The Strait of Hormuz separates the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman; at its narrowest point this waterway is just 21 nautical miles across, from Oman to the south ...
History - general
Modern Day Pirates – Piracy under control in Asia
The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP ISC) is a regional agreement between twenty countries, mainly Asian but including four European nations ...
Four things people ‘know’ about swords
By John McGrath For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ...
Prime Minister William Morris Hughes and his impact on Australian naval and maritime affairs: All at Sea with Billy
To the returning servicemen Hughes was ‘the Little Digger’ a symbol of Australian self-confidence. Geoffrey Button Formative years William Hughes, the father of William Morris Hughes, came from ...
Booby Island and its Post Office
By Peter Brigden An article in the March 2019 edition of this magazine titled They Also Servedcovers the memoirs of LCDR Frank Simon RD, RANR. I was lucky enough to ...
The Royal Australian Naval College’s debt to Admiral Creswell
The following article is based on an address by Robert Hyslop to the Canberra and District Historical Society which appeared in that Society’s journal of September 1986, and still relevant ...
Chinderah Bay Antiques and Museum of the Seas
The September 2018 edition of this magazine reported on the closure of the Sydney Maritime Model Museum and the disposal of its considerable content of maritime artifacts. It is therefore ...
Australia Day 2019
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Scapa Flow Revisited
By Walter Burroughs The name Scapa Flow was synonymous with naval operations in both world wars as a safe anchorage for vast fleets seeking to control access to the seaborne ...
The First Direct Wireless Messages from the United Kingdom to Australia
On 22 September 2018, marking the centenary of the First Wireless Message from the United Kingdom to Australia, a ceremony was held at the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga, outside the ...
One hundred Australians awarded the Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award under the Imperial honours system, is awarded to members of the armed forces for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. While it ...
Occasional Paper 37: Allan Charles Green [1878-1954], the man behind the Photos
In the State Library of Victoria we have an amazing photographic collection of ship photo thanks to Allan Green. He was born in Daylesford, in the Central Victorian goldfields ...
Occasional Paper 39: Compelled to Resign – The story of Commander Paul Hugill Hirst RAN 1899-1963
by Lieutenant Commander Terry Feltham RAN Ret’d “Just because something ends doesn’t mean it never should’ve been. Remember, you lived, you learned, you grew and you moved on”. Anon. Why ...
Naval Cutlasses – an Overview
By John McGrath This article is a complement to that on officers’ swords which appeared in the March 2018 issue of the Naval Historical Review. Like that article, it does ...
Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps: Forerunner of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service
By Dr J. K. Haken The Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) was formed by Mrs. Florence Violet McKenzie in March 1939 at 9 Clarence Street, Sydney, months before WWII was ...
Two Osborne Houses
To add confusion to our early naval history there are two residences named Osborne House which both became naval academies. The first of these was in England and the second ...
Naval Fuel Oil
By Peter Colthorpe With recent announcements that the redundant naval oil fuel installation beneath the Sydney Domain is to be used in an extension to the Art Gallery of NSW, ...
Officers’ Swords of the Royal Navy – A Brief History
By John McGrath Captain John McGrath, RN is a retired officer with a lifelong interest in naval swords. With Mark Barton he co-authored British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship published by Seaforth ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 3
Previous editions of this magazine examined the Australian – Indian relationship from the establishment of the first Australian colony in 1788 to the conclusion of the Second World War. This ...
Submarine Mining in the Australian Colonial and Commonwealth Armies
Dr J. K. Haken Mines and submarine mining are always associated with the Navy, but internationally and locally the early development was with the Army Engineers. Mines and underwater explosives ...
The Australian – Indian Relationship – Part 2
Like some sections of our own armed forces who fail to acknowledge a period of colonial rule over which we had no direct control, there are those within the Indian ...
HMAS Suva: the ship that shaped the future of the Australian Naval Station
By John Smith Possibly not many have heard of HMAS Suva as she had an extremely short history as a commissioned Australian warship. She did however have the distinction of wearing ...
Our Spanish Cousins: Politics and shipbuilding capabilities
Political Intrigues For centuries there was natural rivalry between Britain and Spain in the fields of colonial expansion, maritime trade and commerce. Relationships, at least from the time of the ...
Occasional Paper 18: Ensigns Associated With Ships Based at Garden Island
November 2017 Flags have a long been a fascination of founding Society member Mr Norman Rivett as well as Garden Island in Sydney where he has worked and volunteered for ...
Letter: More on “Who Took the Flag?”
Dear Editor I refer to David Quick’s letter ‘Who Took the Flag’ in the June 2017 edition of the NHR. A quick look at the RoPs of HMAS Supply tells us ...