On This Day - 4 April
- 1855
- HMCS SPITFIRE, (ketch), was launched in Cuthbert's shipyard, Sydney. The vessel was described at the time as 65 tons displacement, 51 ft long, 16 ft 6 in beam, ketch rigged, and armed with a single 32-pound swivel gun on a traversing carriage. The Empire newspaper reported: 'SPITFIRE they named her, and one would like to know why the Governor stayed away from her launching'. Despite the newspaper's lack of confidence the vessel served the colony well, voyaging as far as northern Queensland on Government business. SPITFIRE was not the first warship built in Australia, but she was the first built for Australia's defence.
- 1889
- HMS CALLIOPE, (corvette), returned to Sydney after surviving a hurricane at Apia, Samoa.
- 1900
- CAPT Hector McDonald Laws Waller, DSO and Bar, RAN, one of Australia's greatest naval commanders, was born at Benalla, VIC.
- 1911
- HMAS WARREGO's re-launching ceremony was conducted by Mrs. G. F. Pearce, wife of the Minister for Defence at Cockatoo Island. The ship built at Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering, Govan, Scotland had been broken down into it's individual parts and shipped to Australia for re-assembly at Cockatoo Island. It was the first destroyer 'built' in Australia and launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney. This provided Australian dockyard workers with ship construction experience for they were to build three more River class destroyers, HMAS SWAN, HMAS TORRENS, and HMAS HUON.
- 1957
- The Federal Government announced the relocation of Defence Administration from Melbourne to Canberra. Navy Office, which had been located in Melbourne since the early 1900's, was subsequently moved to Russell Offices in Canberra.
- 1968
- VADM V. A. T. Smith, CB, DSC, was appointed Chief of Naval Staff.
- 1969
- HMAS AITAPE and LADAVA, (patrol boats), penetrated 230 miles up the Sepik River, New Guinea. Their record voyage emulated the cruise of HMA Ships PARRAMATTA and WARREGO in 1914.
- 1991
- The battleship USS MISSOURI visited Fremantle, WA on her return to her base of San Diego after Gulf War service.
- 2005
- HMAS TOBRUK, (CMDR N. Bramwell, RAN), departed Sydney en-route to the Persian Gulf. The ship's task was to transport equipment and personnel from the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment to Iraq, where they would be deployed to the Al Muthanna Task Group in Southern Iraq.
'On This Day' is based on the book "Navy Day by Day: Historic Naval Events in Australia and Abroad" written by the late Lew Lind. More information.