HMNZS Charles Upham (A02) was a Mercandian 2-in-1 class roll-on/roll-off vessel operated by the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) between 1994 and 2001. The vessel was built for the Danish shipping company Mercandia during the early 1980s, and operated under the names Mercandian Queen II and Continental Queen II. The New Zealand Defence Force had identified the need for a logistic support ship as early as the 1970s but it was not until the 1991 white paper that planning to acquire a ship commenced in earnest. Mercandian Queen II was for sale around that time, and although not as capable as the RNZN had initially specified, was purchased in 1994.
The ship arrived in New Zealand in 1995 under the name Sealift, and was commissioned later that year as HMNZS Charles Upham, after the only combat soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice, Captain Charles Upham. After some modification, the ship made two voyages to test her capabilities and determine what further work was required to make her fully operational. Significant problems with stability and seakeeping were encountered during the second voyage, and the ship was removed from service on her return. The cost of fixing the stability problems and fitting Charles Upham out for troop and vehicle transport was prohibitive, and the work was postponed. In the meantime, the ship was chartered to Spanish company Contenemar SA in 1998 and used to transport citrus fruit around the Mediterranean.
By 2001, the New Zealand government had decided that Charles Upham was unusable and should be sold. The ship was sold to Contenemar (who operated her under the name Don Carlos, then Don Carlos II), then converted into a vehicle carrier and onsold in 2009 to Indonesian company PT Pelayaran Putra Sejati (operating as Nusantara Sejati). In the meantime, the RNZN sought to acquire a new logistic vessel, with entering service in 2007.
Design and construction
The vessel was one of 137 cargo vessels built by Danish shipping company Mercandia between 1964 and 1996 for their worldwide shipping fleet. Laid down as yard number 407, she was launched on 16 December 1983, and completed on 6 April 1984. The vessel was assigned the IMO Number 8131128.
RNZN acquisition
The RNZN began to identify the need for a logistic support ship in the 1970s. Such a ship would be used to support the defence and foreign policies of the New Zealand government, particularly in the South Pacific region by providing sealift for the New Zealand Army's Ready Reaction Force (RRF), with secondary roles including disaster relief, civil defence, Antarctic supply, and United Nations operations. A review subsequent to the 1991 White Paper proposed a less-capable vessel than previously, with the ship able to perform wharf landings only. As well as the transportation of soldiers, the ship was envisaged for use during civil emergencies in South Pacific nations to deliver supplies of extract New Zealand citizens, and to keep transport routes to New Zealand's offshore islands, or across Cook Strait, if civilian services became restricted or unavailable. In researching New Zealand defence acquisitions, Peter Greener claims he can find no clear reason for Union Rotorua to be dropped, but identifies the size of the ship, which would have been by far the largest vessel ever operated by the RNZN, and the gas-turbine propulsion system, which was due for overhaul, as factors. In October 1992, around the same time as the second revision or Rugg and Co's list, shipyards in Spain, Korea, and Poland were asked about the cost of new-build vessels.
The decision to acquire a second-hand Mercandian 2-in-1 class ship was made in July 1994. Rugg and Co was asked to provide a list of such ships available; they advised that the only ship available was Mercandian Queen II, which had just come back onto the market after a previous sale fell through, and Cabinet approval was secured on 28 November 1994. The ship was purchased from Mercandia on 16 December 1994 for NZ$14.15 million or 55 million Danish Kronor. She was sailed to New Zealand with a cargo and as a New Zealand-flagged merchant vessel under the name Sealift to offset costs, arrived on 14 March 1995, and was commissioned into the RNZN as HMZNS Charles Upham (named after dual Victoria Cross winner Charles Upham) on 18 October 1995. In military service, the ship's company consisted of 8 officers and 24 sailors. The first was between Napier and Lyttelton, then on 24 June, the vessel sailed from Auckland to Fiji as part of Exercise Tropic Dust.
The ship was berthed at Devonport Naval Base until the problems could be addressed; this was slow in coming, and by June 1997, Charles Upham was being referred to as "the Calliope South Windbreak". Delays included a reassessment of Defence finances and operational requirements prioritising spending on the Army, and government calls for an independent report into the ship's acquisition and suitability for conversion. The report found that the vessel had been acquired reasonably and was suitable for modification, although the new Alliance Party criticised this review as a whitewash. In October 1997, Cabinet agreed that conversion of the vessel would be considered in 2000, near the end of the three-year planning cycle. In early 1998, the ballast tanks were refitted, and an STP was installed.
An election in November 1999 saw the transition from the Fourth National Government to the Fifth Labour Government, and a new review into Charles Upham was ordered. Despite this, the Cabinet agreed in April 2001 to a proposal that called for the sale of Charles Upham once her Spanish charter ended, and address the reacquisition of sealift capability at the same time as the replacement for the frigate . On 9 May, plans to sell the ship were announced. The RNZN then sought to acquire sealift capability through Project Protector, resulting in the acquisition of the multi-role vessel in 2007.
As of June 2024 she was actively sailing.
See also
- Logistic ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy