New Zealand's Great War Minesweepers

Simplon, Nora Niven, Hananui II during WW1.

When German mines were found off the coast of New Zealand in 1917, the only minesweepers were in Britain. Unlike most countries, who did nothing except warn shipping to steer clear of their minefields, New Zealand set about dealing with the problem.Basically this is the story of minesweepers Simplon, Nora Niven and Hananui II, but as Gerry mentions in the foreword…..”I first came across this story in 2014 when researching New Zealand Naval Casualties of The Great War. The story has been developed from newspaper reports and official records. On reviewing the hundreds of pages and documents, I was confronted with deciding what to publish and what ti ignore.

If the story was limited to the minesweepers, it would be a book of less than 50 pages and not record the operation’s full story.

I decided to publish everything as it was not my role as an author to decide what to use and what to ignore. So here I have recorded the whole saga ’warts and all’.

A5 softcover, 390 pages, with photos and diagrams.