The Treaty of Waitangi may be less than two hundred years old, but our Naval maritime history reaches back to 1769, when Captain James Cook RN in HMS ENDEAVOUR sighted the East Cape of the North Island. Our Navy's history is part of every New Zealander's heritage. What follows is a brief overview of that history.
The Royal Navy (RN) became involved in the history of Aotearoa/ New Zealand when Cook commanded three RN expeditions to the Pacific, visiting this country in 1769, 1773 and 1777. The first expedition was undertaken in HMS ENDEAVOUR, a small barque 100 ft (31m) of 368 tons, previously a collier. For the second and third voyages, he commanded HMS RESOLUTION, with HMS ADVENTURE in company in 1773 and HMS DISCOVERY in 1777. An experienced and skilled hydrographer, Cook completed a detailed survey of the entire coastline over six months in 1769 and 1770. This work was remarkably accurate for the time and conditions under which it was compiled.
In 1791 Captain George Vancouver RN visited in a new DISCOVERY. In company with HMS DISCOVERY was HMS CHATHAM, whose Commander sighted and took possession of the Chatham Islands.
By the 1830s RN warships were sent to New Zealand in an effort to maintain law and order amongst Europeans, and between Maori and Pakeha. In 1833 the frigate HMS IMOGENE brought Mr James Busby as the official British Resident. When the Northern Wars broke out in 1837, the frigate HMS RATTLESNAKE, under the command of Captain William Hobson RN, was sent to the North Island to monitor the situation and protect British lives.
After paying off HMS RATTLESNAKE, Hobson was appointed Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand, with the task of negotiating for British sovereignty over the territory. He arrived in the Bay of Islands on 30 January 1840 in the frigate HMS HERALD, commanded by Captain Joseph Nias RN.
After consultation with Busby and local missionaries, Hobson drafted the English language version of the intended treaty. Translated into Maori by the Reverend Henry Williams, the proposed treaty was presented to a gathering of Maori leaders on 5 February. HERALD's officers accompanied Hobson during the negotiations. On 6 February 1840 the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi commenced.
Thereafter the RN was responsible for the external security of the new colony, and would also play a full part in internal security until the end of the Land Wars. However Colonial Government officers purchased a small gunboat for internal security operations in 1846, and the settlers' Government, established in 1852, funded the ships of the Waikato Flotilla (1860-1865), which operated not only on the Waikato River but also off Taranaki and Tauranga. A mixture of Royal Navy, militia and local personnel generally manned these craft, although they were not administered as a formal navy.
Events during the Crimean War generated the recognition of New Zealand's vulnerability to surprise raids by enemy cruisers, and in 1860 a Naval Artillery Volunteer Corps with responsibility for harbour defence was established. Four small spar torpedo boats were purchased for the seaward defence of the four main ports in 1884. In 1887 the Government agreed to fund ships for the Australasian Auxiliary Squadron, to supplement the Royal Navy's Australian Squadron, then stationed in Sydney. Two ships from these squadrons would be stationed in New Zealand waters under the Governor's direction. In 1909 the Government decided to fund a battle cruiser for the Royal Navy.
Named HMS NEW ZEALAND, she fought throughout World War 1 ((WW1) (1914-18). In 1913, the Government passed the Naval Defence Act (1913) to establish the New Zealand Naval Forces.
HMS PHILOMEL, an elderly 3rd class cruiser, was the first ship commissioned into the New Zealand Naval Forces, but she was placed under Admiralty operational control when WW1 began in 1914. After escorting the New Zealand occupational force into Samoa, PHILOMEL saw active service in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
From 1921 our operational naval force, although funded by Wellington and increasingly manned by New Zealanders, was entitled the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. The New Zealand Division comprised two cruisers and a training minesweeper until World War II (1939-45), when New Zealand's naval forces rapidly expanded. On October 1,1941 King George VI granted New Zealand's naval forces the title of Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), in recognition of New Zealand's larger, essentially self-sufficient, Navy. By the end of WWII the RNZN had over sixty vessels in commission.
To read more about the RNZN's official history during World War II, go to the government history site launched by the Prime Minister the Rt. Hon Helen Clark on 26 May 2004.
After WWII our Navy played a full role in New Zealand's efforts to promote regional security. Our frigates were despatched to the Korean War (1950-53), and frigates and cruisers made a regular contribution to the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve, a fleet based in Singapore. RNZN ships took part in the Malayan Emergency (1949-1960) and Confrontation (1962-65). The Navy sent a medical team into Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1967-72).
Since then, RNZN ships have carried out a variety of duties from anti-nuclear weapon protests off Mururoa Atoll (1973 and 1995) to disaster relief, search and rescue, and Antarctic resource protection duties. The replenishment ship HMNZS ENDEAVOUR supported the Australian task group despatched into the Gulf War 1991). The RNZN fleet, smaller than anytime since 1947, continues to enforce New Zealand's sovereignty over a vast ocean area and to undertake deployments throughout the Asian/Pacific region in support of international security and UN peacekeeping.