HMNZS Tui (T234)

HMNZS ''Tui'' (T234) was a of the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was commissioned in 1941 for minesweeping and anti-submarine roles. ''Tui'' was the first of two ships with this name to serve in the Royal New Zealand Navy and was named after a native bird from New Zealand.

War service

In March 1942 in Scotland, ''Tui'' and the four s, ''Killegray'', ''Inchkeith'', ''Sanda'' and ''Scarba'' had been newly built for New Zealand. They were formed into a flotilla and departed from the River Clyde with a convoy bound for Canada. The trawler flotilla then left for Auckland, arriving there in August.

In Auckland, ''Tui'' was assigned to the 25th Minesweeping Flotilla and sailed for Suva to replace . In December she joined her sister ships and at Nouméa. The 25th Minesweeping Flotilla had been offered to COMSOPAC, and by early December ''Tui'', ''Moa'', and ''Kiwi'' with ''Matai'' as flotilla leader, were all together at Nouméa ready to move north. They sailed for the Solomons, escorting a convoy some of the way. Making Tulagi their base they began anti-submarine screen patrols on 19 December 1942 off Tulagi and Lunga Point, Guadalcanal.

Landing barges

On 21 January 1943, ''Tui'' and ''Moa'' came across four Japanese landing barges stopped close inshore. When ''Tui'' and ''Moa'' closed in, those aboard the barges opened fire with machine guns and small arms and got underway. At close range ''Moa'' fired on the leading barge, but a fluke shot passed through the gun aperture, ignited a cordite charge and injured all seven in the gun crew. ''Moa'' managed to silence the first barge and sink the last in line with gunfire, then withdrew and attended to the cordite fire and injuries. ''Tui'' then opened fire on the barges, sinking one with her 4-inch gun, and the remaining two escaped inshore in the darkness.

Submarine ''I-17''

On 19 August 1943, while escorting a convoy from Nouméa, ''Tui'' picked up a submarine contact. She made an initial run over it without using depth charges, a second run dropping two depth charges, and a third run throwing another two depth charges. Contact was lost and ''Tui'' signalled some US Kingfisher seaplanes of US Scouting Squadron VS-57, based in New Caledonia, to join the search. One of these indicated that ''Tui'' should investigate smoke on the horizon, where a submarine was sighted on the surface and ''Tui'' opened fire at maximum range, scoring one, possibly two hits. The aircraft then dropped depth charges and the submarine sank at .

The submarine was the , 2,190 tons, long, built in 1939. Ninety-one crewmen were lost and ''Tui'' picked up six survivors who said that ''Tui''s depth charge attacks had damaged the submarine and forced it to the surface.

The commanding officer and anti-submarine control officer on ''Tui'' had doubted whether the contact was really a submarine, so the depth-charge attacks were not properly carried out. A later Naval Board report concluded that "had the proper procedure been followed and a full depth-charge pattern fired in the original attack, there is little doubt but that the submarine would have been destroyed."

''I-17'' was the first Axis ship to shell the United States mainland when she shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara on 23 February 1942.

Other service

COMSOPAC released the New Zealand ships in June 1945, and ''Tui'' departed the Solomons escorting a group of six RNZN Fairmiles. On her return to Auckland, ''Tui'' worked with ''Kiwi'' and the 7th Trawler Group on the final clearing of the German minefield in the outer Hauraki Gulf

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