The Patrol Vessel Vigilant was a prototype built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was a handsome vessel and the first ship in Australia built with an aluminium hull and superstructure; ...
John Browne: the Navy’s Oldest Man and his Tattoo
This article has been largely prepared from early newspaper cuttings discovered by Mrs Pat Raymond, an alert South Coast reader, and we thank her for the contribution. Over a century ...
HMA SHIPS Kanimbla and Manoora: the final chapter
The two Landing Platform Amphibious class ships HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were respectively paid-off in November and May 2011 and after some time alongside at Garden Island had been ...
Obituary: Lieutenant Commander Peter Churchill, RN (Rtd) 1921-2013
One of the founding members of the Naval Historical Society has passed over the bar and this fitting obituary by Paul Cosgrave was recently published in the Blue Mountains Gazette. ...
Tokyo Rose
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare’s enduring couplet from Romeo and Juliet, now often shortened to ...
Leadership lessons from the Royal Navy: the Nelson touch
By Andrew St. George This article was originally published in McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey and Company. Copyright 2013 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. The Royal Navy is ...
Going to Sea
By David Simpson David joined the RAN in 1963 as an apprentice at HMAS Nirimba. He served in HMA Ships Vampire, Yarra and Stalwart, paying off in 1974 as an ...
Lombrum: A Personal Memoir
By Jerry Lattin A shorter version of this article appeared in Una Voce, the journal of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, in December 2008. first visited the RAN’s ...
The Admiralty Islands
Previous editions of this magazine have focused on the histories of Cocos, Christmas and Nauru Islands as they formed part of the Government’s Pacific Solution for asylum seekers. This article ...
RAN Mine Countermeasure Forces: The Conception and Birth of the Australian Clearance Diver
By Sub-Lieutenant N.J. Laing, RAN Nathan Laing graduated from Emmanuel College in 2004 undertaking diploma studies in Justice Administration before joining the Queensland Police Service. During his time as a ...
The Sussex Trophy
By Harry Anderson HMS Sussex was a fine example of Royal Naval ships of her era. She was a London class heavy cruiser of 9,830 tons fitted with eight 8 ...
From Time to Time
By LCDR Tony Maskell, RAN (Rtd) The necessity of being able to pinpoint a ship’s position on the globe was becoming a very real problem in the 18th century. British ...
The Kerr ‘Sydney-Emden’ Medal
By Paddy O’Brien On 9 November 1914 the RAN cruiser HMAS Sydney engaged and destroyed the German light cruiser and commerce raider SMS Emden. This one and a half hour ...
Nauru – the Pleasant Isle
By Walter Burroughs In the December 2012 edition of this magazine there appeared an article on the Cocos and Christmas Islands. This theme is continued with a discussion on Nauru ...
Sydney Sharp-Shooter and the Zero
By David Mattiske This wreckage of a Japanese Reisen (Zero) B11-124 Cn 5349 was that of an aircraft flown by Sgt Pilot Hajime Toyoshima during the first Japanese bombing raid ...
Memories of a Garden Island Patternmaker
By Ian Thomson The author provides us with a delightful vignette of life as a dockyard apprentice. We should also remember that workers at Garden Island Dockyard were employed by ...
Gallipoli and Other Stories, by Uncle Bill
William Kinnersley was born in Wales on 20 September 1896 and died aged 95 on 17 May 1992 at Collaroy, NSW. After Royal Naval service during the First World ...
Bomb Disposal with Victor (Vic) Turner
By Leyland Wilkinson Victor Turner, who on account of his winning ways and fiery temperament, was always known as Paddy, was born to a WW I soldier settler family who farmed ...
The Campaign against the German Pacific Colonies and Australia’s Antecedent Imperial Strategy (1909–1914)
By Midshipman Michael Carpenter, RAN. Midshipman Michael Carpenter was born and raised in Adelaide, completing his secondary studies in 2007. Michael studied commerce at the University of South Australia in ...
They Also Served – Arthur Irwin Chapman, 11 January 1916 – 21 August 2012
By Jo Morrice Commander A.I. Chapman RAN (Rtd) died recently at the age of 96. This is the story of a remarkable and redoubtable man who was affectionately known to ...
Royal Naval Engineering College Manadon’s Centenary
By Ron Robb Most engineering officers serving in the RAN have at some time or other studied in HMS Thunderer, the Royal Naval Engineering College at Plymouth in England. Ex-students ...
Azimuth Thruster Propulsion Systems
By Warrant Officer Hugh Johnson One of the enduring features of naval engineering is a desire for reliability, which may lead to conservatism. In some respects warship design has changed ...
Cocos and Christmas Islands
These small isles to our north represent a microcosm of historical events taking place on a larger world stage. They encompass early exploration, colonial rule, resource booms, communications technology, and ...
District Officers Boats
By Leyland Wilkinson Leyland Wilkinson is a member of the NHS and was the former head of the trade school for apprentice training at the Garden Island Dockyard Training School, ...
Our First Engineer Admiral Vice Admiral Sir William Clarkson, KBE, CMG, RAN.
By Chris Clark When Engineer Rear-Admiral Sir William Clarkson retired from the Royal Australian Navy on 1 November 1922 with the honorary rank of Vice-Admiral, it brought to a close ...
