We recently became aware of two propellers from HMAS Sydney (III) not far away from one another in the Shoalhaven. One was at the recently named Jervis Bay Maritime Museum ...
Ship design and development
Radar in the South and Southwest Pacific as at Savo Island in August 1942
By R. W. Madsen This paper was prepared largely from notes made many years ago when I was at university and living with my grandparents. My grandfather, Sir John Madsen, ...
Occasional Paper 60: Naval Gigs: Past and Present
August 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM, Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia Subsequent to the recent recovery of an HMAS Australia (1) Gig from bushland at ...
‘Up and Downers’ save the day
By Bob Hetherington This story was first published in All Hands, the magazine for volunteers at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), and is reproduced with their and the author’s kind ...
An Essay on Autonomous Ships
By Lieutenant M. De Angelis, RFD, RANR Mario De Angelis enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Melbourne Port Division on 22 January 1974. Initially joining as a Cook, he ...
Occasional Paper 51: The Attack Class Patrol Boat
April 2019 By Dennis J Weatherall JP TM AFAITT(L) LSM Volunteer Researcher, Naval Historical Society of Australia Patrol boats have proven to be the most flexible and versatile elements of ...
Letter: Recollection of an Admiral’s Barge
Dear Editor, I enjoyed reading Bill Burrell’s recollections of admirals’ barges (Naval Historical Review, December 2018). He errs, though, in referring to the Admiral Hudson as a barge: it’s a cabin ...
The Batti-Wallahs’ Society
By John McGrath The President of the Batti-Wallahs’ Society has kindly given us permission to use the following information, with some minor additions, on the history of this unusual maritime ...
The Northern Sea Route: Russian Perspectives
The following article is by Alexandra Murtazaeva, a Russian student completing part of her international studies in Sydney. She has drawn upon recent Russian language news stories on this important ...
Austal Shipbuilders
Austal is an Australian shipbuilder involved in the design, construction and support of commercial and defence vessels. From corporate headquarters at Henderson in Western Australia it manages an impressive worldwide ...
Recollection of an Admiral’s Barge
By William (Bill) Burrell On 18 October 2018 Mr Bill Burrell, aged 84, contacted the Sea Power Centre Australia (SPC-A) to confirm that the vessel he had recently seen on ...
Occasional Paper 22: HMAS Advance faces 50
An Article from ‘All Hands’ December 2017 edition The Australian National Maritime Museum Volunteers’ Quarterly Newsletter By Wal Robson The museum’s popular patrol boat has a significant birthday coming up ...
Book Review: Australian Minesweepers at War by Mike Turner & Hector Donohue
Published by the Sea Power Centre, Canberra, 2018. Paperback of 328 pages with numerous black & white illustrations, portraits, tables and maps. The first edition of this publication was sold ...
The RAAF at Sea before World War II
The following article first appeared in the Air Power Development Centre Bulletin Pathfinder, Issue 175 dated April 2012 and is reproduced with their kind permission. The perspective of our sister ...
Royal Navy Colours of World War Two – The Patterns 507, G10 and G45
Collaborative works by: Michael Brown, Sean Carroll, James Duff, Lindsay Johnson Introduction In the final months of and in the years after World War Two, many resources, ...
Letter: The Kangaroo Symbol on HMA Ships
The picture of the commissioning of HMAS Hobart on the front cover of the December 2017 edition of the Naval Historical Review – particularly that of the red kangaroo symbol affixed ...
The World’s Fastest Ship
The RAN’s experience with catamaran hulls has been limited and has produced mixed results. The first experiment with catamaran hulled fibreglass minehunters, built by Carrington’s at Newcastle between 1986 and ...
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 ...
Un Sous-marin Français Construit aux Antipodes A French Submarine built in the Antipodes
By Commodore Bob Trotter OAM RAN (Rtd)1 ‘The year 1866 stood out because of a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon which doubtless has not yet been forgotten. Not ...
Submarines: The History and Future Underwater Warfare
The following article is taken from a feature first broadcast on ABC National Radio on 25 June 2016. It is reproduced with the kind permission of the author Keri Phillips ...
Book Review: Waterline Warships
Waterline Warships by Philip Read. Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley (UK) The author is a professional model maker who has been commissioned to build a static waterline model of the Ca class ...
Occasional Paper 2: Operation Damask – HMA Ships Brisbane and Sydney
November 2016 The following story was contributed by Hugh Hyland. Hugh worked for the variously named Defence departments for over 50 years until retiring in December 2015. He held numerous ...
Breaking Up is Hard to do
The title of the 1960s worldwide hit song recorded by Neil Sedaka seems appropriate to our next story concerning the disposal of warships. Living in an age of global consumerism ...
Steam Picket Boats: Some Reminiscences
In the last (September 2015) edition of this magazine we asked Leyland Wilkinson, the author of a Letter to the Editor on Picket Boats if he might favour us with ...
Shades of Grey
As Father Time catches up with us all strands of hair turn to lighter shades, perhaps not unlike warship livery which is again changing to a different shade of grey. ...