THE 12 CANNON in the Garden Island Collection cover a period of almost four centuries. The earliest, two brass Portuguese pieces believed to have been cast in Spain in the ...
Naval history
The Loss of HMS Auckland
‘At 6.28 p.m. she rolled over and sank.’ L J. Brien was serving in HMAS Vendetta at the time of the loss of this fine ship. The Vs and Ws ...
Book Review: Australian Naval Administration 1900-1939
Author – Robert Hyslop It is fitting that the two most important works on the organisation and administration of the Royal Australian Navy should be written by a Secretary and ...
Au revoir – poem
A poetical tribute to Lieutenant Commander R. (Dusty) Rhodes DSC, RAN, on his relinquishing command of HMAS Quickmatch in 1944. Now Cobbers, fellow shipmates, The time is drawing near When we shall lose that gallant man, ...
Australian Naval Aviation – Part 3
Admiral Sir Harry Rawson GCB, GCMG.
AUSTRALIA Sinks the Elenore Woerman
WHEN THE NEW BRITAIN – NEW GUINEA CAMPAIGN drew to a close HMAS Australia was ordered to the Atlantic. The route selected was east across the Pacific, and so the ...
British Pacific Fleet Memorial
THREE HUNDRED MEMBERS and guests witnessed the unveiling of the British Pacific Fleet Memorial at Naval Headquarters, Potts Point, Sydney, on Sunday 2nd December 1973. Rear Admiral G.D. Moore, CBE, ...
His Majesty’s Ship Papua
HMS Papua is one of the lesser known vessels of the Royal Navy. Her active life covered a period of less than one year and her greatest claim to fame ...
Out of the Past – pictorial
...
Lower Deck Memories – 1908-1911
Mr. Blakeney wrote these memoirs at the age of 83. He served in the Navy for 49 years, commencing as a cadet in 1906 and ending as captain of the ...
The Four Lives of HMS Wexford
MOST WARSHIPS have inbuilt lasting qualities. HMS Victory has weathered almost two centuries, and several United States ships of war are almost as venerable. HMS Wexford, a later Hunt class ...
Australian Naval Aviation – Part 2
Farewell to Old Sydney Forever
ALTHOUGH HER DAYS WERE NUMBERED, the shock announcement on July 20th ‘The transport HMAS Sydney is to be paid off. She will be withdrawn from the Australian Fleet and will ...
Captain Joseph Burnett RAN
Millionaire’s Yacht’s Naval Service
WE ARE ONCE MORE INDEBTED to naval archivist, Mr. John Ware, for this history of HMAS Adele. [The beautiful steam yacht is here depicted in the early 1920s as HMAS ...
British and German submarine statistics of World War II
THE GERMAN NAVY commenced World War II with fifty-six submarines, of which only twenty four were suitable for operations in the Atlantic. In the five and a half years of ...
Nestor died slowly
Twins Were Pioneers of the RAN
An announcement that two brothers had been appointed to command sister ships in Australia’s Destroyer Squadron has brought to light the careers of twin brothers who were pioneers of the ...
Australian Naval Aviation – Part 1
THE HISTORY OF WORLD naval aviation began, tentatively, in the lighter-than-air era. As far back as November 1861, during the American Civil War, the Union Army – employing maritime techniques – released the Washington balloon from a remodelled coal barge, the G.W. Parke Curtis, to observe the enemy at Budd’s Ferry. ...
HMAS Matafele: 1938 – 1944
A great deal has been recorded concerning the more famous ships of the Royal Australian Navy which served during the Second World War. Nobody would deny that these vessels and ...
The Maxim was the Maximum
THE MAXIM GUN was adopted by the Royal Navy in the 1880s. It was used with good effect in the Benin Campaign (modern Biafra) in 1896. The two seamen of ...
