Ship histories and stories

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald made his name in command of the small brig Speedy in 1800 when he captured the Spanish frigate El Gamo. His commands of the ...

HMAS QUIBERON, brand new but already bomb scarred while under construction at Cowes, Isle of Wight, was commissioned on 6 July 1942. Of the crew, the Royal Navy contributed the ...

ON 26 NOVEMBER 1812 HMS Samarang, sloop-of-war commanded by Captain William Case, arrived at Port Jackson from Madras with a quantity of specie in dollars for the use of the ...

Mr. Dudley Ricketts was trained in HMAS Tingira and then sent to Williamstown Naval Depot in Victoria in January, 1915, to await draft to a sea going ship. That ship ...

In August 1942, a Japanese force surprised the Allies at Savo Island. Amongst the ships sunk was the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra. A month after her loss, the British Government ...

by Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma KG, PC, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCVO, DSO, FRS. An Extract from an account of the sinking of HMS Kelly in ...

‘TO HEAR OF HIS OLD SHIP BEING SOLD to the shipbreakers is, to the sailor, like the death of an old pal.’ So wrote Mr. A. C. Newton, R.N. (Rtd.), ...

HMAS STUART WENT BY MANY NAMES in her long career. In her youth in the Mediterranean Fleet she was ‘The White Lady’, later she became the ‘Grey Old Lady’ and ...

Commander Alliston is well fitted to speak of Australian ships and Australian seamen. On 15th June 1941 while commanding HMS Javelin he went to the aid of HMAS Nestor, fatally ...

WHEN MR. MENZIES WAS IN BRITAIN in early 1941 it was suggested to him that the RAN should man the remaining three ‘N’ Class destroyers to make up a full ...

THE SHORT AND UNUSUAL HISTORY of HMAS Boonaroo constitutes a historical first in the story of the RAN. It was the first, and so far the only, occasion on which ...

At the end of World War II most of the older small ships of the RAN, which had served valiantly in peace and war, were disposed of. At this time ...