RNZN Ship of the day – HMS/HMNZS Black Prince (81)

HMNZS Black Prince entering Grand Harbour, Malta. 1953
HMNZS Black Prince 81 New Zealand Dido-Class cruiser entering the Grand Harbour Malta August 1953
Spithead Revue 1953
HMNZS Black Prince in Sydney in the early 1950s: HMAS Australia can be seen just beyond at Farm Cove.
HMNZS Black Prince – HMCS Ontario, HMS Ceylon and HMNZS Black Prince at Hobart in February 1954 with Royal Yacht Gothic (not in pic). HMAS Quadrant can just be seen behind Ontario. Four different shades of grey. Picture scanned from original slide taken by Reg Wilson – Courtesy of Russell Priest
HMNZS Black Prince
HMNZS Black Prince
HMNZS Black Prince at Mitsui and Co’s yard in Japan for scrapping, and an already more stripped down and bowless ex-HMAS Hobart alongside her.

HMS Black Prince was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, of the Bellona subgroup. The cruiser was commissioned in 1943, and served during World War II on the Arctic convoys, during the Normandy landings, and as part of the British Pacific Fleet.

HMS Black Prince

In 1946, the cruiser was loaned to the Royal New Zealand Navy, becoming HMNZS Black Prince. The cruiser was docked for modernisation in 1947, but in April, her sailors walked off the ship as part of a series of mutinies in the RNZN. The shortage of manpower resulting from these mutinies meant that the modernisation had to be cancelled, and Black Prince was placed in reserve until 1953. She returned to service after refitting with simplified secondary armament with a single quad “pom pom” in Q position and eight Mk3 40mm Bofors guns. The ship was decommissioned again two years later, and returned to the Royal Navy in 1961. Black Prince did not re-enter service, and was towed from Auckland to Osaka for scrapping in 1962.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Prince_(81): RNZN Ship of the day – HMS/HMNZS Black Prince (81)


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