SUMMARY OF 2005 NAVAL COMMITMENTS:
- Thursday 17 February
- 1000 Ships berth Port of Napier
- 1400 Operational Dive Team presentation to Sports Academy, Hastings Boys High School
- 1830 HMNZS RESOLUTION co-host of Art Deco Cocktail Function
- Friday 18 February
- 1200 RNZN Band concert -Havelock North High School
- 1800 RNZN Band concert -Hastings RSA
- 1800 Underwater Cocktail Function, National Aquarium of New Zealand Chief of Navy present
- Saturday 19 February
- 1230 Street Parade -RNZN Band and sailors from all three Ships marching
- Chief of Navy present
- 2130 RNZN Band concert -Soundshell
- Sunday 20 February
- 1230 Veronica Bell ceremony, Marine Parade
- RNZN Band and Sea Scouts involvement
- Chief of Navy speech
- 1700 Veronica Bell ceremony
- 1730 Church service “A Swing and a Prayer” and RNZN Band concert –St John’s Cathedral, Browning St
THE NAVY’S ROLE IN THE HAWKE’S BAY EARTHQUAKE:
A devastating earthquake struck Napier, Hastings and other towns throughout the Hawke’s Bay at 10:47 am February 3, 1931. The first shocks were followed by major fires, which burned for several days and caused much of the destruction. In total 258 citizens were killed.
HMS VERONICA, a naval sloop (small warship), was berthed at Ahuriri Basin at the time of the earthquake. The ship was grounded temporarily as the shock raised the seabed. Maintaining the only communication with the outside world, HMS VERONICA was the first on air reporting the damage to the Commander-in-Chief New Zealand Squadron at 10:54 am, adding ‘No damage to Veronica’.
Within ten minutes sailors were helping with the rescue work. In addition, men from two cargo ships, the TARANAKI and NORTHUMBERLAND, placed themselves under the orders of HMS VERONICA’s commander. It was commented afterwards that HMS VERONICA’s presence did much to avert panic in the population.
HMS VERONICA radioed for help to Auckland, where naval authorities dispatched two cruisers, HMS DUNEDIN and HMS DIOMEDE. They came with a team of 15 doctors and 11 nurses as well as food, medicine, tents, blankets and tools. Before the cruisers arrived, the VERONICA party, disciplined and efficient, brought order and confidence to the stricken town. The sailors ‘ransacked the town in all directions for food, bedding and clothing’ for emergency camps and hospitals.
The sailors established a food depot at the Hastings Street School, the only one in operation during the first 36 hours. Here they cooked meals for about 2,000 people, and later provided bedding for others. Elsewhere sailors fought fires, moved patients from the shattered hospital, demolished buildings, patrolled the streets (to prevent looting), and sheltered refugees on the Veronica itself.
Cruisers HMS DUNEDIN and HMS DIOMEDE arrived off Napier at 08:30 am on Wednesday February 4, 1931.
Their rapid arrival was the result of good fortune. On the morning of 3 February they had been about to leave Devonport for manoeuvres with the Royal Australian Navy. They were fully manned, supplied and fuelled, and had steam up when VERONICA’s SOS came in. After a second signal at 11:00 am revealed the ‘precariousness of the situation’ in Napier, Commodore Geoffrey Blake cancelled the manoeuvres and contacted Dr C.E. Maguire, Superintendent of Auckland Hospital, asking for doctors, nurses and medical supplies. The response was a ‘genuine triumph of organisation’. 11 doctors and 17 nurses arrived within 90 minutes and were joined by the shore based Chaplain from HMS PHILOMEL (Devonport Naval Base). Surgical and medical stores, an X-ray plant, 54 stretchers, 5 marquees, 34 tents, 400 blankets, 125 beds, 200 ground sheets, 80 shovels and 21 picks were collected on the dockside by 2:00 pm and loaded within half an hour. The two cruisers immediately put to sea, rounded North Head by 3:00 pm and worked up to 24 knots. They arrived the next morning, Wednesday 4 February at 8:30 am.
The army also arrived on 4 February, reaching Napier slightly before the two cruisers. The convoy requested by the Minister of Defence left Trentham late on 3 February, comprising of officers and men, 500 bell tents, 12,680 blankets, and equipment. They set up their field kitchen and equipment at Nelson Park.
At Nelson Park some 4,000 terrified refuges were cared for in a well-organised camp. By the 10 February rescue operations were well in hand, police had resumed law and order, and the Navy and Army’s work was done. During the operation HMS VERONICA’s wireless operators transmitted journalists’ copy to the national press.
The Navy was first on the scene of the earthquake; their rehabilitation measures and disciplined example set were of untold value, as were the efforts of the Army and such voluntary agencies as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
HAWKE’S BAY EARTHQUAKE STATISTICAL DATA:
- Time: 46 minutes and 46.3 seconds after 10:00 am on Tuesday February 3, 1931
- Magnitude: 7.8 on the Richter Scale
- Epicentre: 15.20 kms north of Napier
- Focus: Shallow, at approx. 16 kms
- Aftershocks: Approx. 150 in the 12 hours post-quake. 525 in the 14 days post-quake
- Deaths: TOTAL 258
- Napier 162
- Hastings 93
- Wairoa 3
Information courtesy of the Publisher, Brebner Print, Napier. Complied by Lieutenant V.J. Rendall, RNZN.