Stephen Fraser, currently in the Uk reports:

There I was searching for info on the ship that my Grandad was blown up at sea on in WW1, off the Durham Coast, and I was on a web site for Aberdeen built ships.
 I am up in Aberdeen for Hogmanay and doing an interview with the papers about the story.

 Anyway, I found the info I was looking for, then thought I would see if there were any ships/boats built in Aberdeen that had New Zealand names.

 Bugger me, first one I found. 

 Name:  TARANAKI.
 Construction: Steel.
 Date: 1912.
 Description: Yard No.366.
              Requisitioned in August 1914 and
              converted to minesweeper. Converted
              to a Q ship in 1915, then reverted
              to minesweeper. Returned to owners
              1919. Owned in 1920 by Stepney S.F.
              Co ltd. Scarborough.
              Mined 35 miles NE of Scarborough,
              9 April, 1920.
 Owner: J G Smith, Fleetwood.
 Builder: Duthie Torry.
                    ____

 Hang on though, didn't the war finish in 1919.
It hit a mine and sunk in 1920. Now thats bad luck. Does this throw the good ship Taranaki's history book out the window, or did someone already know this. I certainly didn't.
 Interesting though I thought, so I passed on the ditty to you all. Funny thing, the next vessel built after it, Yard No.367, was the Ratapiko, which is a very small place in the 'Naki' and it was also converted to a sweeper.
 I kid you not !!!

Stephen can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

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14 Dec
Further to my last regarding the vessel Taranaki. According to the Wikipedia site, a Q Ship would be visually the same as a merchant ship, hunt U Boats and surface vessels, then when at reasonably close quarters, run up the 'White Ensign' and engage the enemy with the weapons until that moment, concealed. Similar to the German Gun Raiders . From that description I can only assume that the 'Taranaki' of 1912 was in fact a requisitioned 'warship'. It must have surely become HMS Taranaki.  Any further thoughts anyone??

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15 Dec
 Now hear this !
 This is from an article titled ' Royal Navy 'Q'
Ships.'
 I quote: 'Other methods adapted included the trawler+submarine plan. A trawler put to seatowing one of the older submarines, submerged, and connected to it by telephone. If a U-boat surfaced the trawler engaged its attention while the submarine was released for attack. The first success of this scheme was in June 1915 when the trawler 'TARANAKI' with submarine C24 sank U40 off Aberdeen.'