The history of the Royal New Zealand Navy leads back to early New Zealand-based gunboats used in controlling the British interests in the new colony, as well as to the strong linkages to the British Navy itself. Origins Originally the British Royal Navy provided security for the colony of New Zealand, but in 1846, the settlers bought their first gunboat. Later, the so-named Waikato Flotilla operated from 1860 to 1865, and at the same time a Naval Artillery Volunteer corps was established to provide harbour defence. In 1884, the government purchased four new spar torpedo boats, and starting in 1887 it funded ships of the Australasian Auxiliary Squadron. Before establishment of the navy, the people of New Zealand paid for the building of the battlecruiser , which was at the Battle of Jutland and which served the Royal Navy with distinction. The Naval Defence Act 1913 formally established the New Zealand Naval Forces, and the old RN cruiser was the first to be commissioned into it. From 1921, the forces were known as the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, operating two cruisers and a minesweeper. World War II When Britain went to war against Germany in 1939, New Zealand immediately also declared war. In recognition of the fact that the naval force was now largely self-sufficient and independent of the Royal Navy, the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy became the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), the prefix "royal" being granted by King George VI (as King in right of New Zealand) on 1 October 1941. Ships thereafter were prefixed with HMNZS (His/Her Majesty's New Zealand Ship). The light cruiser HMS Achilles participated in the first major naval battle of World War II, the Battle of the River Plate off the River Plate estuary between Argentina and Uruguay, in December 1939. Achilles and two other cruisers, and , were in an operation that forced the crew of the German pocket battleship to scuttle their ship rather than face the loss of many more German seamen's lives. This decision apparently infuriated Adolf Hitler. Achilles moved to the Pacific, and was working with the US Navy when damaged by a Japanese bomb off New Georgia. Following repair, she served alongside the British Pacific Fleet until the war's end. Achilles sister ship, HMS Leander, escorted the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to the Middle East in 1940, and was then deployed