Bay Harbour: February 28, 2024

Bay Harbour News Wednesday February 28 2024
16
TREASURES FROM THE PAST
Black Prince and Bellona visit harbour
ON THE afternoon of 30 April,
1946, the British Royal Navy’s
light cruiser HMS Black Prince
steamed quietly through the
heads of Whakaraupō Lyttelton
Harbour without the assistance
of the harbour pilot or tug, on its
way to berth at Lyttelton Port’s
No. 4 Wharf.
Greeted by a small crowd of
sightseers, the ship’s crew were
invited to festivities held by the
Christchurch-based Union Jack
Club Inc., while its officers were
wined and dined by dignitaries
from the Lyttelton Harbour
Board and borough council.
In the days that followed, the
cruiser was open to the public
and more than 1500 people,
many of them school children,
went aboard to inspect what
was soon to become the newest
addition to the Royal New
Zealand Navy (RNZN).
Having been formed from
the Royal Navy’s New Zealand
Division just five years earlier
in October 1941, the RNZN’s
wartime fleet had acquitted
itself with honours in numerous
WWII battles from the Atlantic
to the Pacific oceans.
In the immediate aftermath of
WWII, however, the RNZN was
looking to adapt to peacetime
conditions which required
modernising its ageing fleet and
expanding its personnel. As part
of this post-war transition, the
old cruisers HMNZS Achilles
and Gambia were replaced
by two former Royal Navy
‘Improved’ Dido-class light
cruisers, with the RNZN flagship
HMNZS Bellona commissioned
on 17 April 1946, followed by
HMNZS Black Prince on 25
May, 1946.
NAVAL VISITORS: HMS Black Prince lit up in Lyttelton port. RIght – Sailor on wharf duty by HMNZS Bellona in Lyttelton
port c. 18 November 1947. PHOTOS: TE ŪAKA THE LYTTELTON MUSEUM REF. 1009394 AND 10512.1.
Launched in August 1942 and
commissioned in November
1943, HMS Black Prince had a
notable WWII service history in
the Royal Navy, from operations
in the North Sea to participation
in the D-Day landings, as well
as actions in the Mediterranean
and the Pacific including the
battle of Okinawa.
Displacing 6050 tonnes, she
was 156m long with a 15.4m
beam and 4.3m draught.
Propelled by four Admiralty
three-drum boilers producing
62,000 shaft horsepower (46
megawatts) driving four geared
steam turbines for a maximum
speed of 32.25 knots (59.73
km/h), the Black Prince had a
range of 6,824 km at 16 knots (30
km/h) cruising speed.
With a full complement of
530 men and main armament of
eight QF 5.25-inch guns in four
dual turrets fore and aft, these
Royal Navy Dido-class light
cruisers were considered a fitting
‘hand-me-down’ for the young
RNZN.
After its brief stay at Lyttelton,
the Black Prince departed on 5
May, 1946 for commissioning
and a full refit at its new
Auckland station, where it was to
be joined by its newly appointed
commander, Ashburton resident
Captain Charles Clinton Stevens.
Commander Stevens had
been a longtime member of the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
(New Zealand) while working
at the Massey Harris Agency in
Ashburton.
On the outbreak of WWII
he joined the minesweeper fleet
before serving with distinction
in the Mediterranean and
Pacific theatres. His new
appointment was to oversee
the modernisation of the newly
acquired HMNZS Black Prince.
However, budget constraints and
recruitment difficulties, followed
by ‘mutinies’ among many
RNZN crews related to pay and
welfare concerns throughout
1947, would see the Black Prince
mothballed until its refit was
completed in 1952-3.
The Black Prince’s sister-ship
HMNZS Bellona had also been
commissioned into the Royal
Navy in 1943, participating
in various WWII operations
including Arctic convoys, the
sinking of the famous Nazi
battleship Tirpitz, as well as the
Normandy landings.
In April 1947, her RNZN crew
was also involved in a ‘mutiny’
while in port at Auckland. The
following November she visited
Ōhinehou Lyttelton as part of a
Te Waipounamu South Island
tour.
While the ship was in port, a
large number of her crew were
on leave in the central city when
Ballantynes department store
caught fire at 3:48pm on the
afternoon of 18 November, 1947.
The fierce intensity of the
blaze attracted large crowds at
which point the Bellona crew
stepped in to assist the fire
brigade and keep the public
out of harm’s way before police
reinforcements arrived. This
catastrophic fire killed 41
employees and remains the
deadliest fire disaster in the
country’s history.
Over the ensuing years,
HMNZS Bellona, with the Black
Prince from 1952-55, would play
key roles alongside the newly
acquired Loch-class frigates, in
training, regional cooperation,
and maintaining New Zealand’s
post-war naval presence in the
Pacific.
Bellona was returned
to the Royal Navy in 1956,
controversially replaced by
its ageing fellow Dido-class
cruiser HMNZS Royalist. The
old Black Prince represented
the RNZN at the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and
made one last call at Lyttelton
on 9 November, 1954. She was
decommissioned in August
1955 to serve out her days as an
accommodation and spare parts
ship before being towed to Japan
for scrap in 1962.
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