Dear Sir, The origin of the phrase ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’ was discussed in the last issue of NHR (December 2008, p20) but contains ...
Early warships
Book Review: Cochrane the Dauntless
Cochrane the Dauntless. The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane. By David Cordingly. Published by Bloomsbury and available from Allen and Unwin Book Publishers This is yet another biography of ...
Leadership: Louis Antoine de Bougainville
The Gift Minesweepers
The first dedicated minesweeping vessels in the RAN made their appearance in Australian waters at the end of WW1 to sweep minefields sown by a German raider during the war, ...
Sydney Memorial to HM Submarine K13
Alongside Pennant Hills Road in Carlingford, a Sydney suburb, is a memorial comprising a pond, rocks, the lettering K13 and brass plates. Of those who have seen it, how many ...
The Loss of HMS Ambuscade
Australia’s First Warship – The Torpedo Boat Acheron
Which was Australia’s first ‘real’ warship is a question often asked by naval historians. Today, what colony you originally came from or where you now reside, could be important elements ...
Sail Drill in HMS Endymion – Port Phillip Bay, 1869
Extract from the recollections of the late Captain Draper MN [Ed:”The Flying Squadron was especially formed under the command of Admiral Phipps-Hornby for a specific world circumnavigation cruise, designed to ...
An Atlantic Convoy 1798-1799
Napoleon’s Fleet – Found Buried in Seabed off Egypt
CAIRO – Two centuries after a historic battle destroyed Napoleon’s hopes of crushing the British Empire, the French Emperor’s fleet has been discovered entombed in the depths of an artifact-rich ...