The White Ensign in New Zealand


Printed:	1967	Author:	J. O'C. Ross
Publisher:	Reed New Zealand	ISBN:	B0006BXQD6
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Publisher's blurb
This is the story of a Naval base, of the ships and men who sailed out of it to fight in the Maori Wars in the days of queen Victoria, and of its subsequent history.
The author, Rear Admiral J. O'C. Ross, CB, CBB, is at present Chief of the New Zealand Naval Staff. He is a New Zealander, born in Port Chalmers, and has had command of several New Zealand Naval ships and establishments. He. has recently been serving in the Royal Navy in the Middle East Command, at Aden.
While commanding the Naval base at Calliope as Commodore Auckland some years ago, he started noting down the history of that base, and this led him "by accident" into the story of the ships and men who left the base in the last century to fight in the Maori Wars.
It was a significant part that they played, and Admiral Ross felt that it was worthy of writing by someone with a particular Naval interest, since in the wider, and, Admiral Ross says, "more scholarly" works, the Naval part tends to be obscured by wider issues.
Personal letters, log books, etc. show in some detail the activities of those officers, seamen and marines who took part in a war so far from their own homes to protect the homes of the early settlers of this country.
Personal remarks:
I found this interesting slim book in a second-hand bookshop in Auckland when visiting there in 2002. As the blurb says, the part of the New Zealand Naval ships is well worthy of recording.