The Torpedo Bay Navy Museum is the official museum of the
Royal New Zealand Navy. It opened in 2010, to replace an earlier naval museum. The museum is in
Devonport,
Auckland.
History
The first Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) museum was established in 1974 and was housed in a single room within
HMNZS ''Philomel'', the navy's main administrative facility at
Devonport. It was only open to RNZN personnel for two hours per week, though groups visiting the base could also view the museum by appointment.
In 1982 the Royal New Zealand Navy Museum was moved to a small building on Spring Street at the edge of HMNZS ''Philomel''. This building proved too small, however.
On 9 October 2010 the RNZN Museum moved to larger premises at Torpedo Bay in Devonport. It is housed in buildings which were constructed in 1896 to control
naval mines at the mouth of
Waitematā Harbour.
These buildings were refurbished at a cost of $NZ 1.5 million.
Exhibits
The exhibits on display at the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum trace New Zealand's naval history since the
Flagstaff War in 1845.
One of the first displays covers the New Zealand-funded British battlecruiser , and includes the
piupiu (Māori warrior's skirt) which was presented to the ship's commanding officer during the vessel's visit to New Zealand in 1913. The piupiu was worn by the battlecruiser's captains in battle during
World War I as a good luck charm.
Displays on
World War II cover topics such as the cruiser and the battle fought between the small minesweepers
HMNZS ''Kiwi'' and
HMNZS ''Moa'' and the larger
Japanese submarine ''I-1'' on 29 January 1943 off the island of
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
.
The museum also has displays on the RNZN's role in the
Korean War,
Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War was a guerrilla war fought in British Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces o ...
,
Vietnam War,
Gulf War, and the current
War in Afghanistan, as well as the navy's contribution to the
New Zealand peacekeeping
The military history of New Zealand is an aspect of the history of New Zealand that spans several hundred years. When first settled by Māori people, Māori almost a millennium ago, there was much land and resources, but war began to break out a ...
force which was deployed during the
Yugoslav Wars. Other displays cover the RNZN's peacetime roles of
fisheries protection {{Unreferenced, date=March 2008
Maritime patrol is the task of monitoring areas of water. Generally conducted by military and law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol is usually aimed at identifying human activities.
Maritime patrol refers to ac ...
,
search and rescue
Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...
, disaster relief, and conducting
hydrographic surveys.
References
External links
*
{{MuseumAuckland
Royal New Zealand Navy
Museums in Auckland
Military and war museums in New Zealand
Maritime museums in New Zealand
Museums established in 2010
2010 establishments in New Zealand
Waitematā Harbour