Letters: Late mail Sep 2025

Author

Editorial Staff

Subjects

Letter to the Editor, Naval Historical Review editions

Tags

None noted.

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

September 2025 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Dear Editor (Ross),

I have just finished reading the Naval Historical Review for March 2025 (I am way behind in my reading). I have a couple of comments to make. In the article – “QUITE a SIGHT – 110 Years later” it mentions: “Sailing with the Fleet, aboard Hood was the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales, later King George VIII. Bringing the heir to the throne on a worldwide tour was an added attraction for the crowds. Also travelling with the Fleet was Lord Louis Mountbatten, then a young midshipman.”

The then Prince of Wales, was not with the Special Service Squadron. He later became King Edward VIII, not George VIII. He visited Australia in the battlecruiser HMS Renown in 1920, accompanied by Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was a Lieutenant in Renown, not a midshipman.

In the article “Box Brownies – HMAS Platypus in World War II”, one of the photos is captioned: “Below: The original‘box-brownie’ caption described this onboard view as ‘Throwing a Bone’ on boat deck. Crew helping their mates during a game of scrabble.” There is no Scrabble board where they are playing. The game is Mah Jong. Mah Jong tiles were usually referred to as “bones” as early sets were made of bone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong_tiles

Scrabble was introduced in 1948, developed from an earlier game known as Criss-Crosswords, but which was not successful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble

Always enjoy the Review – keep up the good work.

Kind regards,

Les Roberts

Editor: Thanks Les for these points about the Royal visits. I will let the Royal Navy Museum know about these in their article. Regarding the deck games, you are indeed correct. I blew up the image 300% and could see the Mah Jong tiles. Thanks for the corrections.

Contributions

Thanks to one of our readers for sending in the image, below, depicting the final pre-Second World War Winter cruise of the light cruiser HMAS Sydney. 

Updates

In the June edition we highlighted the fate of the former Great War patrol vessel Cartela, which sank on the River Derwent last February. The ship (below) has now been raised, with the possibility that she may be slipped for repairs.

Water cannon

On 1 July the RAN’s latest E-Cape class patrol boat, ADV Cape Spencer, performed an hour of in-basin trials within the Jervoise Bay breakwater area including engine and maneuvering tests with bow thruster. The boat also tested her water cannon (right). Then, on 3 July, Cape Spencer undertook her first trials from Henderson, Western Australia.

(Thanks to Chris Gee for the photo and information)