• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Naval Historical Society of Australia

Preserving Australia's Naval History

  • Events
  • Account
  • Members Area
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • Contact us
  • Show Search
  • 0 items
Hide Search
Menu
  • Home
  • Research
    • Where to start
      • Research – We can help!
      • Self help
      • Naval Service Records
      • Library
      • Related Maritime websites
    • Resources
      • Articles
      • Videos
      • On This Day
      • Podcasts
      • Australian Military Ship Losses
      • RAN events on a  Google Earth Map
      • RAN Vessels – Where are they now?
      • Related Maritime websites
    • Other
      • Newsletters: Call The Hands
      • Occasional Papers and Historical Booklets
      • Books
      • HMAS Shropshire
      • Book reviews
    • Close
  • Naval Heritage Sites
    • World Heritage Listings
      • Cockatoo Island
    • National Heritage Listings
      • HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran Shipwreck Sites
      • HMVS Cerberus
    • Commonwealth Heritage Listings
      • Garden Island NSW
      • HMAS Watson
      • HMAS Penguin
      • Spectacle Island Explosives Complex NSW
      • Chowder Bay Naval Facilities
      • Beecroft Peninsula NSW
      • Admiralty House, Garden and Fortifications
      • HMAS Cerberus
      • Naval Offices QLD
      • Garden Island WA
      • Royal Australian Naval College ACT
      • Royal Australian Naval Transmitting Station ACT
    • NSW Heritage Listings
      • HMAS Rushcutter
    • Close
  • Naval Art
  • Tours & Cruises
    • Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, East
    • Navy in Sydney Harbour Cruise, West
    • Anniversary Cruise: Sydney under Japanese Attack
    • Tour Bookings
    • Close
  • About us
    • About Us
      • What we do
      • Our People
      • Office Bearers
      • Become a volunteer
      • Our Goals and Strategy
    • Organisation
      • Victoria Chapter
      • WA Chapter
      • ACT Chapter
    • Close
  • Membership
  • Shop
  • Become a volunteer
  • Donate
You are here: Home / Archives for Article topics / Naval history

Naval history

Ruby Boyes – Woman Coastwatcher turns 98

A.N. Other · Mar 30, 1990 ·

Hundreds of well wishers contacted Australia’s only woman coast watcher, Ruby Boyes BEM, on her 98th birthday. Ruby operated on Vanikoro in the Solomons and saved thousands of Allied locals ...

Post-War Naval Losses 1945-88

Head, M.A., S.J. · Mar 30, 1990 ·

Most of us have books on our shelves listing losses in various navies during the 1939-45 war. Sometimes we tend to forget that since that war, roughly, countries and groups ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Book Review: Silencing debate on Shropshire

Book reviewer · Mar 28, 1990 ·

Mr Stan Nicholls wants to silence debate on what did and did not happen to HMAS Shropshire during World War II. So he has written a 330-page hard-cover book on ...

HMAS Mermaid commissioned 4 Dec 1989

A.N. Other · Mar 25, 1990 ·

MERMAID, commissioned on December 4 , 1989 – Lieut. Cdr. Spencer,R AN – is the second ship in Her Majesty’s Service to bear the name and to work in Australian waters. The first ...

Seal and Porpoise – Minesweepers sold at auction

A.N. Other · Mar 25, 1990 ·

Finding a new home for two Royal Australian Navy minesweepers caused a few waves at a Sydney auction recently. More than 320 tonnes of steel and maple went under the ...

Dry Land Sailors – The Navy at Gallipoli

A.N. Other · Mar 24, 1990 ·

At 4.30 on the morning of December 20 1915, Sub Lieutenant Charles Hicks and his fifty man detachment of the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, stood waiting in the dark ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

I’ve Been To Bali Too

Colthorpe, P.D., Lieutenant, RAN · Mar 19, 1990 ·

In my case I went before it was fashionable and the hospitality was less than the travel agents would have you believe. Not that the natives could be held to ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

HMAS Australia – Battle of Leyte Gulf

Roberts, Keith · Mar 19, 1990 ·

On the night of October 20, 1944, the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, part of the Task Group 77.3 under command of Rear Admiral R.S. Berkey, US Navy, took up position ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Westralia – Appleleaf

Ramsay, George · Mar 19, 1990 ·

It was interesting recently, when the ex RFA APPLELEAF was acquired and joined the ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY, to be renamed WESTRALIA, (the Second Ship of that name in the RAN ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

British Destroyer Losses in WW II

Hill, Roger, DSq DSC, Lieut Cdr, RN (Ret.) · Mar 15, 1990 ·

British Destroyer losses  – Royal Navy Ships only Blanche 13.11.39 Mined in Thames estuary by acoustic mine Gipsy 21.11.39 Mined off Harwich by acoustic mine. Duchess 12.12.39 Rammed and sunk ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Cedric Ashton

Date, John C., RANVR (Rtd) · Mar 1, 1990 ·

At the meeting of The Naval Historical Society of Australia, members have enjoyed the magical effervescence of fine art, music and naval jottings by esteemed member Cedric Ashton. In the ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

The Mystery of Australia’s Forgotten Son – Was He Lost from HMAS Sydney in 1941?

Clark, Bryan · Dec 24, 1989 ·

On a steep, scrubby hillside at Flying Fish Cove, on Christmas Island, washed by the waves of the Indian Ocean, is the neglected grave of an unknown sailor who, some ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8

HMAS Perth – A Brief History 1936-1942

Ramsay, George · Dec 22, 1989 ·

HMAS Amphion, a 6″ modified ‘Leander’ Class Cruiser, was commissioned into the Royal Navy in June 1936, under Captain R. L. Burnett, OBE, RN. Of 6,980 tons, 72,000 hp, giving ...

Rear Admiral Farncomb 1899-1971

Zammitt, Alan · Dec 22, 1989 ·

On September 29, 1989, Major General Peter Day, A.O., Commandant at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) at Canberra invited Mrs J. R. Farncomb, OBE, to officially open Farncomb House ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

The Loss of HMS Natal due Internal Explosion – 1915

Head, M.A., S.J. · Dec 19, 1989 ·

There is no more frightening end to a warship than the sudden death of the internal explosion. One moment a ship can be lying quietly in harbour and the next, ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

HMAS Diamantina During EXPO 88

Thomson, Max · Dec 19, 1989 ·

Almost 10 years after decommissioning as a unit of the fleet, of the Queensland Maritime Museum, the River-class frigate HMAS DIAMANTINA, launched in 1944, capped its wartime and post-war career ...

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Vice Admiral Sir John Collins, KBE, CB

Newspaper, London Daily Telegraph · Dec 19, 1989 ·

Vice-Admiral Sir John Collins, who has died in Sydney aged 90, was Australia’s most celebrated sailor of the 1939-45 War.  His destruction of the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni at the ...

Table of Equivalent Ranks

A.N. Other · Dec 19, 1989 ·

KRIEGSMARINE UNITED STATES NAVY ROYAL NAVY Grossadmiral  –  – Generaladmiral Fleet Admiral Admiral of the Fleet Admiral Admiral Admiral Vizeadmiral Vice Admiral Vice-Admiral Konteradmiral Rear Admiral Rear-Admiral Kommodore Commodore Commodore ...

Queens Colours – The History of the Colours

A.N. Other · Dec 19, 1989 ·

Since the earliest times, warriors have carried standards or flags as a distinguishing mark and to serve as a rallying point during battle. To lose the standard often meant that ...

Book Review: Seagulls, Cruisers, and Catapults

Book reviewer · Dec 19, 1989 ·

By Ray Jones, 134 pages, Illustrated, Pelorus Publications, Tasmania – 1989 This fascinating book is not only a history of the amphibian aircraft used by the Royal Australian Navy but a ...

Letters – Operational Snakecraft

Letter Writer · Dec 19, 1989 ·

On reading the recent publication “Fair Winds to Australia”, author Mr Lew Lind, and subsequent article regarding Services Reconnaissance Department in Naval Historical Review (December 1988), I feel obliged to inform Mr ...

History of Service – HMAS Shropshire

A.N. Other · Sep 23, 1989 ·

This was a pictorial article published in September 1983. The format of the original article doesn’t lend itself to the conventional format, so a PDF-format copy of the article is ...

History of Service – HMAS Canberra

A.N. Other · Sep 23, 1989 ·

This was a pictorial article published in September 1983. The format of the original article doesn’t lend itself to the conventional format, so a PDF-format copy of the article is ...

History of Service – HMAS Australia

A.N. Other · Sep 23, 1989 ·

This was a pictorial article published in September 1989. The format of the original article doesn’t lend itself to the conventional format, so a PDF-format copy of the article is ...

Why Knot?

A.N. Other · Sep 23, 1989 ·

The log is a device for measuring a ship’s speed through the water. An early log, said to have been invented about 1620, consisted of a float or chip designed ...

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 60
  • Page 61
  • Page 62
  • Page 63
  • Page 64
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 75
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Categories

Latest Podcasts

  • The Fall of Singapore
  • HMAS Armidale
  • Napoleon, the Royal Navy and Me
  • The Case of the Unknown Sailor
  • Night of the midget subs — Sydney under attack

Links to other podcasts

Australian Naval History Podcasts
This podcast series examines Australia’s Naval history, featuring a variety of naval history experts from the Naval Studies Group and elsewhere.
Produced by the Naval Studies Group in conjunction with the Submarine Institute of Australia, the Australian Naval Institute, Naval Historical Society and the RAN Seapower Centre

Life on the Line Podcasts
Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories.
These recordings can be accessed through Apple iTunes or for Android users, Stitcher.

Video Links

  • Australian War Memorial YouTube channel
  • Royal Australian Navy YouTube Channel
  • Research – We can help!
  • Naval Heritage Sites
  • Explore Naval Art
  • Dockyard Heritage Tour
  • About us
  • Shop
  • Events
  • Members Area
  • Volunteer
  • Donate
  • Contact us

Follow us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Members Area
  • Privacy Policy

Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. Copyright © 2025