When war looked imminent after the Munich crisis in 1938, the Royal Australian Navy realised it needed a fleet of escort ships to guard convoys and keep the sea lanes ...
Ship design and development
The Secret of the Battle of Sunda Strait: Secret Japanese Ship Sunk by Friendly Fire
By Rohan Goyne The Battle of Sunda Strait is remembered for the loss of the allied cruisers USS Houston and HMAS Perth in a confused night action in the Sunda ...
Occasional Paper 180: HMAS Yarra (III): IKARA related Configuration Changes Through Life
Commissioned on 27 July 1961 HMAS Yarra underwent significant configuration enhancements during its 24 years of distinguished service in the Royal Australian Navy. Its major refits involved the installation of ...
Occasional Paper 179: A Boiler Without a Ship
By John Jeremy Warship design in the first two decades of the 20th Century advanced rapidly, with the early introduction of new technology (e.g. the steam turbine for propulsion) and ...
Occasional Paper 178: A Short History of Building 6
John Jeremy Occasional Paper 165 told the story of the three-storey green building on the top of Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Building 10 — the Drawing Office building — and ...
Ghost Shark for Navy; The Extra-Large Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
This article first appeared in Australian Warship Issue No 117 published in March 2023 and is reproduced by kind permission of its editor. With so much attention being paid to ...
Littoral Combat Ships
The June edition of this magazine announced the commissioning of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) USS Canberra in Sydney on 22 July 2023. Less than a month later it came ...
Young Endeavour Replacement
A new sail training ship will be built in Australia over the next three years, to replace STS Young Endeavour. The original brigantine is now 35 years old, and has ...
Queensland Mining meets First Sea Lord and Strikes Oil
Prepared from inspiration provided by our Queensland member and mining engineer Colin Randall. William Knox D’Arcy and John Arbuthnot Fisher both came from families with prominent distant relatives but they ...
Former HMNZS Rotoiti and Pukaki off to Ireland by Heavy Lift Ship
The following article has been sourced from various local and overseas news outlets. The post-war Royal New Zealand Navy was based around two Dido-class light cruisers, HMNZ Ships Black Prince ...
Inside ‘Nuke School’, the elite US Training Ground preparing Australian Submariners for an AUKUS Future
The following article has been taken from an ABC News summary of 8 July 2023. In America’s deep south, a group of students has just completed one of the most ...
Occasional Paper 167: Littoral Combat Ship Program Overview
The recent visit by USS Canberra to Australia for commissioning was an historic event which captured the attention of Australians, Americans and many others worldwide. However, many people are impressed ...
Education News
The following article is taken from The Australian Naval Architect Vol 27 No 1, February 2023 and is reproduced by kind permission of that organisation. The first student in naval ...
Australia’s Nuclear Submarines – Costs and Timelines
By Jack Dillich* The recent government announcement on the acquisition of nuclear submarines is one of the most significant events in the history of the Royal Australian Navy. This article, ...
The Frigates that ‘did nothing in particular, and did it very well’ – with apologies to W.S. Gilbert.
By John Ingram Fifty years ago, the Whitlam Labor government cancelled the troubled Light Destroyer (DDL) project and set in place the acquisition of six patrol frigates of the Oliver ...
Occasional Paper 155: Patrolling Northern Australia
By John Jeremy The work of patrolling the seas to the north of Australia has become a major task for the RAN and the Australian Border Force. It is easy ...
Our First Patrol Boats
By Walter Burroughs In recent times Australia could be considered a mecca for the patrol boat industry: from a slow post war start with the Attack class, they were replaced ...
The River Clyde: The cradle of British shipbuilding and the birthplace of the Royal Australian Navy
By CMDR Tony Vine RAN Rtd The River Clyde in Scotland has long been described as the cradle of the British shipbuilding industry and in 1909 it became the foundation ...
Occasional Paper 153: County Class ships of the Royal Navy: A photographic review
By Conrad Waters The following feature was first published in the Ships Monthly magazine and subsequently by the Heritage Machines website on 19th October 2022. The Royal Navy’s series of ...
Pacific Support Vessel Reliant
By Ross Gillett Dodging showers, on Thursday, 21 July a baker’s dozen of Naval Historical Society members led by our president was invited to inspect the new Pacific Support Vessel ...
Remediation of the Australian Landing Helicopter Dock (ALHD) Propulsion Problems
By Phil Baldwin, CEng CMarEng FIMarEST Background In November 2007 the Australian Department of Defence procured two ALHDs through BAE Systems Australia. The platform was based on the Navantia (Spain) ...
Roylen Cruises and their fleet of Fairmiles
By Walter Burroughs A visit to an Opportunity Shop browsing through other people’s junk is often time wasting. And so it was while wasting time that an unwanted, ubiquitous, one-dollar ...
The Battle of Cape Spada – 19 July 1940 Part 1: The Genesis of Italy’s Light Cruiser Force
By Andreas Biermann Introduction This article is the first of two that aim to provide a new perspective on the Battle of Cape Spada on 19 July 1940, one of ...
A Mortar Mystery
In November 2020 the Naval Historical Society was approached by colleagues from across the Tasman for help in finding a Mortar Mark 10 which was required for their museum. During ...
Occasional Paper 112: The Hollywood Fleet in Sydney Harbour
How four luxurious gin palaces became hard-working heroines of the Battle of Sydney Harbour. By Neale Philip ...