Back from the Dead By: Piia Wirsu Published by: Harper Collins, 2025 This is a true story – so astonishing that it could not possibly be made up. It is ...
Naval Historical Review
TITANIC in the OUTBACK – A literary observation
by Walter Burroughs In the far west of New South Wales, near its border with South Australia, lies the city of Broken Hill. Being much closer to Adelaide than Sydney, ...
Vale John Christopher Jeremy AM – 4 July 1942 – 18 April 2025
John was much the same age as me entering this world as a wartime babe in 1942. He was the last of three sons born to Richmond and Joan Jeremy. ...
Book Review: The Secret Submarine
Book Review by ‘Subconscious’ The Secret Submarine by Tom Lewis is a paperback of 315-pages, published by Big Sky Publishing, of Sydney. It was released in early 2025. The book ...
PORT JACKSON AND MANUKAU and Some ‘Fencibles’
By Walter Burroughs This story is a tribute to Gerald Ellott our New Zealand correspondent whom we unfortunately, never met. At the age of 99 he passed away on 6 ...
THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAMSHIP COMPANY
The final cruise – A report from ‘our cruiser‘ RMS STRATHAIRD For more than two centuries shipping interests that eventually became the iconic Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company built an ...
HMAS Encounter and the Raider Seeadler
Colin Randall discusses the loss of the German ship in 1917 The enemy raider Seeadler sailed from Germany in December 1916 and during an extended cruise in the Atlantic and ...
COLLECTORS – Captain James Cook’s Commemorative Plate
The commemorative plate (above) was produced as a souvenir that marked the bicentenary of the 1770 landing on Australian shores of Captain (Lieutenant) James Cook. The face of the plate ...
J CLASS SUBMARINES and their WONDERFUL MECHANISM
Intricate Machinery and its Use in War Talking to Ships at the Bottom of the Sea By A.C.C.S., ‘Sunday Times’ – 20 July 1919 “Just about the greasiest job I ...
SERVING ABOARD THE TOWN CLASS CRUISERS
A transcript of the 1972 presentation to the NHSA by naval historian and member John Bastock When the first Australian Fleet Unit arrived in Sydney on 4 October 1913, I ...
NEW ERA WARSHIPS – 1895
Coastal and Harbour defence by torpedo boats – a lecture by Commander Bosanquet, New South Wales Naval Forces. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper of 1 October 1895 featured an informative article ...
FULL CIRCLE To hell, and then home by submarine
The story of Able Seaman Hilton (Harry) George Weigand, RAN by Tony Vine When Harry Weigand walked off the submarine HMAS Oxley in Malta in 1928 to return home to ...
HMAS Brisbane and her ‘Baby’ – Embarking aircraft at sea
On 6 May 1917 the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) began its long association with naval aviation. In these early days, the seaplane was the aircraft of choice to be ...
RAN Officers and the Palestine Troubles 1936-1939
By Greg Swinden New status quo Following the end of the Great War, and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the area known as Palestine was allocated to Great Britain ...
HMAS SWAN to SHANGHAI
The 1981 trials of the ‘heavenly duck’ by Max Sulman During the 1970s there was a gradual easing of tension between China and the West. There were cautious overtures ...
Old timer HMAS Krait
Three views of the Second World War Services Reconnaissance Department (SRD) vessel Krait. The following description is from the Australian War Memorial website: “Operation Jaywick was a raid on shipping ...
Names and Numbers
by Dr. Joe Straczek They’re called hull numbers, others call them pendant numbers, some refer to them as pennant numbers. During the first one hundred years of the Royal Australian ...
US Coast Guard ‘Polar Star’: Veteran sails on
The US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star (WAGB 10) has visited Sydney and many other Australian ports numerous times across her 49-year career. She was commissioned in 1976 as a ...
Lower Deck Memories – 1908 to 1911
By L.H. Blakeney Mr. Blakeney wrote these memoirs in 1973 at the age of 83. He had previously served in the Navy for 49 years, beginning as a cadet in ...
Book Review: HMAS Melbourne – 25 years and Beyond, 2nd edition
The first edition of HMAS Melbourne – 25 Years, by naval historian Ross Gillett, told the story of the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (II), from when she was commissioned in ...
LIMBO MYSTERY SOLVED
By Walter Burroughs In late 2020 the Naval Historical Society was approached by colleagues from across the Tasman for help in finding a Mortar Mark 10, required for their naval ...
Losing a funnel – HMAS Protector: From the Archives
In June 1919, the Royal Australian Navy gunboat HMAS Protector almost sank. The incident took place off Cape Everard, (known as Point Hicks since 1970), the small coastal headland in ...
Box-Brownies’ : HMAS Platypus 1940-44
Good clear images of the veteran depot ship HMAS Platypus (I)during the Second World War, are a rare commodity. A few years back the editor received a number of ...
HMS AMBUSCADE GOING HOME
Plans to repatriate the former Royal Navy Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade to the United Kingdom from Pakistan are continuing to move forward. The vessel, which was sold to Pakistan ...
70 YEARS AGO HMAS QUEENBOROUGH’s 1955 TRAINING CRUISE
HMAS Queenborough sailed from Sydney for the United Kingdom on 24 February 1955. Her task, to gain experience in the latest methods of anti-submarine warfare and to evaluate the capabilities ...