cruises for tb.e Wellington, Canterbury and Otago divisions of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Diomede will now leave Auckland on January 28, and will carry out exercises in the Hauraki Gulf until February 4. She will then return to Auckland to take on fuel, and will sail on February 6 for Gisborne, remaining there from February 7 to 13. She will arrive at Wellington on February 14, and will said from there on February 18 for Queen Charlotte Sound, with the Wellington and Canterbury divisions of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on board. The training cruise will last until February 20, and the following day the cruiser will arrive at Lyttelton, where the members of the Wellington division will be discharged. The Diomede will leave Lyttelton ou February 25, and after visiting Akaroa on February 25and 26. will arrive at Dunedin on February 27 to discharge members of the Canterbury division.. The Otago division will be embarked before the cruiser sails from Dunedin on March 4 for the West Coast Sounds, where she will remain until March 6. The Diomede will arrive at ’Wellington from the Sounds on March 8, and after discharging the Otago reservists will leave for Auckland the following day. The Diomede will be the only cruiser making the southern cruise for some time, as the Dunedin is to commence her biennial refit at the Devonport naval base next week. This will last about three months, and she will later make an island cruise. The cruisers have taken sections of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to sea for training in the past, but the comprehensive programme to be carried out by the Diomede this year should prove of considerable value to the southern divisions. Calls which were to have been made at Nelson, New Plymouth and I’icton have been omitted from the Diomede’s amended programme.