by Matthew Wright | Mar 12, 2022 | History Article
One of the many mythologies surrounding the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand – the gift that the New Zealand government made to Britain in April 1909 – is that she was unaffordable. According to legend, New Zealand was too small to afford her, had no money and the ship...
by Matthew Wright | Feb 8, 2022 | History Article
Between 12 November 1921 and 6 February 1922 the world’s major powers met in Washington to resolve a wide range of international issues. Outcomes included a naval treaty – the ‘Five Power Treaty’, afterwards known as the ‘Washington Treaty’ – which ended a naval race...
by Matthew Wright | Jan 26, 2022 | History Article
It is a century since the world’s leading powers negotiated the ‘Washington Treaty’. This agreement of 6 February 1922 – called the ‘Five Power Treaty’ at the time[1] – required signatories to scrap numerous ships, including some as yet unfinished, dictated strict...
by Matthew Wright | Oct 17, 2021 | History Article
The story of HMS New Zealand, the battlecruiser that the Dominion of New Zealand gave as a gift to the Empire of Britain in 1909, has been told many times. Often incorrectly. Indeed, the ship is surrounded with mythology. A variety of stories about her origin and...
by Matthew Wright | Jun 16, 2021 | History Article
by Matthew Wright There is no question that Admiral Sir John Fisher, Britain’s First Sea Lord from 1904 to 1910 and the effective head of the Admiralty, was instrumental in driving a sea-change in the nature of heavy warships. What has puzzled historians,...
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