Media Advisory
23 March 2012

“Open Ship” – HMNZS Resolution On Her Last Visit to Timaru

HMNZS RESOLUTION will be berthed for the last time at Timaru harbour this weekend. Members of the public will be able to tour the Navy’s principal survey and research Ship on Sunday before she is decommissioned in April of this year.

As the Royal New Zealand Navy's (RNZN) principal survey and research ship, RESOLUTION is used to survey and chart the waters in and around New Zealand and the Pacific. Accurate charts are essential for safe navigation both on the open sea and on inshore waters.

While in Timaru several of the Ships company will be hosted for afternoon tea at Timaru Girls High school after students have had a tour of HMNZS RESOLUTION. A touch game between the Timaru Police Department and ship’s company will also take place today at 3.30pm.

Members of the public are warmly welcome to tour the ship and meet the men and women of the ship’s company this Saturday during the open day.

WHAT: HMNZS RESOLUTION open to the public

WHEN: 10:00am to 3:00pm Saturday 24 March 2012

WHERE: Timaru Harbour

During her service in the RNZN, RESOLUTION has steamed over 300’000 Nm (Nearly 14 times around the circumference of the world) and spent over 42’000 hours (Nearly 4 years) at sea. She has visited 40 different ports in 12 different countries. The Ships Survey capabilities will be transferred to another RNZN vessel before RESOLUTION is decommissioned in Auckland on 27 April 2012

ENDS

Historical information and Ship specifications:
RESOLUTION was formerly the US Navy Ship TENACIOUS, where she was utilised as a towed array sonar vessel deployed for three months at a time streaming a two-mile underwater listening device. She was commissioned into the RNZN on 13 February 1997.

HMNZS Resolution was commissioned after serving 8 years in the US Navy as a passive sonar towed array ship primarily operating in the North Atlantic and was purchased to replace HMNZS's MONOWAI and TUI.

RES has provided hydrographic support for the RNZN through out her years, as well as patrolling New Zealand’s Economic Exclusive Zone, conducting Search and Rescue, disaster relief, and recently, providing navigational confidence to support the clearance of unexploded ordinance in Papua New Guinea and assistance to the NZ High Commissioner, Solomon Islands.

She is named after the sailing vessel HMS RESOLUTION, used by Captain James Cook, RN, during his second and third voyages to New Zealand between 1772 and 1779, thus recognising the extensive hydrographic survey work Cook and his team completed.

Specifications:
Standard Displacement: 2,262 tonnes
Length Overall: 68 metres
Beam: 13 metres
Draught: 4.4m
Speed: 11 knots
Range: 21,500 nautical miles
Complement: 41 (7 Officers, 34 Ratings)
Accommodation for 45 onboard.
Propulsion: Diesel-Electric.
Four Caterpillar D398B diesel generators (3,200 hp)
Twin shafts.
Bow thruster (550 hp)

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