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MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK BY LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER DEANE INGRAM RNZN A small, understated office within the Devonport Naval Base of the Royal New Zealand Navy is the home of New Zealand's defence against maritime mines. That's mines that go "Bang!" rather than the digging for gold kind! Unknown to most is that New Zealand has a long history of mining in our waters; of course the German raiders Orion and Komet spring to mind, as their mining actions resulted in the loss of the SS Niagara and HMNZS Puriri during the Second World War. And the German raider Wolf laid mines off Farewell Spit and North Cape which sank the steamers Wimmera and Port Kembla. However, less well known is that the New Zealand Defence Force also laid well over 1300 of our own mines in New Zealand waters during the war as defensive minefields. Defensively, New Zealand conducted mine-laying activities to protect our key ports as far back as the late 1800s when the Royal Engineers were given the task. Remnants of this mine-laying occasionally come ashore, as was recently exemplified when I was asked to identify an old mine that a local diver had recovered from Tauranga Harbour. Some quick research revealed it was a British Buoyant, Spherical 100lb Mark III mine which had been modified for use as a dummy mine during one of the World Wars. For all the mines laid in New Zealand waters, the Defence Force has over the years also maintained the ability to neutralise the danger they present. Indeed, over 400 deactivated Second World War mines lie on the seabed across the Hauraki Gulf in a perfectly safe state. If one occasionally washes ashore or is picked up in trawl nets, the Defence Force immediately sends explosive experts to check its state and it usually ends up as a nice garden ornament outside the local RSA. Once deactivated they are quite safe, even with the horns attached, as surprisingly the best way to deactivate mines during the war was simply to cut their mooring chain. Once it was on the surface, the options were either to shoot holes in it with a large-bore rifle or, for those who were slightly braver than most, to knock a hole in the shell with a cold chisel (while avoiding the horns) to let water inside. A suspect British 100lb MK III Buoyant mine Once the mine was flooded, the electrical detonation circuitry was short-circuited and the mine was allowed to sink. The explosive material rapidly decomposed in the salt water. Today, our modern Defence Force still maintains the ability to find, neutralise and remove underwater explosive weapons within the Royal New Zealand Navy's Mine Counter Measures and Operational Dive Teams. These small, highly specialised units are designed to be rapidly deployable by land, sea and air. We arrive with our equipment packaged in space cases and utilise vessels of opportunity procured from within the region we are operating in. (Yes, fellow skippers, we may come knocking one day looking to charter your services to help us along our way.) The intent nowadays is to take a step away from having to cold chisel holes in mines and instead remove the man from the minefield completely. Mine Counter Measures uses cutting edge technology with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed to swim pre-programmed search patterns by themselves and return home to the parent vessel, which is sitting safely clear of the minefield. Using high-definition side-scan sonar and underwater cameras, the AUV presents the operator with a detailed acoustic picture of the seabed. Operators trained to acquire an "expert eye" for interpreting the picture then analyse the image. Objects of interest are identified and positions given to the divers for investigation. Launching the Remus 38 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 Significantly for the taxpayer, this capability is highly specialised at finding any underwater object, not just mines, and this means the Navy is frequently called upon to assist other government agencies, such as Fisheries, Police or Maritime New Zealand. A prominent example of where Mine Counter Measures was called upon to assist was the operation conducted to find the