Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 14, 2021 23:02:57 GMT 12
COASTAL SHIPS FOR SALE
FORMER NEW ZEALAND VESSELS
USES IN JAPANESE WAR
(P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 20.
Several small New Zealand coastal vessels which left Auckland in September, 1942, for a war role in General MacArthur’s South-west Pacific Command have completed their task, and are lying at the Fish wharf, Blackwater Bay, Sydney, to await sale by auction.
They include the Northern Steamship Company’s former little steamer Bellbird, which was converted into a salvage repair ship at a cost of £33,000, and the auxiliary schooners Miena and Will Watch, of G. H. George and Company, Ltd. They will later be joined by the Northern Company’s auxiliary Tuhoe.
These craft were requisitioned by the New Zealand Government and placed at the disposal of the Small Ships Section of the United States Army. After obtaining confirmation by telephone from his headquarters in Melbourne, a lieutenant of the Small Ships Section told a “New Zealand Herald’’ reporter in Sydney on Monday afternoon that the former New Zealand vessels would be handed to the Royal Australian Navy and auctioned by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission, the money raised to be given to the New Zealand Trade Commissioner in Sydney.
He said the small craft had done a great job, often under fire, in New Guinea and other waters. The vessels are expected to be sought by traders from the Pacific islands whose craft have been depleted by the war. Taking troops to forward areas, transporting food, ammunition, and supplies from large ships through shallow and treacherous waters, running past Japanese-held positions in the dark, and bringing back wounded and sea battle survivors, the small craft, once so busy in peaceful industry, have seen plenty of front-line action.
With a number of other New Zealand vessels, some of which have already returned to the Dominion, the boats now in Sydney left Auckland for Australia in one of the strangest convoys the Tasman has seen. They were then manned by New Zealanders, but few are still with them.
PRESS, 21 JUNE 1945
FORMER NEW ZEALAND VESSELS
USES IN JAPANESE WAR
(P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 20.
Several small New Zealand coastal vessels which left Auckland in September, 1942, for a war role in General MacArthur’s South-west Pacific Command have completed their task, and are lying at the Fish wharf, Blackwater Bay, Sydney, to await sale by auction.
They include the Northern Steamship Company’s former little steamer Bellbird, which was converted into a salvage repair ship at a cost of £33,000, and the auxiliary schooners Miena and Will Watch, of G. H. George and Company, Ltd. They will later be joined by the Northern Company’s auxiliary Tuhoe.
These craft were requisitioned by the New Zealand Government and placed at the disposal of the Small Ships Section of the United States Army. After obtaining confirmation by telephone from his headquarters in Melbourne, a lieutenant of the Small Ships Section told a “New Zealand Herald’’ reporter in Sydney on Monday afternoon that the former New Zealand vessels would be handed to the Royal Australian Navy and auctioned by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission, the money raised to be given to the New Zealand Trade Commissioner in Sydney.
He said the small craft had done a great job, often under fire, in New Guinea and other waters. The vessels are expected to be sought by traders from the Pacific islands whose craft have been depleted by the war. Taking troops to forward areas, transporting food, ammunition, and supplies from large ships through shallow and treacherous waters, running past Japanese-held positions in the dark, and bringing back wounded and sea battle survivors, the small craft, once so busy in peaceful industry, have seen plenty of front-line action.
With a number of other New Zealand vessels, some of which have already returned to the Dominion, the boats now in Sydney left Auckland for Australia in one of the strangest convoys the Tasman has seen. They were then manned by New Zealanders, but few are still with them.
PRESS, 21 JUNE 1945
