HMNZS Rotoiti (F625)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Loch Katrine
Namesake:	Loch Katrine
Ordered:	25 January 1943
Builder:	Henry Robb, Leith
Yard number:	347
Laid down:	31 December 1943
Launched:	21 August 1944
Completed:	29 December 1944
Commissioned:	December 1944
Decommissioned:	May 1946
Fate:	Sold to New Zealand, 1948
New Zealand
Name:	HMNZS Rotoiti
Acquired:	1948
Commissioned:	7 May 1949
Decommissioned:	April 1953
Recommissioned:	February 1957
Decommissioned:	August 1965
Motto:	Takaia ("Bind together")
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 1966
General characteristics
Class and type:	Loch-class frigate
Displacement:	1,435 long tons (1,458 t)
Length:	307 ft 9 in (93.80 m)
Beam:	38 ft 9 in (11.81 m)
Draught:	8 ft 9 in (2.67 m)
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 2 shafts 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines, 5,500 hp (4,100 kW)
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Range:	9,500 nmi (17,600 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	114
Armament:	1 × QF 4 inch Mark V on 1 single mounting HA Mk.III** 4 × QF 2 pounder Mk.VII on 1 quad mount Mk.VII 4 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on 2 twin mounts Mk.V (or 2 × 40 mm Bofors A/A on 2 single mounts Mk.III) Up to 8 × 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on single mounts Mk.III 2 × Squid triple barrelled A/S mortars 1 rail and 2 throwers for depth charges

HMNZS Rotoiti (F625) was a Loch-class frigate of the Royal New Zealand Navy, which had formerly served in the British Royal Navy as HMS Loch Katrine at the end of World War II.

Built by Henry Robb of Leith, the ship was launched on 21 August 1944 and commissioned as Loch Katrine in December 1944. She served as an escort for the Gibraltar convoys until the end of World War II, and then in the Indian Ocean with the Eastern Fleet. The ship was decommissioned in May 1946 and laid-up in Reserve.

In 1948 Loch Katrine was sold to New Zealand for £234,150. After refitting at HMNB Portsmouth she was commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy on 7 May 1949, and renamed Rotoiti on the 16th by Mrs W.H. Jordan, wife of the New Zealand High Commissioner. In June Rotoiti exercised with the Mediterranean Fleet and in July took passage with Tutira to Auckland, via Aden and Singapore, arriving in August to join the 11th Frigate Squadron for patrols and visits in the South-Western Pacific.

On 29 June 1950, in response to an appeal from the United Nations, New Zealand made two frigates available for UN service in Korea. On 7 October Rotoiti sailed from Auckland to Sasebo, calling at Darwin and Hong Kong, and arriving in Japan on 5 November to relieve Pukaki. She then sailed to Inchon for convoy escort, harbour control, and patrol duties. In December she embarked senior UN officers and a US news correspondent during a visit to the Han River. Rotoiti's deployment off the west coast of Korea continued into the next year with maintenance and leave periods spent at Kure, Japan.

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Wikipedia