BELLONA’S NAME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 4

BELLONA’S NAME

AN APT MEANING “GODDESS OF WAR” Few of the large crowd, of visitors yesterday to the light cruiser Bellona which is at present, moored at Birch street wharf, paused to wonder if there was any significance in the ship’s, name. Her crest to the majority would seem just another warship's crest. The name, Bellona, however, has an apt meaning in this instance. In ancient times, Bellona was the Roman goddess of war and was described by the poets as, variously, the companion, sister or wife of Mars. She was represented as armed with a blood-stained scourge—in the modern Bellona’s case, the ship’s . eight 5.25 guns would fit the description—and was supposed to inspire her votaries with “ a resistless enthusiasm ” in war.

H.M.N.Z.S. Bellona is the seventh ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name of the goddess of war. The line began in 1747 during the War of ,the Austrian Succession when the French privateer was captured and was added to the Royal Navy as the first Bellona. The second Bellona, a 74-gun ship, Was launched in 1760 and after an adventurous ■ career was broken up in 1814. Less spectacular were the careers of the next four, but the seventh Bellona has seen plenty of action and has added five battle honours to her list, which now reads: — Courageux 1761, Gibraltar 1782, Trinidad 1797, Copenhagen 1801, Jutland 1916, lie d’Yeu 1944, Normandy 1944, Egersund 1944, Lister 1945, Russian convoys 1945. Pride of place in ships of the New Zealand Navy is given to the deckplate and in the Bellona it has been laid at the door of the captain’s cabin. This deckplate came originally from H.M.S. New Zealand, a battle cruiser built in 1912, and presented to the New Zealand Navy by the people of this country. '