HMNZS Otago (F111)

HMNZS Otago (F111) was a Rothesay-class (Type 12M) frigate acquired from the United Kingdom by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) before completion.

For other ships with the same name, see HMNZS Otago.
USS Bennington refueling Otago, 1968
History
New Zealand
Name: HMNZS Otago
Namesake: Otago Province
Builder: John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston, Hampshire
Launched: 11 December 1958 [1]
Commissioned: 22 June 1960 [2]
Decommissioned: 7 November 1983
Fate: Sold and broken up, 1987
General characteristics
Class and type: Rothesay-class Type 12M frigate
Displacement:
  • 2,144 tonnes standard
  • 2,577 tonnes full load
Length: 370 ft (113 m)
Beam: 41 ft (12 m)
Draught: 17.4 ft (5 m)
Propulsion: 2-shaft double-reduction geared steam turbines
Speed: 30 knots (56 km/h)
Range: 400 tons oil fuel, 5,200 nautical miles (9,630 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement: originally 219, later 240
Armament:

Otago and Taranaki were the only two Otago-class frigates; they differ from the Rothesays that served in the Royal Navy as they were not reconstructed to the Type 12I Leander-class standard with hangar and landing pad for a Westland Wasp anti-submarine helicopter as the main weapon system with torpedoes, depth charges and SS.12/AS.12 missiles to engage fast attack craft and surfaced submarines.

Otago was launched on 11 December 1958 by Princess Margaret,[1] and was commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy on 22 June 1960. The ship was named after the province of Otago in New Zealand's South Island, and associated with the city of Dunedin.

The sensors of the Otago were generally updated in line with those of the Royal Navy's Rothesays to year 1980 standard but Otago unlike the RN frigates, was not fitted as a specialised anti-submarine frigates and retained the medium range air- and surface-warning Type 277Q radar, and original Type 275 and Type 262 fire control.

Otago had Seacat anti-aircraft missiles fitted in New Zealand in 1963-64.

Service history

Otago took part in various Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) deployments and took part in a protest against French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in 1973. The protest voyage was opposed by the National Party Their leader, Jack Marshall called the deployment 'irresponsible' and a 'futile, empty gesture'[3] and RNZN officers, noting the Kirk Government approved the exercise on the day the International Labour Organisation and NZFOL called for stopping the French bomb tests [4] as an exercise ordered by FOL President Tom Skinner and the New Zealand Federation of Labour Executive[5] Otago, observed the "Euterpe" test carried out on 28 July 1973,[6] part of the 1971-74 nuclear test series.

In the weeks preceding the bomb test, HMNZS Otago was constantly monitored and tested by French Navy Lockheed 2PV-5 Neptune maritime patrol aircraft.[7][8] The instructions from the Cabinet, CNS and CDS were that Otago project authority, but not engage, if seriously challenged by French frigates, RNZN frigates should do everything to increase distance and not use weaponry. To avoid the embarrassment to the RNZN, its officers and ratings the frigate was fully armed with 4.5 shells (all fused on the voyage North, on the order of Cpt Tyrell with live shells in the loading hoppers[9] and extra shells in the turrets to overcome any problems with transfer belts for shells and charges from magazine below) to oppose any arrest or boarding effort by the French Navy, if all else failed, Seacat missiles fitted on the launcher while Otago was patrolling in French territory waters,[10] mortars, small arms and torpedoes) The Neptunes flew various patterns fully testing the Otago's radar, electronic warfare and IFF passive and active capabilities. HMNZS Otago was flying 3 RNZN battle ensigns, officially as an aid to recognition [11] and to signal this was a RNZN operational warship on a political not a protest mission. France may have considered it an act of war and it is unlikely the RN was approached on the right and wisdom of flying an associated battle ensign on this exercise. A couple of Soviet research ships were out of sight 25 nm distant and two large USN naval auxiliary and spy ships, USS Corpus Christi Bay and USS Wheeling (T-AGM-8). The Royal Navy had deployed an RFA tanker and an amphibious landing ship to allow for evacuating the Pitcairn Islands if the French conducted a much larger "megabomb" test but that didn't happen.[12] The objective was to lead a NZ government and world protest against 'illegal' atmospheric testing, demonstrate ability for 'innocent passage' in international waters, outside the French territorial 12-mile zone and, while avoiding confrontation, maintain the right to self defence. On the insistence of the PM , executive and CEO of Foreign Affairs (and possibly their Canberra counterparts, who reduced RAN involvement to HMAS Supply a Tanker with 6-10mm so the RNZN frigates in the vanguard would take any immediate retaliation)[13] only the Captain and operations officers were informed of the specific instructions, that in certain contingencies French action, fire and attempts to arrest or board the RNZN frigates would be arrested. Unaware with the specific instructions the wardroom of the Otago was increasingly concerned by the aggressive and unpredictable evolutions run by Cpt Tyrell in French waters.

The small French frigate force probably indicated only a small nuclear trigger test of 5.4 kilotons was likely. Otago observed it from 21.5 miles and the crew was held in the enclosed citadel for only 20 seconds before allowed on the upper deck to observe the nuclear cloud.[14] Cdr Tyrrell had witnessed the 1957 Christmas Islands hydrogen bomb test and saw the explosion as puny in comparison and well within safe limits for the crew at the distance.

The NZBC journalists, Shaun Brown and David Barber of New Zealand Press Association on Otago, saw it as an "angry... red fireball" and rising white mushroom cloud.[15]

In operations Otago needed the support of an RAN tanker due to the relatively short range of the Type 12 frigates[16] which was just sufficient for a one way trip from Auckland to Mururora or to operate for 36 hours at 25–30 knots (46–56 km/h; 29–35 mph) in all-out anti-submarine operations in the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap. The Rothesays were designed for such sweeps and as aircraft carrier escorts with fleet tankers in the group [17] sprinting and searching. A 50% fuel reserve was held at all times due to need to allow for emergency, weather and barnacle build-up on hull.[18][19] A solution became possible when the redesign of the Leander for the NZ in 1968-69 for HMNZS Canterbury; removal of the anti-submarine mortars giving more internal space below deck.

In 1960, the Royal Navy had seriously considered the Otago-class design as an alternative to the Rothesay Type 81 general purpose frigates for future development with a design that would have carried one or two Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters.[20] Proposals to fit a hangar and landing pad to Otago without complete reconstruction were rejected by RNZN CNS in the 1970s as jeopardizing the RNZN case for a new combat ship.[21] The Limbo mortars were finally removed after last firing on a recruitment cruise off Timaru in mid-1974, immediately before the frigates July 1974-November 75 mid life refit. [22][23]

Otago continued as the third combat ship in the three frigate fleet designated by the 1978 Defence Review. In the second half of 1979, the ship had another extensive refit, with its Seacat missile system repaired by using stored parts from HMNZS Taranaki's system. In early 1980, the ship deployed to Pearl Harbor and later the West Coast of the United States and Canada for extensive exercises with the United States Navy and Canadian Maritime Command firing hundreds of rounds of 4.5-inch shells. Under the command of Cmdr Karl Moen, who described Otago as the "one true fighting ship in the RNZN" [24] with Ltd Cmdr Robert Martin as his second. Martin assumed command during a final six-month refit, leaving the ship on 7 April 1982. Even at the time of the Falklands War, the Captain of Otago and the Minister of Defence, David Thomson, declared the ship to still be fully combat capable.[25]

Notes
  1. "Picture Gallery", The Times, London (54332), p. 10, 12 December 1958, GALE CS168647564, retrieved 7 June 2020
  2. "News In Brief", The Times, London (54805), p. 7, 23 June 1960, GALE CS117923543, retrieved 7 June 2020
  3. "Nuclear Testing in the Pacific", Nuclear Free New Zealand, New Zealand: Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 3 July 2017, retrieved 7 June 2020
  4. M.Hayward.Dairy of the Kirk Years. Reed & Cape Catley (1981) Auckland,p242-3
  5. Commonplace observation of RNZN officers on protest voyage, specific attribution to Lt R. Jackson, 6/1974 HMNZS Otago, visit to Timaru and 8/74 TBHS 7.1/7.2, North St, Timaru. For the common view of RNZN officers, see Ian Bradley.' Don't Rock the Boat. The officer the Navy tried to sink. 2002 & C.Carl. Throw me a line. Holos. Auckland 2003 . C.Carl. commanded HMNZS Taranaki January 1975-January 1977 and HMNZS Canterbury 1982 and like Bradley alleges he was denied inevitable achievement of flag rank and CNS of RNZN due to direct order of the 'highest authority','NZ PM and Min Finance 1967-72 & 1975-84, R.D.Muldoon'
  6. "(1945-1975) French Nuclear Testing at Mururoa". National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy. 2015-10-08. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  7. Wright 2008, p. 102–105.
  8. Wright 2008, p. 104.
  9. Wright, p89
  10. Wright (2008)p 108
  11. G. Howarth. The Navy in NZ. An Illustrated History. Reed, (1981) p. 135
  12. Wright 2008, p. 112–14, 228–31.
  13. T. Frame,Vice Admiral Synot,RAN in 'Canberra Times'
  14. Wright 2008, p. 157-161.
  15. Wright 2008, p. 158-162.
  16. D.Grant. The Mighty Totara. The life and times of Norman Kirk. Random House, (2014). Auckland, p.309; NZ Herald 23 January 1973.
  17. Preston, A (1980), Warships of the World, London: Janes Publishing, pp. 152–3, 164–5
  18. A. Preston ed "British Commonwealth, RN, RAN, RNZN & T12, Whitby, Rothesay and Leander" in Gardiner, R. (1983), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1947-1982, Part 1. Western Powers, London: Conway
  19. specific '50%' quote, Interview (ret) Captain Ian Bradley 1982, used R.Miles 'commentary', guest & contract editorial NBR 1983, 85, 89 (re Anzac Frigates); Timaru Herald in 1983-86.
  20. R. Gardiner. All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1947-1982 :Pt 1. Western Powers. Conway Maritime Press (1983) .London, p. 164.
  21. R. Miles. "Requipping the RNZN -Eschewing the American Option". NZ International Review, Sept/Oct 1991. NZIIA 1991 & T. Herald. 'Second Hand Frigates' May-Aug 1983, Wellington & Southland, Feb & July 1986 & NBR Sept-Nov 1989 (Miles guest/opinion articles re Anzac and RNZN frigates)
  22. Comment, Crew, HMNZS Otago, Timaru visit to TBHS 7th form, 1974
  23. Timaru Herald," Frigate Otago Visit" May-June 1976
  24. RNZN Communicators Newsletter
  25. NZPD Debates 1982.

References
  • Gardiner, R. (1983), All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1947-1982: Pt 1. Western Powers, London: Conway Maritime Press
  • Wright, G. (2008), Muroroa Protest. The Story of the Voyage of HMNZS Otago and Canterbury to Protest French Atmospheric Bomb test at Muroroa Atol 1973, Auckland

Further reading
  • Wright, Gerry (2015). Operation Pilaster: The story of the voyages by the frigates HMNZ ships Otago and Canterbury, supported by the Australian naval tanker, HMAS Supply, to protest against the French atmospheric nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in 1973. Auckland: Gerry Wright. ISBN 9780473327712.
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