On This Day
1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars
On This Day - 1919-1938
- August 23, 1934
A Seagull amphibious aircraft from HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), blown from its cradle and wrecked, in a gale in the Great Australian Bight.
- April 19, 1934
RADM Sir Wilbraham Tennyson Randle Ford, KCB, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding His Majesty’s Australian Squadron. He was the Rear Admiral Commanding His Majesty’s Australian Squadron from 19 April 1934 to 20 April 1936.
One story concerning his time in Australia was that during the visit of the Japanese Training Squadron to Australia, in 1935, he was presented with a vase by the senior Japanese officer. Later Ford told his valet to throw it away as “we will be at war with those bastards in a few years time”.
- February 2, 1934
The hulk of HMAS SWAN, (former torpedo boat destroyer), sank during a gale on the Hawkesbury River, NSW. Her sister ship PARRAMATTA was blown ashore onto a mud flat where the wreck remains to this day.
- January 21, 1934
Engineer VADM Sir William Clarkson, KBE, CMG, died at his home in Sydney. Clarkson had commenced service in the South Australian Navy in 1884, seen service in the Boxer Rebellion as the Engineer of South Australian gunboat HMCS PROTECTOR, and been Third Naval Member of the Australian Naval Board from 1911 to 1922. VADM Clarkson is considered the “father of engineering in the RAN”, and the Clarkson School of Engineering at HMAS CERBERUS is named after him.
- November 15, 1933
When the British Government offered HM Ships STUART, VENDETTA, VOYAGER, VAMPIRE, and WATERHEN, (destroyers), to Australia as a gift, the Australian Government was not unanimous in its decision to accept them. Mr. Eddie Ward, Member for East Sydney, said in the debate: ‘As an Australian native with a family in this country, I would be prepared to urge that Australia should not bother about arming to defend herself, because no other country will interfere with her. By doing so she would set an example, as the Scandinavian countries have successfully done.’ Mr. Ward was a member of the Australian War Cabinet from December 1941 until August, 1945.
- October 17, 1933
The Australian Destroyer Flotilla, HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER and WATERHEN, departed Chatham and, proceeding via Suez, reached Singapore on 28 November, Darwin on 7 December and Sydney on 21 December 1933.
- October 11, 1933
HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER and WATERHEN commissioned into the RAN from the RN.
- September 3, 1933
The RAN naval depot in Brisbane, was commissioned as HMAS PENGUIN IV. It was re-commissioned as HMAS BRISBANE in 1940, before becoming HMAS MORETON in 1942. The base was decommissioned in 1994
- July 30, 1933
HMAS ANZAC, (destroyer leader), was paid off at Sydney.
- June 21, 1933
The prototype Supermarine Seagull V amphibian aircraft, designed for the RAN, was tested. The aircraft, and the Walrus which developed from it, was used extensively in the RAN and the RN. HMAS AUSTRALIA, (cruiser), was the last warship to carry the aircraft in battle in 1944.