CRUISER PRESENTED TO N.Z.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1920, Page 3

CRUISER PRESENTED TO N.Z.

H.M.S. CHATHAM’S WAR RECORD

LONDON, May 6.

I The New Zealand Government has n/jceptcd the presentation by the Impe(Hal Government of the light cruiser Chatham, which was paid eff on the . 16tli. July last. The Chatham is under orders to lie recommissioned as early as possible, and officers and crew will be drawn from those wfib will volunteer tb serve under the Dominion Go- - vernpient, the complement of which has not been up to the present been settled. Ratings will be allowed to, volunteer under either of the following categories':—(l) Those who wish To transfer permanently from the Royal Navy, in which case they will be required to volunteer for .three years and to sign an undertaking that they forfeit all claim to pension or gratuity from the Admiralty; and (2) those who wish to he lent from the Royal Navy for a period of three years. In either ease tlie terms of agreement will he exactly similar to those in the case of ratings transferred or lent to tlie Royal Australian Navy, with the same rates of pay, which will in no case be less 110111 R.N. rates. H.M.S. Chatham of 5400 tons displacement and armed with nine 6in. 50 calibre guns, four three-pounders and two 21in. torpedo tubes, is of the latest class of light cruiser completed before the war broke out, and her sister ships, the Dublin and Southampton, are now serving in Mediterranean and South A men cun waters respectively. A nominal speed of 25] knots is developed from her 25,000 horse-power turbines. Tln> vessel was launched at Chatham in November, 1911, some ten months after the laying of the keel, the wife of the Lord Lieutenant' of Kent the Marchioness Camden, performing the naming ceremony. Under the command of Captain S. R. Drury Lowe, the Chatham was first commissioned in 1912, and attached to the Second Rattle Squadron, and in the following year she was allocated to the Mediterranean. She shadowed the Goeben in the early days of the war, and-was then dispatched to the Red Sea to clear the line of passage for troops from India to Egypt. On her way she captured an Austrian ship Mnrienbad, and took her to Alexandria, but the prize was released shortly afterwards under Article 111 of the Sixtli Hague Convention (days of grace), to which Austria, hut not Germany had subsicribed. The Chatham afterwards located and blockaded the German cruiser Konigsherg in the Rufiji, Rliver, East Africa and served at Gallipoli during the expedition her captain 1 icing awarded tlie C.M.G. . Returning in 191(5, the Chatham is mentioned by Lord Jellicoe as having been present in the operations in August of that year. She afterwards became flagship of the Third Light Cruiser Squadron, and Hew the flag of Rear-Ad-miral Allen T. Hunt, C. 8., C. 5.1., at the' surrender of the German High Seas Fleet. '

Last September Leutenant H. C. Mayo, 0.R.E.. was appointed to command the sloop Laburnum, which is shortly being recommissioned for duty on the New Zealand station, but at present no appointments have been,definitely made. Lieutenant Mayo knows New Zealand fairly well, as lie was ♦nit thoie on several occasions some years ago. One of liis brothers has settled in the Feilding district. Another brother—his own twin—who had been farming near Feilding for many years, was a lieutenant in the 6th Wellington Rifles, and, unfortunately, was killed in action at Gallipoli; The Laburnum is still in dock at Queenstown, fitting out, and no date -has yet been given for her completion. Like her sister ship, the Veronica, the Laburnum was completed about the middle of 1915, having been built by Messrs Connell. This sloop is of 1210 tons, speed 16] knots, and is armed with two 4in guns. She was paid off at Devonport a year ago.