Horatio Nelson’s “Trafalgar Coat”, the uniform he was wearing when he was shot, has been reunited with the French musket ball that passed through it and killed him in 1805. ...
Biographies and personal histories
HMS Nabob – Survival after U-Boat Attack in the Arctic 1944
Offensive Minelaying – Pacific 1944 (Part 1)
Captain John Cooke, HMS Bellerophon
Captain John Cooke, HMS Bellerophon || Killed at Trafalgar 1805 In a small column of the Sydney Morning Herald on 14-15 May 2005 ((Community RSVP)) a plaintive request was noted ...
A Letter from Trafalgar 1805
Able Seaman Harry Mason
Those of us who were fortunate in knowing him will be saddened to learn of Harry’s death earlier this year, aged 93. Harry was an Englishman, obviously from a good ...
The Naval Staff in Retrospect
Why did it always seem to happen? There I would be, thoroughly enjoying myself either flying somewhere or swanning around the Far East in a nice frigate, when out of ...
Leadership: Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Operation Pedestal and the Tanker Ohio
HMAS Vendetta WW2
This is part 3 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
Commander J.M. Alliston DSO, DSC*, US Legion of Honour, Royal Navy
Commander John Alliston, who has died aged 94, was one of the Second World War’s most highly decorated destroyer captains, who afterwards brought up his family on a remote island ...
Torpedo Firings in Port Shelter, Hong Kong 1964
As a junior officer, the author enjoyed a great variety of memorable experiences in a destroyer of the Far East Fleet, including several live firings of torpedoes and A/S weapons. ...
HMAS Perth Part2 – Outbreak of war
This is part 2 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
The Amethyst Incident Recalled
By Dawn’s Early Light
Middle East Patrol (HMS Mermaid)
HMS Viscount 1940
In Some Corner of a Foreign Field
ON 25TH APRIL 1915, Lieutenant Rupert Brooke RNVR of the Royal Navy Division was buried in ‘Some Foreign Field’ on the Greek island of Skyros to the south-west of Gallipoli. ...
The Commissioning of HMAS Perth, 1939
This is part 1 of an hitherto unpublished personal account was given to the Editor shortly before the death of the author, together with several other brief accounts of his ...
Cerberus in Wartime
The transit from peacetime tempo to the demands of wartime training left strong impressions on the many trainees during their introduction to the Navy in WW2. We were all Acting ...
Obituary: Captain W.F. (Bill) Cook, LVO, RAN Retd.
The youngest officer to command an Australian destroyer during WW2, Bill Cook, has died aged 87, after a notable naval career and having forged a second equally distinguished career at the ...
German U-Boat Surrender 1945 – U-977
A previous article described how surrendering German U-Boats were boarded and taken as prizes into captivity to remote lochs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. One wonders what the German Navy ...
A Sword-ID Tale
Shore Patrol in Bermuda – HMS Blake 1971
RETURNING FROM A SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT to the western sea-board of continental USA to support a major British Trade Exhibition in San Francisco, the helicopter cruiser HMS Blake paid a routine ...
Book Review: Full Circle – Log of the Navy’s No. 1 Conscript
Full Circle: Log of the Navy’s No. 1 Conscript By John Gritten Cualann Press, ISBN 0 9535036 9 0. 6 Corpach Drive, Dunfermline, Fife, KY12 7XG Scotland. Reviewed by Ian ...