By Leyland Wilkinson On 18 March 1918 the Sydney Morning Herald briefly reported the death in England on 7 March of Commander J .M. Jackson, RN. It stated: He had ...
HMAS Una
HMAS Encounter (1905 – 1932)
HMS Encounter served on the Australia Station and was later commissioned into the RAN. She played a vital role in defence of the eastern coast of Australia, and the anti raider patrols in the South West Pacific. She was regarded as “more beloved than any other unit of our fleet”. ...
SMS Komet, the RAN’s first captured warship: a valuable prize and our first aircraft carrier
By Leyland Wilkinson In the latter part of the 19th century, Germany had been actively developing her Pacific island colonies and by 1900 had large holdings to the north of ...
Royal Australian Naval Operations 1914
I FEEL THAT THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the Royal Australian Navy should not be allowed to slip away without brief mention of the operations carried out by the Navy in ...
HMAS Una – a Work Horse – 1914
ONE OF THE SPOILS from the capture of the German New Guinea colonies in 1914 was the steam yacht Komet. Built in 1911 as the Government yacht for the colonies, ...
Australian Naval Aviation – Part 1
THE HISTORY OF WORLD naval aviation began, tentatively, in the lighter-than-air era. As far back as November 1861, during the American Civil War, the Union Army – employing maritime techniques – released the Washington balloon from a remodelled coal barge, the G.W. Parke Curtis, to observe the enemy at Budd’s Ferry. ...
Australian Naval History on 6 January 1925
The former German yacht, HMAS UNA, (ex KOMET), was sold out of service to the Port Melbourne Pilot Service and renamed AKUNA. She remained in the pilot service until 1953. ...
Australian Naval History on 22 October 1916
The sloop HMAS UNA, (CAPT H. R. Jackson, RN), and the French gunboat KERSAINT, arrived at Malekula to mount a punitive expedition against rebellious natives. During the operations seven police ...
Australian Naval History on 1 August 1915
LEUT D. T. M. Powles, RANR, commanding the captured German schooner HASAG, took nine German POWs, and confiscated arms in the Kavieng area. HASAG was captured by the sloop HMAS ...
Australian Naval History on 29 November 1914
HMAS UNA became the first Australian warship to carry aircraft when she transported two aircraft, and their pilots, from Sydney to New Guinea. The aircraft were not used because the ...
Australian Naval History on 27 November 1914
HMAS MELBOURNE, (cruiser), entered the Mediterranean on passage to the West Indies Station. The first naval aviation unit was despatched from Point Cook, VIC, to embark in HMAS UNA for ...
Australian Naval History on 19 November 1914
The sloop HMAS UNA, (CMDR J. M. Jackson, RN), was commissioned. UNA, (as KOMET), was laid down in Vulkan Vegesack Yard, Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1911. ...
Australian Naval History on 17 November 1914
The captured German yacht KOMET was commissioned as HMAS UNA, at Sydney. It was intended to name the vessel PRIMA, conveying ‘the first warship captured’ but UNA, meaning ‘the only ...
Australian Naval History on 11 October 1914
The German Governor of New Guinea’s steam yacht KOMET, was captured by the NUSA, manned by the Australian Naval Brigade, at Bougainville. KOMET was later commissioned as HMAS UNA. ...