page_title: Coastal Forces of the Royal New Zealand Navy
section_title: RNZN Fairmiles
hierarchical_section_title: Coastal Forces of the Royal New Zealand Navy / RNZN Fairmiles
caption_attribution_description: English: The New Zealand Merchant Navy during the Second World War A head and shoulders portrait of the captain of a Fairmile 'submarine chaser' holds up and looks through a small coloured screen. This disc allows him to look into the sky to search for dive bombers without damaging his eyes.
context_page_description: Coastal Forces was a division of the Royal Navy established during World War II. It consisted of small coastal defence craft such as motor launches, submarine chasers, air-sea rescue launches, motor gun boats and motor torpedo boats. It did not include minesweepers, naval trawlers or landing craft.
  From 1921 until 1941 the New Zealand Navy was a Division of the Royal Navy. The RNZN was not created until 1 October 1941. Within six months of its creation the RNZN commissioned twelve Class B Fairmiles and sixteen Harbour Defence Motor Launches
context_section_description: On 4 April 1941 the British War Cabinet approved a proposal for a striking force of anti-submarine motor-boats, six at Auckland, four at Wellington, and two at Lyttelton. Drawings and specifications of the Fairmile anti-submarine motorboat developed by Fairmile Marine were sent from England and it was agreed that these craft could be built in New Zealand providing the engines, ordnance and some prefabricated components came from England.
  The Class B Fairmiles were 112 feet (34 m) long, displaced 85 tons and had a complement of 16. Twin 12-cylinder petrol engines generated 630 hp (470 kW) on each of two shafts for a speed of 20 knots (37 km/h). They were armed with a 2 pdr gun, a 20 mm Oerlikon cannon, twin 0.303 in machine guns and 12 depth charges, and were fitted with ASDIC (sonar).
  The orders were distributed among four Auckland firms. The estimated cost of each vessel was £35,000, making a total of £420,000 for the twelve. Delays occurred in the delivery of prefabricated components, the difficulty in getting supplies of first-class kauri timber and a serious shortage of skilled labour.
  The newly formed RNZN commissioned the 12 Class B Fairmiles on 20 December 1943 and assigned pendant numbers Q 400 through to Q 411. The boats were not initially named, and were identified only through their pendant numbers.
  The first Fairmile constructed, Q 403, was launched on 29 September 1942 and commissioned on 21 October 1942. Thereafter the completed boats were delivered at short intervals. All the boats were completed and were then recommissioned into the newly formed RNZN on 20 December 1943.
caption: The commander of a New Zealand Fairmile looking through a small coloured disc which allowed him to look into the sky for enemy planes without damaging his eyes
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