In the summer of 1873, New Zealand was rocked by a scandal: Auckland newspaper editor David Leckie insisted that Russian terrorists had taken over a British warship in Auckland's Waitemata harbour and held the town to ransom. It was a hoax, of course, but he did it to highlight New Zealand's growing sense of vulnerability as one of Britain's furthest-flung colonies. So, in earnest, began New Zealand's naval story - one that extended through the highs and lows of the twentieth century: the First World War - when New Zealand naval forces and personnel fought from the North Sea to the Pacific - to the Second, when New Zealand's naval forces and personnel served in most of the major theatres, and finally the Cold War. It was a dramatic, exciting and ultimately human tale of people, politics, heroism and struggle, played out over more than 130 tumultuous years.