HMNZS ENDEAVOUR
Back in Action!
By SLT Sam Turner & SLT Tenisha Cawte, RNZN
ENDEAVOUR is once again performing her duties as our Navy’s Replenishment Tanker. On 16 February we sailed for our Safety and Readiness Checks (Sea).* The first week also saw us sail out east, a long way east - into the Western Hemisphere in fact! We were required to sail out into the open ocean to pump out our ballast water and take on new. This procedure can’t be done in port, because the water that had been sitting in our tanks for about a year could have become rancid and would possibly be dangerous to the local eco-system. However once we got 100 nautical miles from NZ we figured we might as well keep heading east as we had be outside the 100nm limit for the entire de-ballasting procedure. At one stage we had thought we would cross the date line, however we stayed within the date line’s dog-leg, which ensures the outlying islands of the Kermadecs and the Chathams remain in the same day.
Returning to sea also saw a few minor hiccups with equipment and our engineers, both Marine and Electrical, were kept busy monitoring and maintaining equipment and rectifying small defects. The turbo-chargers required a good clean, for example. Of course it wasn’t just the equipment that needed a workout, our company had to find their sea legs – roughers and poor weather during the second week saw a number of our team having to conquer sea-sickness.
ENDEAVOUR’S three weeks of evaluation took place as we sailed around the North Island. The first week was for our passage from Auckland, via North Cape, to our home port of New Plymouth. This was the first time the ship had been ‘home’ in a considerable period and the first time into New Plymouth for many of our ratings.
Prior to sailing into New Plymouth we conducted two boat transfers to embark family members, reporters and students all keen to see the ship at sea, even for a short while. While in port the ship’s company also provided tours to groups of secondary and tertiary students, Cadet forces, and beneficiaries of our ships’ charity, IDEA Services.
The first run ashore is always enjoyable but during a work up the crew develops a camaraderie that is only enhanced by our first time ashore together. Not only was it the first time for this ship’s company, but for several of the team it was their first run ashore from any RNZN ship!
The ship also took time to host two very important members of the New Plymouth community:
- The Mayor of New Plymouth, Peter Tennant, embarked for the day of our departure. It was satisfying to able to show the ship’s capabilities to him, before he was flown back to New Plymouth via a Seasprite helicopter.
- We also had the special honour of hosting Mrs Janet Wrightson-Lean the ship’s Lady Sponsor for the entire week at sea between New Plymouth and Wellington. This was the first time Janet has been able to come to sea in ‘her ship’ and it was a privilege for all in our ship’s company to host her during a time when our full range of capabilities could be displayed.
We had also hoped to host Mrs Melva Yarrow to a luncheon but she was unable to join us. Mrs Yarrow and her late husband have been very generous towards the ship since commissioning and have sponsored many amenities for us, through the Welfare Committee. Although unable to make the luncheon Mrs Yarrow visited ENDEAVOUR during our final day in New Plymouth, to present a generous donation to the Welfare Committee. The Ship’s Company would like to thank the Yarrow Trust and Mrs Yarrow in particular for their kindness and generosity.
ENDEAVOUR has since completed week two of our Work-Up and we enjoyed a second port visit to Wellington for R& R, prior to sailing for the final 27 hour MOET Evaluation.* We subsequently assisted TE KAHA with the navigation officers’ course. And as you read this we are now underway on our Asia deployment - ENDEAVOUR is definitely ‘Back in Action’!
*SARC & Work-Up
The SARC(S) is a practical evaluation to prove we are safe to proceed:
- Engineering Drills,
- Man-Over-Boards,
- Boat Evolutions and
- a range of Damage Control
Exercises.
Being a tanker we also had to test and prove our Replenishment Rigs, and TE MANA joined us for that (unfortunately the weather was a limiting factor then).
ENDEAVOUR subsequently completed week two of the Work-Up before our final 27 hour MOET Evaluation. The ship achieved ‘Standard Achieved’ in all areas of assessment and ‘Standard Achieved Plus’ in the WE and Medical Departments.
POET D J Cooper and LSTD K A Turner received special recognition for their outstanding individual performances.
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