HMS New Zealand sails into a new vintage

Man O’ War has just left Dear Old Blighty and is heading across the North Sea for the Baltic. Where we are looking forward to catching up with Simon and Calle of Concealed Wines (www.concealedwines.com) in Stockholm. En route we will sail past the sites of the three major North Sea naval battles of WWI - Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank, and the epic Battle of Jutland. One of the few big British ships of the Grand Fleet to be involved in all three of these battles was the battle cruiser HMS New Zealand, which had been gifted to a grateful Royal Navy by the people of New Zealand in the lead up to the Great War. Prior to the commencement of hostilities she had undertaken a visit to NZ under the command of Captain(later Sir Admiral) Lionel Halsey where a Maori Chief handed Halsey a Maori piu-piu and greenstone tiki, advising him to wear it in battle, as it would bring good luck to his ship. In all three battles, with the captain suitably attired, HMS New Zealand was in the thick of the fray but emerged unscathed each time with no loss of life. Getting amongst it during the Battle of Jutland she fired 420 twelve inch shells, the most of any vessel in the battle, following that old Kiwi maxim of “when there is lead in the air, there is hope!”. In honour of the HMS New Zealand and her wartime efforts we have recently released our 2009 vintage t-shirts with Sir Admiral Halsey as this year’s Man O’ War. B