Section II: Items from 1913 including HMS New Zealand World Tour
Reference:
PR79/5
Date:
5 Feb 1913 - 8 Dec 1913
Title: Level:
H.M.S. New Zealand World Tour Diary and Scrapbook of Edward Fitzgerald
item
Extent:
1 vol (228 pages)
Scope and Content: Personal account of Edward Fitzgerald, Chief Petty Officer, Royal Navy, aboard HMS New Zealand's maiden voyage and world tour.
The volume contains handwritten entries in a diary-type format, alongside pasted ephemera collected during the voyage of the New Zealand from February to December 1913.
Styled as 'The Dominion's Gift', the ship was built as then dominion of New Zealand's contribution in defending the British Empire in the years immediately preceding World War I. The ship was originally commissioned on 22nd March 1909, by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph George Ward and built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland. As a battlecruiser, the ship's dimensions were recorded as 590 ft long, with an 80 ft beam and weight of 19,000 tonnes. The boat's armament included two submerged torpedo tubes and eight twin searchlights. The initial descriptions of events in Fitzgerald's account include the general background to the commissioning of the ship, and the preparations made prior to departing England. The account gives great detail as to the programme of events organised for each port of call on the journey, and the experience of each visit, often with full itineraries of each trip reproduced or described. In addition to visits of ports, the company of the ship made trips inland to a number of cities or places of interest, such as the city zoo in Pretoria. Fitzgerald collected postcards and local newspaper clippings from many locations during the tour, each presented throughout the volume in chronological fashion. Often these reflect the views of the local press in the reception of the ship, with journalist accounts covering aspects of group tours given to members of the public whilst the ship was at port. Although much of the account is written in the third person, it is still possible to establish the opinions and views of Fitzgerald and other important persons connected with the ship and voyage. One example of this is the account in which Fitzgerald describes the royal inspection of the ship by King George V. The officer notes the individual areas of the ship the king visited, and recounts some of the king's comments. The king is recorded as stating to the ship's baker: 'How different things are now to when I was at sea. At that time we used to have only weevily biscuits & magotty flour'. Fitzgerald remarks of the king's arrival by train: 'even the coal in the engine-truck was whitewashed (the first time I've seen coal whitewashed)' (p.12). These type of notes provide an insight to Fitzgerald's own experience, as well as a first hand account of historical events during the ship's voyage. The volume contains details of visits to approximately 59 places across the world, from South Africa, Australia, Hawaii, Peru, Barbados, and Canada amongst others. The tour around New Zealand's north and south islands is of particular interest given the history of the ship's commission by that
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