Two women influenced the greatest naval hero’s life, the first his wife and, the second his mistress of many years. It was perhaps prophetic that the next generation produced no ...
The Admiral’s Ladies
The Phantom Paradise
By Jerry Lattin From the 1960s to the 1990s, I spent several periods driving small ships in PNG waters. When there was spare time on passage I used it to ...
HMA Ships Kuru and Vigilant
The Patrol Vessel Vigilant was a prototype built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard. She was a handsome vessel and the first ship in Australia built with an aluminium hull and superstructure; ...
John Browne: the Navy’s Oldest Man and his Tattoo
This article has been largely prepared from early newspaper cuttings discovered by Mrs Pat Raymond, an alert South Coast reader, and we thank her for the contribution. Over a century ...
HMA SHIPS Kanimbla and Manoora: the final chapter
The two Landing Platform Amphibious class ships HMA Ships Kanimbla and Manoora were respectively paid-off in November and May 2011 and after some time alongside at Garden Island had been ...
1913 RAN Fleet Entry
First entry of the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet into Sydney in 1913. Courtesy of Sea Power Centre – Australia. ...
Book Review: The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928
The Forgotten Cruiser HMAS Melbourne 1913-1928 By Andrew Kilsby and Greg Swinden, Longueville Media, Woollahra, NSW, 2013. Available from cooeehistory.com RRP $49.95. On 26 March 1913, HMAS Melbourne, Australia’s first ...
Australian Naval History on 11 July 2013
808 Squadron was recommissioned at HMAS Albatross to fly the MRH-90 Taipan ...
Book Review: War to War: Australia’s Navy 1919-1939
War to War: Australia’s Navy 1919-1939 by Bob Nicholls. Australian Military History Publications, Sydney, 2012. ISBN 9780 98077451. rrp $35. (02) 9542 6771 Bob Nicholls died in 2010. After serving ...
Book Review: A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942
A Parting Shot: Shelling of Australia by Japanese Submarines 1942 by Terry Jones and Steven Carruthers. Published by Casper Publications Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2013. 320 pages with illustrations and photographs. ...
Obituary: Lieutenant Commander Peter Churchill, RN (Rtd) 1921-2013
One of the founding members of the Naval Historical Society has passed over the bar and this fitting obituary by Paul Cosgrave was recently published in the Blue Mountains Gazette. ...
HMS Penguin (VII) and her 64 Pounder Gun
When I first started work at Garden Island in January 1955, there was a small wharf at the southern end of Riggers Lane known as Kuttabul Steps, not to be ...
Tokyo Rose
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare’s enduring couplet from Romeo and Juliet, now often shortened to ...
Leadership lessons from the Royal Navy: the Nelson touch
By Andrew St. George This article was originally published in McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey and Company. Copyright 2013 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission. The Royal Navy is ...
The Loss of HMS Glowworm: an Australian Connection
By Greg Swinden War at sea has no intermissions, none of the periods of recovery between advances or retreats that land warfare enjoys, no breaks safely behind the lines between ...
Going to Sea
By David Simpson David joined the RAN in 1963 as an apprentice at HMAS Nirimba. He served in HMA Ships Vampire, Yarra and Stalwart, paying off in 1974 as an ...
Lombrum: A Personal Memoir
By Jerry Lattin A shorter version of this article appeared in Una Voce, the journal of the Papua New Guinea Association of Australia, in December 2008. first visited the RAN’s ...
The Admiralty Islands
Previous editions of this magazine have focused on the histories of Cocos, Christmas and Nauru Islands as they formed part of the Government’s Pacific Solution for asylum seekers. This article ...
The Hammerhead Crane
In the 42 years of this publication there has not been one article dedicated to Garden Island’s Hammerhead Crane. It is timely to correct this omission which has been done ...
Letter: Sydney Sharp-Shooter and the Zero
Dear Editor On page 23 of the Naval Historical Review (March 2013), the statement is made that Sergeant Hajime Toyoshima (alias Tadeo Minami) captured on 19 February 1942 was the ...
Letter: Gallipoli and Other Stories
Dear Editor, I thoroughly enjoyed the March 2013 edition of the Review, thank you. I think it’s your best to date but I beg to take issue with a couple ...
Letter: Talbot-Booth and Sydney/Kormoran
Dear Editor No one on earth knows what information HMAS Sydney II was carrying in regards to ships’ identities either by book, signal or personal knowledge. What we do know ...
Letter: District Officers Boats
In the article District Officers Boats (NHR December 2012) on the restoration of MB172 and its previous naval service in Darwin, reference was made to two launches only, MB 168 ...
RAN Mine Countermeasure Forces: The Conception and Birth of the Australian Clearance Diver
By Sub-Lieutenant N.J. Laing, RAN Nathan Laing graduated from Emmanuel College in 2004 undertaking diploma studies in Justice Administration before joining the Queensland Police Service. During his time as a ...
2013 International Fleet Review Launch
The International Fleet Review was held to commemorate the centenary of the first entry of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet into Sydney which occurred on 4 October 1913. The International ...