On This Day

1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars

February 21, 1930

The annual cost of training the 45 Cadet Midshipmen at the RAN College was £60,000.

January 11, 1930

The Australian Government agreed to the transfer of HMA Ships PARRAMATTA and SWAN, (torpedo boat destroyers), to the NSW Government for use as accommodation ships for civil prisoners. The vessels were never put to this use. The State Opposition Leader, Mr J. T. Lang, moved a successful recission vote in Parliament, claiming the convict system had been abolished in NSW in 1842.

December 21, 1929

HMAS Swordsman decommissioned and was placed into reserve. She was eventually sold for breaking up on 4 June 1937.

September 30, 1929

HMAS Yarra was transferred to the control of Cockatoo Island Dockyard where she was stripped of all useful fittings. Her hulk was scuttled off Sydney Heads on Thursday 11 June 1931.

September 24, 1929

The London, (County), class cruiser HMAS SHROPSHIRE, (CAPT R. W. Oldham, RN), was commissioned. SHROPSHIRE was laid down in Wm Beardmore & Co Ltd, Dalmuir, Scotland, on 24 February 1926, and launched on 5 July 1928. HMS SHROPSHIRE was gifted to the RAN as a replacement for HMAS CANBERRA on 25 June 1943.

September 21, 1929

HMAS CANBERRA, (cruiser), ran aground at Broome, WA . Damage was minor, and the cruiser re-floated herself.

September 16, 1929

HMAS WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyer), arrived at Cockatoo Island, Sydney, for breaking up. The vessel sank alongside her wharf, and was finally broken up by explosives during WWII.

August 16, 1929

HMAS Penquin (formerly HMAS Platypus) commissioned to serve as a Depot Ship at Garden Island, acting also as parent ship for the submarines

August 15, 1929

HMAS Platypus paid off and the following day commissioned as HMAS Penguin as a Depot Ship at Garden Island, acting also as parent ship for the submarines
HMAS Encounter decommissioned

July 23, 1929

HMA Ships MARGUERITE and MALLOW were paid off at Sydney.

July 3, 1929

HMAS ALBATROSS, (seaplane carrier), sailed from Sydney with the Governor General Lord Stonehaven and Lady Stonehaven, for an official visit to New Guinea.

May 15, 1929

RADM E. R .G .R. Evans, CB, RN, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding His Majesty’s Australian Squadron. Evans was a charismatic officer who had served with CAPT Robert Falcon Scott, RN, in his Antarctic expedition of 1912, and later commanded HMS BROKE, (destroyer), during WWI. While in command of this destroyer, he was involved in a night action with German destroyers, on 21 April 1917, in which BROKE rammed and sank the German destroyer G42, thus earning Evans the popular title, ‘Evans of the BROKE’. Later in life he was knighted, and took the title Lord Mountevans, which referred to his Antarctic service.

April 11, 1929

HMAS ALBATROSS, (seaplane carrier), was dispatched from Sydney to search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s aircraft, the Southern Cross, in the vicinity of Wyndham WA.

The Southern Cross had been forced down onto a mud flat in Northern Australia, and the subsequent search became known as the ‘Coffee Royal Affair’, as some claimed that Kingsford Smith orchestrated the whole event as a publicity stunt. One of the many civilian aircraft searching for Kingsford Smith and his crew crashed landed in the northern Australia, and her crew perished.

The Southern Cross was located before ALBATROSS reached the search area.

March 31, 1929

HMAS Platypus paid off to recommission in her former role as a Submarine Tender after 2 Royal Navy O Class submarines joined the RAN

February 25, 1929

Six Seagull Mk III amphibian aircraft embarked in seaplane carrier HMAS ALBATROSS at Melbourne.

February 22, 1929

HMAS Brisbane decommissioned again on 22 January 1929 and then on 16 August 1929 Brisbane was placed in C-Class Reserve and then finally on 1 December 1930 she paid off into E-Class Reserve. As she was still a relatively new ship, with only 13 years of service, she was retained in reserve, although the RAN did not have the money or manpower to reactivate her during the period of the Great Depression. Brisbane was recommissioned at Sydney on 2 April 1935, under the command of Captain Charles Farquhar-Smith, RAN and on 2 May 1935 she sailed for England manned by a complement which would form the balance of the ship’s company of the new HMAS Sydney (ex-HMS Phaeton), a Modified Leander-class light cruiser. While en route Brisbane assisted the sloop HMS Hastings, on 13 June, which had run aground on Shab Kuttle Reef in the Red Sea. The ship arrived at Portsmouth on 12 July 1935, where she finally paid off on 24 September 1935. In June 1936 Brisbane was sold for breaking up to Thomas Ward & Co Ltd of Sheffield, England, for £19,125.

February 19, 1929

LEUT Norman H. Shaw became the youngest officer to command a RAN submarine. Shaw was 28 Years and 228 days old when he took command of HMAS Otway

January 23, 1929

The seaplane carrier HMAS ALBATROSS, (CAPT D. M. T. Bedford, RN), was commissioned at Sydney. Lady Stonehaven, (Wife of the Governor General), performed the commissioning ceremony. ALBATROSS was laid down in Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney, and launched on 23 February 1928.

November 16, 1928

LEUT Frank E. Getting assumed command of HMAS Oxley to become the first RANC Graduate to command an RAN warship

September 1, 1928

A proposal to transfer the main base of the RAN from Sydney to Port Stephens, NSW, was laid before the Australian Government.

August 2, 1928

HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), sailed from Portsmouth on her maiden voyage to Australia.

July 9, 1928

The County class heavy cruiser HMAS CANBERRA, (CAPT G. L. Massey, RN), was commissioned. CANBERRA was laid down in John Brown Yard, Clydebank, Scotland, in 1925, and launched on 31 May 1927. HRH Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, performed the launching ceremony.

June 9, 1928

Captain Charles Kingsford Smith, in his aircraft Southern Cross, completed the first trans-Pacific flight The aircraft was guided in the last leg of it’s history making flight by the RAN’s wireless station at Garden Island, Sydney, which relayed messages through Australian destroyers stationed in the Tasman and Coral Seas.

June 7, 1928

HMAS Huon paid off into Reserve at Sydney. Without being again brought back into service, Huon was sunk by gunfire as a target off Sydney on 10 April 1931.

May 15, 1928

HMAS Swan paid off for disposal at Sydney and was stripped of useful fittings and equipment, in 1930, at Cockatoo Dockyard and her hulk towed to the Hawkesbury River. Swan and her sister ship Parramatta were then used a accommodation vessels, by the NSW Department of Prisons, for men working on road repair in the nearby region. This usage of the vessels met with public outcry and was soon stopped. Both vessels were then moored in the river for a period. In early February 1934 Swan was being towed down the Hawkesbury River, on her way to be scrapped, when she foundered near Juno Point. Her wreck still lies there today in approximately ten metres of water.