On This Day
1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars
On This Day - 1919-1938
- April 22, 1919
The Prince of Wales and ADML Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, (First Sea Lord), inspected HMAS AUSTRALIA, (battle-cruiser), at Portsmouth.
- April 17, 1919
HMAS Brisbane sailed from Portsmouth for Australia via Malta, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Darwin. She later joined submarine HMAS J5, already on her way to Australia, and assumed responsibility for her escort which included towing her for some of the voyage to Sydney
- April 10, 1919
HMAS BILOELA, (fleet collier), was launched at Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
HMA Submarine J5, (LEUT J. R. Peirson, RN), collided with the French sailing ship TERRENEUVIEN YOLANDE, south of Portsmouth, England. The Australian Government later paid £4922 in compensation to the French owners.
- April 9, 1919
HMAS SYDNEY, five J class submarines, and the submarine depot ship HMAS PLATYPUS, departed England for Australia. The submarines had been gifted to the RAN by the British Admiralty, but their service was to be brief. Upon arrival in Australia the submarines required major refits, and all had been disposed of by the mid 1920’s.
- March 25, 1919
Britain’s gift submarines to the RAN, J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J6 and J7, were commissioned into the RAN. The Flotilla Commander was CMDR E. C. Boyle, VC, RN.
- 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.