Devonport: Big guns and battleships

A gun turret from the cruiser HMNZS Achilles now guards the Devonport Naval Base. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The mighty 152mm guns of the light cruiser HMNZS Achilles these days guard the main entrance to the Devonport Naval Base and the adjacent Navy Museum. Needless to say they can no longer fire but they are an appropriate choice for offering symbolic protection to the home of our Navy.

After all, in 1939 as HMS Achilles, part of the Royal Navy's New Zealand Division and with a predominantly Kiwi crew, it took part in our best-known naval victory, the Battle of the River Plate. And in 1941, when the Royal New Zealand Navy was established, the Achilles was one of its founding warships.

I've always had a soft spot for the Achilles because my North Shore junior rugby team was coached for several years by Max Dorset, who was a ship's boy on it during the great battle.

In the 1956 film The Battle of the River Plate, there was a scene where one of the officers appeared out of the carnage shouting something like, "Dorset, Dorset, where is that boy?" Hey, that's our coach.

The ship's gunnery officer, Lieutenant Richard Washbourn, a Nelson lad who later became a rear-admiral and chief of the New Zealand Naval staff, wrote in his report on the engagement, "Boy Dorset behaved with exemplary coolness, despite the carnage around him. He passed information to the guns and repeated their reports clearly for my information. He was heard at one time most vigorously denying the report of his untimely demise that somehow had spread round the ship. "I'm not dead. It's me on the end of this phone," he said."

So I've always thought it was delightful that some of Achilles' guns have returned home - as a gift from the Indian Government - and today sit defiantly on the Devonport seafront just inside the naval base.

Just outside the base's fence is a much smaller gun from the frigate, HMNZS Tutira, which would have been fired in the Korean War. Nearby is a black, spiky mine, one of many sewn in the approaches to the harbour in 1942 to guard against a Japanese attack.

You can find out about all of that history, and a great deal more, at the Navy Museum which is housed in an unpretentious building a few metres back from the seafront. Its biggest problem is lack of space - more than 60 per cent of the collection is in storage - but that does mean there's always plenty to see no matter how old you are.

My 4-year-old grandson still talks enthusiastically about the magnificent display of naval swords and cutlasses he saw during a visit by his childcare centre. And his 8-year-old sister Kate hugely enjoyed steering in the recreated wheelhouse of HMNZS Lachlan.

At the other end of the age scale, I remember my Mum being particularly intrigued by an exhibition showing the navy's extensive involvement in the New Zealand Wars. My Dad, on the other hand, was fascinated by a model of the weird-looking spar torpedo boats which gave nearby Torpedo Bay its name.

I've visited several times and always found something fresh to marvel at. On the latest visit, for instance, having recently toured HMS Victory at Portsmouth I was attracted by the museum's Battle of Trafalgar exhibition which even features some copper from Victory's hull.

Museum guide Russ Glackin pointed out that the collection includes 14 ships' bells, and in accordance with naval tradition each has the names of crew members' children engraved on the inside. "We often have people coming in saying 'My dad was on that boat and he always said my name was engraved inside the bell ... and there it is.' It's quite moving to see them."

But even more diverting was a huge chunk of armour plate, blown out of one of HMS New Zealand's gun turrets during the World War I Battle of Jutland. A couple of sailors dragged the melted steel - weighing over a ton - out of the way and the turret carried on firing.

The museum has a special exhibition on HMS New Zealand - a $250 million present to Britain from the taxpayers of this country - and it's fascinating to explore.

It includes the axe used to launch her into the River Clyde in 1911, the silver collar of Pelorus Jack, the ship's mascot, an extraordinarily ugly bulldog, who died at a ripe old age when he fell down the funnel; and the spectacular wardroom silver bought with money raised by New Zealand schools.

Best of all there's a piupiu which, according to legend, a Maori chief presented to her first commander, Captain Lionel Halsey, with the prophecy that as long as he wore it the ship would never be badly damaged.

The first time the ship came under fire, at the battle of Heligoland Bight in 1914, Halsey duly donned the piupiu over his uniform, and as he recalled, "Officers and men who were in the Conning Tower were so startled at seeing me in this extraordinary clothing that they appeared to be quite incapable of carrying on with their very important personal duties and I had quickly to explain why I was thus attired."

When the ship escaped unscathed the piupiu got the credit and so next time New Zealand went into action, at Dogger Bank, Halsey "got many messages from all over the ship hoping the piupiu was again going to be worn."

Once more, although the ship came under heavy fire, it was never hit.

When Halsey was promoted he passed the piupiu to his successor, Captain John Green, who continued the tradition. By now there was so much faith in its powers that naval legend tells of an occasion when a seaman was seen to mount the ladder to the bridge and take a quick look round.

"It's all right. He's got them on," he was heard to tell his mates on the deck below.

Thus protected the ship got through the war with just the one hit that produced the huge chunk of metal which sparked our interest in the first place.

After the war the piupiu was returned to Halsey and his family later presented it to the New Zealand Navy.

It's a great yarn, and for me rather sums up the special New Zealand flavour of our navy, but it's just one of many such stories on display in the navy museum. Surprisingly few people know the museum even exists but it's well worth a visit.

CHECKLIST

The Navy Museum is in Spring St, Devonport, open from 10am to 4.30pm daily. Admission is free although donations are welcome.