By Robert Curran Everyone loves a dog, particularly sailors. In the Australian War Memorial’s collection there are many photos of ships’ mascots of the canine variety to testify to this. ...
Publications
Queens at War
Birth of the Queens The great ocean liners and sister ships Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary feature as two of the most important troop carriers in the annals of Australian ...
Troubled Guardians
By Zuhal Sharifee Overview The Guardian-class Patrol Boats are a class of small patrol vessels developed by the Australian shipbuilding company Austal. The patrol boats are delivered under the Pacific ...
Captain William Cromarty: Mariner and Pioneer
By Leslie Kilmartin ‘What’s an Orkney lad, whatever, if he’s not to have a taste o’ the dangers of the sea? Robert Leighton (2004) William Cromarty arrived to settle in ...
The Properties, Office and Duetie of a Gunner
Introduction While searching for another reference this small story from the September 2003 edition of this magazine came to attention. It was written by Cyprian Lucar (1544-1611) and is from ...
Gaza Trident Pier – Start and Finish
An Inspirational Beginning Under a humanitarian aid initiative known as Joint Logistics Over The Shore (JLOTS), on Friday 17 May 2024 trucks began delivering shipments of humanitarian aid of food ...
After two centuries Matthew Flinders finally returns home
By Walter Burroughs The June 2019 edition of this magazine contained an article on Matthew Flinders which summarised the great mariner’s life and revealed that his long-lost coffin was rediscovered ...
United States Naval Submarine School Groton
By Lauren Belknap Recently a group of Australian officers and sailors has undertaken training at the United States Naval Submarine School at Groton. Keeping us up to date with these ...
Book Review: Salt Horse
Salt Horse – Memoir of a Maverick Admiral, Claude Lionel Cumberlege. Published by Whittles Publishing Ltd, Dunbeath, Caithness KW6 6EG, Scotland. Admiral Claude Cumberlege RN wrote his memoirs in 1936-38, ...
Letter: HMS Hood
I have just received my ever welcome and informative copy of the Review. The article by Graeme Lunn, detailing HMS Hood’s cruise to Australia, reminded me of my father’s visit ...
The Naval Graves Project
By Kingsley Perry In the December 2023 edition of this journal there was an article titled Rookwood. It described the location and extent of this large cemetery in Sydney and ...
100 Years ago: HMAS Australia and Gerald Muddyman
Observing that 15 April marks the centenary of the intentional sinking of the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, the following article taken from the Newington Magazine website, carefully curated by Robert Curran, ...
First NAAFI Store on board RFA Ship opens
This small article from the UK Forces Network is of some interest to us as there were originally four Bay-class RFA landing ship docks. One of these was RFA Largs ...
LCDR Walter Brooksbank MM RANVR at the Admiralty
The December 2023 issue of this magazine introduced LCDR Walter Brooksbank RANVR and the start of his involvement with Naval Intelligence. His grandson Tim Proust provided this article which continues ...
HMAS Maryborough escapes from Java
An email was received recently from Ian Gotts of St Albans in England about the wartime exploits of his cousin Able Seaman James Gotts who was rescued from HMS Electra, ...
Daniel Solander: a Linnaean disciple on HMS Endeavour
By Emily Osterloff This article, which is available on the Natural History Museum website, is reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of the Natural History Museum in London as ...
The Blackwoods of Huon Park
By Walter Burroughs In the northern Sydney suburb of Turramurra lies St James’ Church and adjacent is a War Memorial Hall with its honour board containing the names of those ...
The Man with Two Swords
By Murray Davies The Challenge My initial thought was, ‘Well, this should be easy…’ I collect swords and I usually do a fair amount of background research on them when ...
Ada Teresa Burrell – The Mica Queen
Considered by her peers to be the only woman to marry a naval officer for his money We publish many stories about well-known naval personalities concentrating on their illustrious careers ...
Robert Otto Albert, AO RFD RD
By John Jeremy AM This fine tribute was first published in The Navy, April-June 2024, and is reproduced by kind permission of the editor of that publication. On 7 February ...
Patrol Boat Autonomy Trial
Many stories are received of autonomous craft but these are mostly small prototypes, possibly of limited capability in an offshore environment. The trials now being conducted by Austal Australia using ...
Occasional Paper 185: Fiji Coup 1987 – RAN on the ground
By Commander David Jordan CSC RANR On 14 May 1987 the Military of Fiji took control of the country in a bloodless coup d’état. In response to the coup, the ...
Occasional Paper 184: History of HMA Naval Dockyard, Williamstown.
With the discovery of gold in Victoria in the decade 1851-1861, the population increased sevenfold. The large fleet of vessels that brought these people into the Port of Melbourne overwhelmed ...
Occasional Paper 183: The RAN Bridging Train – Dry Land Sailors
The Bridging Train which existed as a small but highly effective unit of the RAN operated essentially on dry land as field engineers between 1915 and 1917. They served with ...
Book Review: Abide With Me – The HMAS Voyager Tragedy
Abide With Me – The HMAS Voyager Tragedy by Elizabeth McCarthy This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the collision between HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager off the New South ...




























