HMS New Zealand (1911)

New Zealand in Australia, May 1919
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS New Zealand
Namesake:	Dominion of New Zealand
Builder:	Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering, Govan
Laid down:	20 June 1910
Launched:	1 July 1911
Commissioned:	19 November 1912
Struck:	19 December 1922
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 19 December 1922
General characteristics
Class and type:	Indefatigable-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	18,500 long tons (18,800 t) at normal load 22,130 long tons (22,490 t) at deep load
Length:	590 ft 3.5 in (179.9 m)
Beam:	80 ft (24.4 m)
Draught:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power:	44,000 shp (33,000 kW) 31 Babcock & Wilcox boilers
Propulsion:	4 shafts; 2 steam turbine sets
Speed:	25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph)
Range:	6,690 nmi (12,390 km; 7,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	800
Armament:	4 × twin 12-inch (305 mm) guns 16 × single 4-inch (102 mm) guns 2 × single 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 4–6 in (102–152 mm) Decks: 1–2.5 in (25–64 mm) Barbettes: 7 in (178 mm) Turrets: 7 in (178 mm) Conning tower: 4–10 in (102–254 mm) Torpedo bulkheads: 2.5 in (64 mm)

HMS New Zealand was one of three Indefatigable-class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, the ship was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912. She had been intended for the China Station, but was released by the New Zealand government at the request of the Admiralty for service in British waters.

During 1913, New Zealand was sent on a ten-month tour of the British Dominions, with an emphasis on a visit to her namesake nation. She was back in British waters at the start of World War I, and operated as part of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, in opposition to the German High Seas Fleet. During the war, the battlecruiser participated in all three of the major North Sea battles—Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and Jutland—and was involved in the response to the inconclusive Raid on Scarborough, and the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. New Zealand contributed to the destruction of two cruisers during her wartime service and was hit by enemy fire only once, sustaining no casualties; her status as a "lucky ship" was attributed by the crew to a Māori piupiu (warrior's skirt) and hei-tiki (pendant) worn by the captain during battle.