On This Day
1914-1918 > WW1
On This Day - 1914-1918
- July 9, 1917
- Boats from HMAS Sydney I rescued survivors when HMS Vanguard blew up at Scapa Flow on 9/7/1917. Two of Sydney’s crew were onboard HMS Vanguard and died in the explosion. Stokers Robert Thomas Houston and L.W. Roberts
- July 7, 1917
All six ships of the Australian Torpedo Boat Destroyer Flotilla operated together for the first time.
- May 21, 1917
HMS VAMPIRE, (destroyer), later to be commissioned HMAS VAMPIRE, was launched at White’s Yard, England.
- May 18, 1917
The Australian Naval Brigade provided guards for the principal wireless stations throughout Australia.
- May 16, 1917
HIJM Ships CHIKUMA and HIRADO, (cruisers), arrived in Australian waters to bolster naval defence in the area. At that point the majority of the RAN’s warships were serving overseas in the North Sea and the Mediterranean, with only HMAS ENCOUNTER operating on the Australian Station.
- May 9, 1917
The Australian Government agreed to send HMA Ships WARREGO, PARRAMATTA, YARRA, SWAN, TORRENS, and HUON, to European waters, following and urgent request from Britain. This request clearly indicated Australia did not have control of it’s own Navy, a fact which Admiralty diplomatically managed by ensuring it maintained an RN Admiral as First Naval member of Australia’s ACN Board. This policy that became entrenched for the next 30 years but was finally discarded when RADM John Collins RAN took over.
- May 8, 1917
The Japanese ship HIRADO, (cruiser), was docked at Cockatoo Island, Sydney. During the year the Japanese ships CHIKUMA, YAHAGI, NISSHIN, and KASUGA, operated in Australian waters.
- May 4, 1917
The cruiser HMAS SYDNEY, (CAPT J. S. Dumaresq, RAN), in company with HMS DUBLIN and four destroyers, was attacked by the German zeppelin L43 in the North Sea. CAPT Dumaresq reported in the ship’s Proceedings: ‘The gunnery officers of SYDNEY and DUBLIN made very good shooting with the HA guns, keeping the airship at such a height as to make her bomb dropping inaccurate’. SYDNEY was the first ship of the RAN to be subjected to an air attack.
- April 25, 1917
HMAT Ballarat was torpedoed by a submarine in the English Channel 25 April 1917. Efforts made to tow the ship to shallow water failed and she sank off The Lizard the following morning. No lives were lost of the 1752 souls on board.
- April 24, 1917
LEUT R. A. Little, an Australian serving with No. 8 Squadron, RNAS, brought down intact a German DFW fighter. Little was flying a Sopwith tri-plane.