ENDEAVOUR HMNZS 1945

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aukepalmhof
Posts: 7771
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:28 am

ENDEAVOUR HMNZS 1945

Post by aukepalmhof » Thu Jul 02, 2009 9:48 pm

November 2007 the Ross Dependency will issue a set of 5 stamps and 1 m.s. for the 50th Anniversary of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
On the NZ$ 2.50 stamp and the m.s is depict HMNZS ENDEAVOUR.

The info leaflet of the NZ Post gives for this stamp:

On 21(15?) December 1956 the HMNZS ENDEAVOUR set sail from Wellington, New Zealand carrying the Ross sea support party and the transport needed to support their Antarctic attempt, including dogs, snow-cats, the famed Ferguson tractors and the Auster and Beaver aircraft.
The 900 ton wooden-hulled, ice strengthened, wartime net-laying ship was built in 1944 and bought by the New Zealand Government for £20.000.

Built as a netlayer with pennant YN89 by the American Car and Foundry Co. Inc., Wellington, Delaware, for the US Navy.
01 May 1943 laid down.
17 January 1944 redesignated USS SATINWOOD AN-76, one of the Ailanthus Class Netlayers.
23 May 1944 launched.
Displacement 1.275 standard, 1.460 full load, dim. 194.6 x 37 x 13.6ft. (draught).
Powered by two 6-cyl diesel oil engines connected to electric motor, manufactured by Busch-Sulzer Bros, St Louis, 1.200 shp., one shaft, speed 12 knots.
She was timber built and strengthened for ice. Her stem was of solid steel.

After completion direct transferred to the British Royal Navy (under the Lend Lease Act) and commissioned as HMS PRETEXT (ZZ84). (Ships of the Royal navy Vol. 2 gives 23 May 1945 transferred.)
By the Royal Navy employed as a Boom Defence Vessel.
In use by the Royal Navy until 22 November 1945 after she arrived at Virginia, and later that month handed back to the US Navy.
26 March 1946 struck from the Navy List, and sold to the Government of the Falkland Islands (Falkland Island Dependencies) in July 1947.
Converted at Southampton in a research and survey vessel renamed JOHN BISCOE.
Tonnage given as 900 gross, 411 net, 856 dwt., dim. 184.6 x 37.0 x 18.1ft (draught).
Home port, Port Stanley.
29 November 1948 she left Port Stanley for her first voyage to the Dependencies.
She served with the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey (FIDS) between 1947 and 1956. When the survey operations grew she became too small to carry all the cargo, and she was sold.

The Government of New Zealand was looking for a vessel to support the New Zealand Trans Antarctic Expedition, and bought the JOHN BISCOE for £20.000 in June 1956. She was refitted at the Thorncroft yards in Southampton as an Antarctic support vessel, and renamed HMNZS ENDEAVOUR, she was rechristened by Lady Webb, wife of the New Zealand High Commissioner in London.
Under New Zealand registration her specifications are given as:
1.275 ton standard, 1.460 ton full load, dim. 194.6 x 37 x 13.6ft (draught).
Crew 50.

15 August 1956 commissioned, and sailed for New Zealand on 18 August via the Panama Canal and Tahiti to New Zealand were she arrived on 20 October 1956 at Auckland.
Her first voyage to the Antarctic was in the summer season of 1956/57 when she sailed from Bluff four days before Christmas with on board men and supplies for the expedition.
After 5 voyages to the Antarctic her hull was unfit for further service in the severe ice conditions and she was paid off after her voyage from Mc Murdo Sound in March 1961.
07 November 1961 decommissioned.

June 1962 sold to the Shaw Steam Ship Company, of Nova Scotia, Canada and handed over on 25 September 1962, renamed ARCTIC ENDEAVOUR.
15 November 1962 sailed from Auckland for Canada, were she was used as a seal catcher for many years.
1981 Laid up.
11 November 1982 she sprang a leak and sank at her moorings at Catalina, Newfoundland.
Was declared a ‘total loss’.
Sold to Johnson Combines Enterprises, Ltd., Glovertown, Newfoundland. By the new owner she was raised with the intention of repairing her for further service.
But when lying at Glovertown she was driven aground by severe ice during the winter of 1983-84 and she was so damaged by the ice and grounding that she was subsequently taken out to sea and scuttled.

Ross Dependency 2007 $NZ2.50 sg?, scott?

Source: Australian & New Zealand Warships since 1946 by Ross Gillett.
Portrait of the Royal New Zealand Navy a Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration. Ships of the Royal Navy vol. 2 by J.J.Colledge. Log Book. Modern Shipping Disasters 1963-1987 by Norman Hooke.
Attachments
XF005.07.jpg

D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:46 pm

Re: ENDEAVOUR HMNZS 1945

Post by D. v. Nieuwenhuijzen » Mon Jan 08, 2018 2:26 pm

B.A.T. 2017, 76 p. StG.?
Attachments
john biscoe z.jpg
john biscoe f.jpg

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