Two of a Kind - but Different

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Millar, Jack
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History - general, Naval Historical Review
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At frequent intervals a British Freighter, the Port Victor, sails unassumingly into the Port of Melbourne on her workmanlike task of trading regularly between Australia and other world ports. Like many a famous exserviceman in civilian dress, no one would suspect the colourful wartime history and achievements of this sturdy cargo carrier, nor is it generally known that this ship formerly carried a name made famous not only in two world wars but also a household word not so many years ago to thousands of Australians travelling between the Port of Melbourne and Tasmanian ports. It is a far cry from England to Australia, from Melbourne to Archangel and from Bass Strait to the Arctic Ocean, but the name Nairana links them all.

IT WAS A SHIP named Nairana - actually the first ship carrying the name - whose port of registry and home port was Melbourne, which endeared herself to people generally as the ferry which plied the sometimes placid but more often stormy Bass Strait with such regularity between the two world wars.

For the greater part of World War II, she was the only passenger link between Tasmania and the mainland, and many a serviceman going on leave has a soft spot in his heart for the old Nairana speeding him home to Tasmania.

Indeed her end provided an anticlimax. The grand old lady, as if thumbing her nose in defiance of those who wished to tow her away for scrap, broke free from her anchorage in Port Phillip and drifted ashore at Port Melbourne in February 1951. She became so deeply embedded in the sand that all efforts to tow her off proved futile.

The thousands who travelled on her must have read with pride the brass tablet in her saloon epitomising her war record: HMS Nairana, flying the flag of Rear Admiral T.W. Kemp, CIE, was instrumental in the capture of Archangel in August 1918, engaging the six-inch batteries at the mouth of the river with her guns and seaplanes, and anchoring off the city, destroying the Bolshevik forts. By means of bombs and gunfire directed from a seaplane sent up from her deck, she destroyed an armed vessel in which the Bolshevik Chancellor of the Exchequer was escaping with the Bolshevik treasury on board. Until October 1918 HMS Nairana controlled the northern coast of Russia, engaging the enemy with her guns and seaplanes, and landing armed blue jackets wherever necessary.

The Nairana, of 3,042 tons, was ordered by Huddart Parker Ltd. from Messrs. Denny Bros. at Dumbarton expressly for the Melbourne-Launceston trade, which, owing to the great rise and fall of the tide in the Tamar and the huge seas sometimes encountered in the Straits, demanded a vessel to suit these requirements. Not many who travelled on her could say the ‘old girl’ didn’t live up to these ideals.

Well on the way to completion when World War I broke out, her construction was left in abeyance, whilst more urgent Admiralty work was carried out, until August 1917, when the Navy took over and converted her to a seaplane carrier. Retaining her name, she thus wrote into the annals of the British Navy a name which was to be so proudly carried by a later ship converted for somewhat similar duties in the same way.

HMS Nairana arrived at Murmansk on July 19 1918, during the very confused fighting on the Russian Arctic front and at once made her presence felt. One of her seaplanes was used by a senior British Naval Officer to spy out lines of enemy approach south of Soroka.

Whilst over Parandove they were met with heavy fire from two troop trains filled with Bolshevik troops. Nothing daunted they attacked and, blazing away with the Lewis gun, succeeded in silencing the fire.

Later that month HMS Nairana, together with the light cruiser HMS Attentive and the French cruiser Admiral Aube embarked British Royal Marines and French troops and departed Murmansk to storm and capture Archangel from the Bolsheviks.

A sizeable fort was situated on Mudyugski Island at the entrance to Archangel, and at 10 a.m. on August 1, following the failure of negotiations for the fort’s capitulation, orders were received for the ships to open fire. Planes from the Nairana tenaciously pressed home bombing attacks and considerably helped to soften up for the attacking troops. By 8 p.m. the fort had been captured, opening the way to Archangel. Next morning the squadron proceeded up river, sinking two armed icebreakers on the way. After landing troops at strategic points anchor was dropped off the port, to the tumultuous welcome from the cheering crowds which rushed to the waterfront to greet them in a frenzy of acclamation. Everywhere the red flag of the Soviet had been hauled down, and in its place flew the old Russian tricolour, or the Russian naval flag with its St. Andrew’s cross. Planes from Nairana and parties of naval ratings were landed and used to repel Red counter attacks on the city, pending the arrival of troop reinforcements. Later, in consolidating their position, planes flew far and wide in search of retreating Bolshevik troops.

To give even greater range two seaplanes and three 12-pounder guns with sailors from Nairana left Archangel on August 10 on a barge towed by two gunboats manned by sailors from HMS Attentive. Commander Cowan of Nairana set off in a fast motor boat to reconnoitre ahead. They succeeded in advancing well up the Dvina River before winter set in, halting all movement.

After the armistice Nairana was converted back for her peacetime calling at the Devonport Naval Dockyards, and handed over to Huddart Parker Ltd. On arrival in Australia she was immediately placed on the Bass Strait run between Melbourne and Launceston where the ship and her name continued to be even better known in her peacetime career, as a passenger ferry across Bass Strait.

The second Nairana, now better known as the Port Victor, was laid down as a Port Line cargo vessel during the second World War, but taken over by the Admiralty and converted to an escort aircraft carrier.

The second HMS Nairana followed her predecessor in seeking out and destroying the enemy wherever he might be. The ship was converted to an escort carrier (with 20 to 24 planes) in 1943, along with two other ships, HM Ships Campania and Vindex, now the Port Vindex, another regular visitor to Melbourne. Whether battling the Atlantic or the Arctic, or off the Norwegian coast, Nairana’s planes were the seeing eyes of the convoys she was protecting.

U-boats were not the only danger, and many long-range German bombers stand to the credit of her fast nippy fighters. In all her many actions, she was a fighting ship in every sense of the word. Early in 1944, with another carrier, HMS Activity, she set off on an offensive hunting strike into mid Atlantic, accompanied by the Second Support Group - HM Ships Starling, Wild Goose, Kite, Wren, Woodpecker and Magpie under the command of that ace of U-boat killers, Captain F.J. Walker, CB, DSO and three bars.

Disaster almost struck early, and it was only the alertness of the support group which saved Nairana from being torpedoed. U-502 had crept in to close range, but she never survived to tell the tale, going to the bottom under the relentless attack of Captain Walker’s ships.

Joining west-bound convoy SL147 comprising 81 merchant ships, the group was ever on the alert, being right in the danger area. During the day the carriers operated their aircraft from the deep field, spotting, attacking and reporting all U-boats sighted. At night they entered into the middle of the convoy, for they were also live bait - no U-boat commander worth his salt could resist having a crack at a nice big carrier.

During the night of February 8, no less than 26 U-boats were in touch with the convoy, but such was the mauling received from Captain Walker’s group they did not press home their attacks. On that memorable day no less than three U-boats (U-762, U-734 and U-328) went to the bottom following the barrage of depth charges from the second support group. U-424 and U-264 followed them a few days later, making six sunk on the one hunting sortie. Time to splice the mainbrace indeed.

HMS Nairana and her planes were in the thick of numerous actions like this, and whether in the Atlantic, or on the long Arctic convoy route to Russia, she was there protecting her charges in fair weather and foul. Referring to one convoy accompanied by an escort carrier, German Admiral Doenitz said: ‘The worst feature was the presence of the aircraft carrier. Small, fast, manoeuverable aircraft circled the convoy continuously, so that when they were sighted the U-boats were repeatedly forced to submerge or withdraw. The presence of enemy aircraft also prevented any protracted shadowing or homing procedure by German aircraft. The sinking of the aircraft carrier is therefore of particular importance, not only in this case, but also in every future convoy action’.

On our side Prime Minister Winston Churchill, referring to demands for a second front said: ‘The defeat of the U-boats must be the prelude to all effective aggressive operations by the Allies’.

This was accomplished, thanks to the navy and air force - but the price was high, many valuable lives and ships being lost in those grim but glorious days.

Following the cessation of hostilities HMS Nairana was handed over to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1946 and renamed Karel Doorman. She was returned to the Admiralty in 1948. On her return to England the Nairana was reconverted late in 1948, at the shipyards of Harland and Wolff Ltd., to her present-day cargo ship role, being renamed Port Victor.

She is the third ship of that name in the Port Line fleet. The first was one of the early coalburners. The second was ill-fated, being torpedoed on her second voyage in 1943, with the loss of 17 lives. If you are fortunate enough to see the Port Victor during one of her visits to the Port of Melbourne, pause a moment or two, and think of the name Nairana and the gallant part these two ships played in two world conflicts.

Originally printed in the Naval Historical Review-August 1972 Edition

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