HMNZS Canterbury is a multi-role vessel (MRV) of the Royal New Zealand Navy. She was commissioned in June 2007, and is the second ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy to carry the name. She is also New Zealand's first purpose-built strategic sealift ship.
HMNZS Canterbury off Samoa in 2009
Canterbury under construction in Rotterdam
The M242 Bushmaster cannon fitted to Canterbury's foredeck is the primary weapon fitted to the sealift ship
Embarked landing craft
The Royal New Zealand Navy is the maritime arm of the New Zealand Defence Force. The fleet currently consists of nine ships. The Navy had its origins in the Naval Defence Act 1913, and the subsequent purchase of the cruiser HMS Philomel, which by 1921 had been moored in Auckland as a training ship. A slow buildup occurred during the interwar period, and then perhaps the infant Navy's most notable event occurred when HMS Achilles fought alongside two other Royal Navy cruisers at the Battle of the River Plate against the German ship, Graf Spee, in December 1939.
Badge of the Royal New Zealand Navy
HMNZS Leander and USS St. Louis fire on Jintsu
HMNZS Achilles
HMNZS Royalist in Waitemata Harbour, 1956