HMNZS Canterbury (F421) - Operational History

Operational History

The last Leander-class frigate (and the last steam-driven warship) in service in New Zealand, the ship was built in Scotland and launched in 1970. The order for the ship, the RNZN's fourth Type 12 frigate had gone ahead after some controversy and official doubt by the Minister Finance, Robert Muldoon, ('The rise and fall of a young Turk'- R.D Muldoon ). It was just affordable because at the end of production line for Leanders, the last seven for the RN, RNZN and Chilean Navy could each be built fast in a little over 2 years by using a high degree of modular construction. She was the first Leander class frigate to have the wells for Limbo mortars and VDS (dipping sonar) replaced and plated over to give a larger helicopter landing area, so helicopters larger than the usual Wasp could land and operate from the ship. And introduced a closed TV system so flight deck operations could be observed and accurately controlled from the ships operation room. These innovations were refitted to most of the RN Leander fleet and the HMNZS Canterbury's sister Leanders in the NZ Fleet. As had been outlined in a reply to a parliamentary question, by the then Minister of Defence, David Thompson some attempt was made to introduce US weapons systems partly to replace the short range RN Limbo mortar, with Mk 32 a/s tubes being fitted to launch USN lightweight fast Mk 46 torpedoes which would also arm the Wasp helicpter. A number of other USA sourced systems planned for the ship were not however introduced due to cost and political reasons. During her time in service, the travelled about 960,000 nautical miles (44 circumnavigations of the Earth), and was temporary home of 559 officers and 3,269 ratings.

Gerald Hensley, then at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, recalled that:

The frigate “Canterbury” on its delivery voyage sailed up the Potomac River to Washington, said to be the first foreign warship to do so since the British raid in 1814. Memories were long. A barbecue was held on the ship to promote New Zealand lamb and as I came away a man said to me, ‘What are these guys doing in this town? Last time they were here they burnt the place down’.

She was sent to Moruroa Atoll in 1973 as a symbolic protest of New Zealand against French nuclear testing.

In April 1976, Canterbury and Australian destroyer HMAS Brisbane were assigned to escort the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne during a five-month return trip to the United Kingdom for the Silver Jubilee Naval Review. After the invasion of the Falklands Islands in 1982, NZ Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon offered to send the Canterbury to join the RN Falklands task force sailing south to retake the British territory, this offer was rejected by the British government, possibly due to the fact the Leanders, as the quietest a/s frigates were maintained on North Atlantic patrols, with HMS Argonaut the only RN Leander really engaged in the Falklands war, although HMS Minerva, Hermione and Bachanee joined the task group towards the end of conflict. The British government suggested as a less controversial alternative that Muldoon send RNZN frigates to relieve the British frigate squadron in the Persian Gulf for Falkland duties. Interestingly when the Canterbury was built the British Mod refused to allow the Canterbury to be fitted with the US Edo sonars fitted to the Dutch Leander and similar Canadian 205 frigates and the NZ Govt at the highest level refused to pay for the new Doppler 184M sonars being fitted to the Apollo, Archilles and Diomede being built alongside Canterbury in Yarrow shipyard and the Royal Navy then provided as free 177 sonar, no longer being fitted to new RN frigates but still carried by older frigate designs than the Leanders, but one in HMS Canterbury case specially tuned for Persian Gulf service, ( source Captain Ian Bradley RNZN-ret -1983 interview- with researcher). During the Armilla patrols in 1983, the RNZN ships were not able to fully support the RN frigates Arrow and Galatea they were patrolling with in the Indian Ocean, because PM Robert Muldoon refused to allow them to enter the Persian Gulf because of sensitivities with relations with Bahrain ( Captain Christopher Carl-RNZN ret Commander of RNZN frigates Armilla Patrol 1982-83 -self published auto bio- C. Carl -'Throw me a Line') but also because the Arrow and Galatea carried computer data links and anti missile decoy systems and the RNZN frigates did not at the time.

Canterbury was half way across the Tasman in February 1985 when relations broke down with the US Government over nuclear ship visits. She visited the US later that year while en route to Canada for the 50th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy (port visits were made to Hawaii, San Diego and San Francisco).

She was also involved in patrolling the Persian Gulf during 1982–1983 where she was later awarded the Wilkinson Sword of Peace (jointly with HMS Galatea). Canterbury attended the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Crete in May 1991. During that deployment, Canterbury became the last ship in the Royal New Zealand Navy to ever wear the distinctive white funnel stripe denoting the fact that she was the senior ship within the 11th Frigate Squadron when Captain Alasdair Clayton-Greene departed the ship in Lumut, Malaysia in April 1991. It was determined that only when a Captain commanded a frigate (as the senior office afloat) would this insignia be displayed - which never occurred again in the Royal New Zealand Navy.

In 1996, Canterbury was one of the ships tasked with enforcing the embargo against Iraq in Operation Delphic (under US Navy Control). She also was the first New Zealand Navy ship to visit China (in 1987), and has participated in a number of humanitarian and peace-keeping missions, for example to Samoa, Fiji or New Guinea.

Canterbury was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 26 September to 12 December 1999.

In the early 2000s, it was becoming increasingly clear that the ship's technical systems were getting old, and mechanical faults were multiplying. In October 2003, a fire broke out in the auxiliary switchboard while the ship was off the Chatham Islands. The ship was saved through quick action from 2 ratings, one who was on watch at the time the other who was reading the lord of the rings, one of who received the New Zealand Order of Merit for his actions in the smoke-filled switchboard room, but it was considered that major damage or even ship loss had been only barely avoided. The repairs cost NZ$1 million, and the incident may have added to the decision to eventually decommission and replace her with newer multi-role vessels.