During World War I, the only underwater detection device in use was the hydrophone – a passive listening set. In June 1917, the British Admiralty and the Royal Navy embarked ...
Naval technology
Book Review: Compass
Compass by Alan Gurney W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2005. rrp A$30.00 Reviewed by Tony Howland In the year 1552, one John Hamilton wrote ‘a skipper can not guide ...
Carley Life Rafts of WW2
The Carley life-float (Admiralty Seamanship Manual 1956 terminology) was the principal method of lifesaving equipment during WW2, fitted to all warships, and not superseded by the present form of inflatable ...
Letters: HMAS Adelaide
Dear Sir, Congratulations on Graeme Andrews’ excellent and timely article on the “forgotten” cruiser, HMAS Adelaide. The front cover shows one of the 6″ Mark XII guns, not gun mounting ...
Anti-Submarine Measures from World War I
Abridged from an article in “History of the World Wars”, previously published in the RAN Corvettes Association Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 98 and kindly permitted to be reprinted here. AT ...
Watchers of the Sea and Sky – 13th Radar
Ken Wright revisits one of Australia’s first coastal radar stations and remembers the time when busy shipping lanes were menaced by enemy ships and planes. The Japanese submarine I-25 lying ...
Captain Cook Graving Dock
The sixtieth anniversary of the official opening of the (then) largest dry dock in the Southern Hemisphere by the Governor General, HRH the Duke of Gloucester, falls on 24 March ...
Miscellaneous Materials
In 1959 as an apprentice Scientific Instrument Maker in the Optical Workshop at Garden Island Dockyard I learnt to use these materials as part of my trade. The use of ...
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 ...
Helm Orders
HELM ORDERS GIVEN in British ships prior to 1934 were relative to tiller movement irrespective of whether steering was by tiller or wheel. The orders of the Officer of the ...