On This Day
1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars
On This Day - 1919-1938
- March 22, 1919
CDRE John Saumarez Dumaresq, CB, CVO, MVO, RN, was appointed Commodore Commanding Australian Naval Squadron, and hoisted his flag in the cruiser HMAS MELBOURNE. Although a RN officer he had been born in Sydney in 1873, and later joined the Royal Navy as a cadet midshipman.
- March 21, 1919
HM Ships ANZAC, TATTOO, SWORDSMAN, SUCCESS, TASMANIA, and STALWART were transferred to the RAN. The S class destroyers were replacements for the six torpedo boat destroyers used during the World War I.
- March 17, 1919
After their service with the RN is finished HMA Ships HMAS Melbourne , Torrens, Huon, Warrego, Swan, Yarra and Parramatta sailed from Malta for Australia
- March 15, 1919
The J class submarines J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J7, were gifted to the RAN. All were built in the UK under the Emergency War Programme with J1 and J2 being built in Portsmouth Dockyard, J3 and J4, in Pembroke Dockyard, South Wales, and J5 and J7, in Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth. They sailed on 9 April 1919 with HMAS PLATYPUS, (submarine depot ship), for Australia, arriving on 10 July 1919 in Sydney.
- March 13, 1919
The depot and repair ship HMAS PLATYPUS, (CMDR E. C. Boyle, VC, RN), was commissioned. PLATYPUS, (ex-PENGUIN, ex-PLATYPUS), was laid down in John Brown Yard, at Clydebank, Scotland, on 14 October 1914, and launched on 28 October 1916. As both of the RAN’s submarines, (AE1 and AE2), were lost, PLATYPUS remained in service with the RN for the duration of WWI.
- March 11, 1919
HMAS PLATYPUS was commissioned as a submarine depot ship, and HMAS KURUMBA as oiler for the flotilla of “J” class submarines presented to the RAN as a gift by the British Admiralty.
- March 7, 1919
HMAS Melbourne’s service in the European theatre ended when she departed Devonport for Australia, finally entering Sydney Harbour on 21 May 1919 after a leisurely cruise via Suez, Singapore and Darwin
- February 9, 1919
HMS VENDETTA, later HMAS VENDETTA, (destroyer), engaged Bolshevik ground troops with gunfire at Windau in the Baltic to relieve Red Army pressure on the Lettish Army.
- January 14, 1919
HMAS FANTOME, (survey ship), resumed survey duties after WW1.
- January 8, 1919
HMA Ships PARRAMATTA and HUON, (torpedo boat destroyers), were damaged in a gale off Cape Finisterre and put into the Spanish port of Ferrol for repairs.
The Admiralty presented six J class submarines to the RAN as a gift.