By Bob Hetherington This story was first published in All Hands, the magazine for volunteers at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), and is reproduced with their and the author’s kind ...
Naval Historical Review
The Naval Evacuation of Singapore – February 1942
Singapore – a bastion of the British Empire, an impregnable fortress, fortified to withstand attack and prevent siege. With that in mind, thoughts of evacuation were therefore unnecessary. What the ...
Four things people ‘know’ about swords
By John McGrath For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ...
Prime Minister William Morris Hughes and his impact on Australian naval and maritime affairs: All at Sea with Billy
To the returning servicemen Hughes was ‘the Little Digger’ a symbol of Australian self-confidence. Geoffrey Button Formative years William Hughes, the father of William Morris Hughes, came from ...
Booby Island and its Post Office
By Peter Brigden An article in the March 2019 edition of this magazine titled They Also Servedcovers the memoirs of LCDR Frank Simon RD, RANR. I was lucky enough to ...
HMAS Reserve in the Liberation of the Philippines and the Not-so-Little Tug that Could
By Paul Baker On Christmas Day 1944, just as the 34 members of the crew of HMAS Reserve celebrated the occasion aboard their ship in San Pedro Bay in the Philippines, ...
An Essay on Autonomous Ships
By Lieutenant M. De Angelis, RFD, RANR Mario De Angelis enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, Melbourne Port Division on 22 January 1974. Initially joining as a Cook, he ...
Matthew Flinders: A personal assessment
Peter Ashley (2005) perhaps encapsulates an apt description of Flinders as a person: Driven, ambitious, sometimes arrogant and occasionally reckless, few navigators had a greater share of misfortune than Captain ...
Letter: HMS Shropshire and Rex the mascot
The following email was recently received by our Research desk with a photograph of a handsome canine nattily decked out as a Leading Seaman Gunner with two Good Conduct Badges. ...
Letter: Recollection of an Admiral’s Barge
Dear Editor, I enjoyed reading Bill Burrell’s recollections of admirals’ barges (Naval Historical Review, December 2018). He errs, though, in referring to the Admiral Hudson as a barge: it’s a cabin ...
Victoria Crosses awarded to Civilians
An article in the December 2018 edition of this magazine on Victoria Crosses makes no mention of the award to civilian recipients, in particular two Mercantile Marine1officers. The following may ...
The Royal Australian Naval College’s debt to Admiral Creswell
The following article is based on an address by Robert Hyslop to the Canberra and District Historical Society which appeared in that Society’s journal of September 1986, and still relevant ...
Chinderah Bay Antiques and Museum of the Seas
The September 2018 edition of this magazine reported on the closure of the Sydney Maritime Model Museum and the disposal of its considerable content of maritime artifacts. It is therefore ...
The German Raider HSK Stier and the American Freighter SS Stephen Hopkins
Many volumes have been committed to the deadly encounter between the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German raider HSK Kormoran. Depending on which side of the fence you sit, this ...
The debt owed to the Norwegian Merchant Service and MV Herstein
What if anything what does Norway, at the far end of the northern hemisphere, have to do with the wartime security of Australia? As this story unfolds the answer is, ...
The Admiralty Islands
By David Mattiske Recent announcements that the United States will partner Papua New Guinea and Australia on an initiative to further develop a naval base on Manus Island has aroused ...
They Also Served – LCDR Frank Derek Simon RD RANR (S)
Sixteen-year-old New Zealander, Frank Derek Simon, came to Australia in 1936 to take up an apprenticeship with a local shipping company. He stayed with his aunt and uncle in Sydney ...
The Batti-Wallahs’ Society
By John McGrath The President of the Batti-Wallahs’ Society has kindly given us permission to use the following information, with some minor additions, on the history of this unusual maritime ...
The Northern Sea Route: Russian Perspectives
The following article is by Alexandra Murtazaeva, a Russian student completing part of her international studies in Sydney. She has drawn upon recent Russian language news stories on this important ...
Harry’s Café de Wheels
By Ray Vidler The story of ‘Harry’s Café de Wheels’ goes back to the Great Depression years of the 1930s. With the world on the brink of a devastating war, ...
Australia Day 2019
The following address was recently given at Russ Martin Park, Moruya, on the south coast of New South Wales, by Captain Ward Hack, AM, RAN, Rtd. While it was mainly ...
The Transition to War: HMAS Perth and the Canadian West Coast Destroyers
By Roger Buxton In the late northern summer and autumn of 1939 HMAS Perth and the Canadian West Coast destroyers HMC Ships Fraser, Ottawa, Restigouche and St Laurent were making the transition from ...
HMAS Albatross, HMS Albatross and SS Hellenic Prince
The first HMAS Albatross was a locally built seaplane tender which had a short RAN career, saw wartime service as HMS Albatross, first as a seaplane tender then as a ...
Scapa Flow Revisited
By Walter Burroughs The name Scapa Flow was synonymous with naval operations in both world wars as a safe anchorage for vast fleets seeking to control access to the seaborne ...
The First Direct Wireless Messages from the United Kingdom to Australia
On 22 September 2018, marking the centenary of the First Wireless Message from the United Kingdom to Australia, a ceremony was held at the Sydney suburb of Wahroonga, outside the ...