(In the previous two issues of Naval Historical Review John Sullivan has written of the early establishment years of Williamstown Dockyard up to the outbreak of World War 2. This ...
Naval history
HMAS Parramatta Silver Jubilee
RAN Formation – A Personal Memory
Williamstown Naval Dockyard – Part 2
Royal Australian Naval Operations 1914
I FEEL THAT THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the Royal Australian Navy should not be allowed to slip away without brief mention of the operations carried out by the Navy in ...
HMAS Condamine in Korea 1952-1953
CONDAMINE, one of four modified river class frigates (the others being Shoalhaven, Murchison and Culgoa) was built by the State Dockyard at Newcastle, NSW. Laid down on the 3rd of ...
Williamstown Naval Dockyard – Part 1
Flag Officers Commanding Australian Fleet, 1913-1986
Vice-Admiral Sir George E. Patey, KCMG, KCVO, MVO 1913-1916 Rear-Admiral Sir William Christopher Pakenham, KCB, MVO 1916-1917 Rear-Admiral Arthur Cavenagh Leveson, CB 1917-1918 Rear-Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey, KCMG, CB, CMG ...
Perth and the Aftermath
Night of Shipboard Terror – HMAS Nizam
The Day the Emden Came A-Calling
(Reprinted by permission of Penang New Sunday Times, October 28, 1984) On October 28, 1914 – exactly 70 years ago today – most of the people of Penang were still ...
The Acceptance of the Second HMAS Voyager into Her Majesty’s Service
Sailing Ship Apprentice to Captain of the ‘Queens’
HMAS Melbourne – As it Was, a Bird’s Eye View
BOARDING THE CARRIER MELBOURNE for the first time it was all so baffling. The ship is so huge and her geography so complex I was continually lost as I wandered ...
Sirius, HMS – Wreckage Recovered from First Fleet Flagship
Oilers in the Royal Australian Navy
IN THE BEGINNING there was COAL!! Lots of it. Dirty, dusty, nostril filling and seemingly unlimited in supply. Coaling Ship was an evolution in which everybody was engaged in the ...
ML 817’s New Guinea Operations
New Meaning put into the word Camouflage WARSHIP CAMOUFLAGE came in some weird and wonderful forms during WW II. But for one of the smaller ships of the RAN it ...
Messages from the Clouds Highlighted a Night of High Drama
FOR COUNTLESS GENERATIONS seamen have navigated by the stars. But it was a ‘Message from the Clouds’ that held the key to the rescue of several hundred servicemen after a ...
Kimbla – Alias ‘The Snail’
HMAS KIMBLA was laid down in 1953 and was launched by Mrs. J.W.N. Bull, wife of Captain John Bull who, at the time, was General Overseer Eastern Area. Kimbla’s launch ...
The War Cruises of I27 – Part 2
The War Cruises of I27 – Part 1
HMAS Platypus in Darwin during blitz 19 February 1942
HMAS PLATYPUS was built in England during WWI as a Submarine Tender to the ’J’ class Submarines and as such she had workshops, oil stowage and storage for torpedoes. Platypus ...
British Gunboats on the Yangtze
The following article is taken from the June and March issues of Yangtze and Sikiang Patroller, journal of the United States Yangtze River Patrol Association. A number of RAN officers ...