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) ...
Ship design and development
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 ...
Occasional Paper 83: Current Australian Ship Naval Building Projects
This story, which was first published in the Australian Naval Architect, Volume 24 Number dated 2 May 2020 is reproduced with thanks to the Australian Division of the Royal Institution ...
HMAS Sydney (III) and her Propellers
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 ...
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 ...