By Leyland Wilkinson On 18 March 1918 the Sydney Morning Herald briefly reported the death in England on 7 March of Commander J .M. Jackson, RN. It stated: He had ...
The Development of Catering in the RAN and the Role of Victualling Allowance
By CMDR Robert McNeill, RAN, Rtd. The role of an effective food service system in navies has been prominent for centuries. That is, a viable fighting force needs to be ...
From Russia with Love – Baron Nickolai Miklouho-Maclay
The late 19th century rumblings of colonial expansion to the immediate north of the Australian mainland gave rise to unease in the Australian colonies.Russian naval expeditions to the South Pacific ...
Operation Praying Mantis
By Scott Dalton Scott Dalton is enrolled in an external studies program for a Master of Arts in military history through the University of New South Wales ADFA campus. The ...
Women in the Royal Australian Navy
By MIDN M. S. SCHIMMEL, RAN – WINNER OF THE NAVAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRIZE Midshipman Mariella Savanna van der Riet Schimmel hails from Perth where she commenced a science degree ...
The Awkward Art of Getting Ashore and Off Again
By Geoff Barnes The author, a keen amateur historian and model maker, gathered most of the information used in this article from research undertaken in building a diorama of the ...
Shades of Grey
As Father Time catches up with us all strands of hair turn to lighter shades, perhaps not unlike warship livery which is again changing to a different shade of grey. ...
Thirteen Year Old Entries as Potential Admirals
By John Smith When naval training establishments were first introduced on home soil the system of entry into the Royal Australian Navy closely followed Royal Naval traditions. From the first ...
Book Review: The Sea Devils
The Sea Devils by Mark Felton. Published by Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2015. Softback, 320 pages with photographs, rrp $27.99. A fascinating book on the exploits of the XE Midget ...
United States Naval Base Ulithi
By Noel Burgess We might be forgiven for not knowing much about the United States Naval Base at Ulithi, as for a long time its existence was kept secret, but ...
Admiral Sir Percy Scott – Naval Prophet
By Walter Burroughs A recent edition of the Naval Historical Review (Vol 36 No 2 June 2015) contained an article, Winston Churchill and the Navy, addressing Churchill’s relationship with the navy generally ...
HMAS SydneyII vs HSK Kormoran
By MIDN H. F. Roberts, RAN In joining the RAN MIDN Hannah Roberts follows her grandfather’s footsteps. She grew up on a eucalypt plantation in Maryborough, Queensland and received her education ...
John Gore of Lake Bathurst, New South Wales The first Admiral buried beneath the Southern Cross
This fortuitous story arises from the alignment of three generations each of clergy and of naval men. It is doubtful if the earlier generations knew one another but from ...
Raising the Flag in New Guinea
By Mary Mennis For thee we fight, dear Britain, risk our all, That Freedom’s flag may wave upon the breeze; Count losses gain if by them we but keep Our ...
HMAS Tobruk (L 50) 23 April 1981 – 31 July 2015 Faithful and Strong “first in and last out”
By John W. Wells HMAS Tobruk was built at Carrington Slipways, Tomago, NSW. She was laid down in 1978, launched in 1980, and commissioned on 23 April 1981. As a ...
Some Memories of Darwin in 1942
By Alan Jacobs Alan Brian Jacobs was born at Port Lincoln on 28 January 1922; on leaving school he worked for the major stock and station agents Goldsbrough Mort. Aged ...
An Interesting Naval Family
By John Smith John Clement McFarlane was born in Melbourne in 1887, his forebears having arrived there in 1838. At some stage, he joined the Royal Navy as a sailor ...
HMAS Bundaberg 2007–2014
By John Jeremy Thankfully it is a rare occurrence for the loss of a naval ship in peacetime but in this edition of the Review we report on the loss of ...
The lagatoi of the Motu people and the lalong of the Bel people of Papua New Guinea
By Mary Mennis This interesting article is by an author who lived many years in New Guinea studying anthropology and almost by accident became expert in an older style of ...
Mary Bryant’s Open Boat Voyage from Sydney to Timor in 1791 – Opportunist convict or our most magnificent heroine?
By Marsden Hordern Mary Bryant nee Broad This is the story of Mary Bryant, the convict woman with two babies who in 1791 helped steal a naval cutter in Sydney ...
The Battle of the Coral Sea
MIDN Lachlan Montgomery joined the RAN in February 2014 coming from a family of five in Ringwood Victoria. His father is a serving member of the Victorian Police Force and ...
SMS Emden – Painting by Numbers
By Walter Burroughs The final voyage of SMS Emden and her eventual demise when cornered by HMAS Sydney is an action-packed drama which grips the imagination. Emden was a magnificent ship with a ...
The Naval Ode and Laurence Binyon
By Driftwood There are moments when we first gaze upon a work of art, whether in the pictorial or written form, and are drawn to its beauty and are inspired. ...
The Steam Yacht Ena and HMAS Sleuth
This article first appeared in the World Wide Ship Society Victoria Branch July 2014 newsletter and is reproduced with their kind permission and that of the author who is also ...
Able Seaman Frank Boston: Covering the Gallipoli Landings
This story first appeared in the April 2014 edition of Chatterbox, a magazine published by the Brisbane Water (NSW) Branch of Legacy and is reproduced with their kind permission. Frank ...