Royal New Zealand Navy
- Headquarters
- New Zealand
- Founded
- 1941
- Employees
- 2,200
Photo: New Zealand Defence Force from Wellington, New Zealand · CC BY 2.0 · file
Reported fleet size
—
No published figure available
Container capacity
—
Not a ranked container line
Gross tonnage on record
13,783
Summed over 7 ships reporting tonnage
In brief
What Royal New Zealand Navy is
The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN; Māori: Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa, lit. 'the Sea War Party of New Zealand') is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of eight ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent acquisition of the cruiser HMS Philomel, which by 1921 had been moored in Auckland as a training ship. A slow buildup occurred during the interwar period, and then in December 1939, HMS Achilles fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate against the German ship, Graf Spee.
