During an Imperial conference in 1913, James Allen, Minister of Defence in the Massey Government of New Zealand, asked for a greater more independent roll of the New Zealand Navy.
At that time New Zealand paid a yearly contribution to the British Admiralty, and the British Admiralty was against it plan to give New Zealand a more independent navy.
Instead was agreed that New Zealand would train his own navy personnel, and the British Admiralty would supply a warship.
For this purpose the HMS PHILOMEL was transferred to New Zealand.
Built as a 3rd class protected cruiser by the Devonport Dockyard at Devonport for the Royal Navy.
09 May 1889 keel laid down.
28 August 1890 launched under the name HMS PHILOMEL one of the Pearl class.
Displacement 2.571 ton, dim. 278 x 41 x 15.6ft. (draught), length bpp. 265ft.
Powered by 3-cyl triple expansion steam engine manufactured by Earle in Hull, 4.500 ihp., twin screws, speed 17.5 knots.
Armament 8 – 4.7 inch Q.F., 8 – 3pdr. Q.F. and 4 MG, 2 – 14inch torpedo tubes.
Crew 217.
10 November 1891 commissioned. Total building cost £141.802.
Commissioned for the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station the next 7 years.
18 September 1894 arrived in the Benin River, were hostilities had just begin.
01 December 1894 re-commissioned at Simons Bay, South Africa.
27 August 1896 took part in it bombardment on Zanzibar, at that time Zanzibar was under British control, and when the Sultan Said Hamid bin Thuwain bin Said, died, as his successor Said Khalid was appointed, and the British did not agree with the new choice.
A British ultimatum was delivered to the new sultan, when not surrender before 9am on 27th August, his country would be in war with Great Britain.
09.02 The British fleet commenced firing and about 40 minutes later the war was over, one of the shortest wars ever fought.
11 February 1898 arrived at Plymouth for repair and a refit.
01 December 1898 re-commissioned again for the Cape of Good Hope station.
03 December 1899 got orders to proceed to Durban, after trouble had broken out with the Boers.
After arrival at Durban two of her 4.7 inch guns were landed and send to Ladysmith, also some men were landed to join the Naval Brigade.
February 1900 more guns of the PHILOMEL were landed.
March 1901 dry-docked at Capetown.
19 February 1902 arrived at Plymouth.
On 08 March Naval Brigade medals were presented to the crew by H.M. King Edward VII in the Royal Naval Barracks in Devonport.
22 March 1902 paid off for repair and a refit.
07 December 1904 a non-effective ship.
06 February 1905 towed to the Firth of Forth, and between 1906 and 1908 fitted out for further service.
Thereafter she sailed for the Mediterranean.
Between 1909 and 1913 stationed at the East Indies Station.
15 July 1914 at Wellington, New Zealand transferred to the new-formed navy in New Zealand, commissioned as HMNZS PHILOMEL under command of Capt. P.H.Hall-Thomson R.N.
First World War began on 04 August 1914 when the PHILOMEL made her first cruise with cadets to the Marlborough Sound.
08 August she arrived at Auckland and her crew increased by reservists and volunteers.
A week later together with the HMS PSYCHE and HMS PYRAMES she escorted two troopships the MOERAKI and MONAWAI who carried the New Zealand Force for the capture and occupation of German Samoa.
30 August the troops landed at Apia without any resistance.
12 September 1914 she was back at Auckland. She escorted the troopship STAR OF INDIA to Wellington, where the two ships joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force bound for Egypt.
On arrival at Fremantle, Australia she was withdrawn from the convoy and together with the HMS PYRAMUS ordered to search for the German raider EMDEN in the Indian Ocean.
The two cruisers could not find the EMDEN and sailed to Singapore, where the PHILOMEL escorted some French troopships to Aden.
From Aden she made some short patrol trips in the Red Sea, then she escorted some troopships to Malta.
After arrival there was she docked and some repair took place.
After her overhaul she received orders to steam to the Gulf of Alexandretta (now Iskenderun) to destroy Turkish shipping.
Many night landings were performed on the Turkish coast to destroy connections.
08 February1915 a group of two officers and 15 men were landed at Alexandretta to destroy a camel train underway to Alexandretta. A large Turkish force of around 200 a 300 men was encounter, and the landing party had to retreat back to the ship, three seamen were killed and 3 wounded before she could be picked up from the beach. They were the first New Zealand troops killed in World War I.
Subsequently was she deployed in the Red Sea to assist in the defence of Aden. The ship landed a party of seamen with a machine gun to support the Army. The sailor J.T.Moreton was killed during the landing.
She received orders to patrol in the Persian Gulf, supporting Allied operations in Mesopotamia.
By 1917 she needed urgent a refit and returned to New Zealand were she arrived on 16 March 1917.
Her guns were removed and fitted on New Zealand’s merchant ships.
Her last assignment in World War I was as depot ship to remove the mines laid by the German raider WOLF in the waters off Three Kings Islands.
After the war she lay at Wellington without any armament and decommissioned.
1921 She was moved from Wellington to Auckland under her own power, at Auckland she got a berth in the Galliope Dock the naval base, the plan was to use her as a stationary training ship.
01 March 1921 commissioned as a training ship.
Also during World War II in use as a training ship.
1946 Put on the sale list and a proposed ceremonial disposal did not materialize.
Sold for £750 to Strongman Shipping Co., Ltd. of New Zealand.
Towed to Coromandel Harbour where she arrived on 17 January 1947, and all useable parts removed. Much of her teakwood decks were used for the building of a small wooden motorboat the NEI KUANA registered in Fiji Islands and built in Auckland in 1947.
The empty hull was then towed to sea and scuttled by explosives off Coromandel on 06 August 1949.
New Zealand 1985 25c sg 1379, scott?
Source: Info I got from the Library at Hamilton. Devonport built warships since 1860 by Lt. Cdr. K.V.Burns. Some websites.