Washington Treaty - Broken up 1922
HMS New Zealand was commissioned at Glasgow on 19 November 1912, an improved Indefatigable-Class Battlecruiser. The ship had a complement of about 30 officers, amongst whom were three New Zealanders, and 800 men. Among the gifts to the new ship was the ship’s bell first mounted in the earlier battleship New Zealand.
While in a strict sense, HMS New Zealand was simply another unit of the Royal Navy, there is no doubt that the new ship was viewed with special affection by New Zealanders and throughout its career was a focus of national pride. In a world tour in 1913 the battlecruiser spent nearly three months in New Zealand and was visited by over 360,000 people – over one third of the population.
New Zealand participated in all three major fleet actions of WWI:
In each action the Captain wore the Maori piupiu and greenstone tiki that had been presented to the ship.
For the surrender of the German Fleet in 1918, HMS New Zealand embarked five soldiers from the New Zealand Division and a New Zealand newspaper reporter. Later, New Zealand was chosen as Admiral Sir John Jellicoe’s flagship for his 1919 tour of the Dominions to report on their naval defence.
Under the terms of the Washington Treaty of 1921 HMS New Zealand was broken up in 1922. Some fittings were shipped to New Zealand, including the 4 inch guns, two of which are now part of the Auckland War Memorial.