On This Day
1919-1938 > Depresssion and between the wars
On This Day - 1919-1938
- September 21, 1929
HMAS CANBERRA, (cruiser), ran aground at Broome, WA . Damage was minor, and the cruiser re-floated herself.
- September 16, 1929
HMAS WARREGO, (torpedo boat destroyer), arrived at Cockatoo Island, Sydney, for breaking up. The vessel sank alongside her wharf, and was finally broken up by explosives during WWII.
- August 16, 1929
HMAS Penquin (formerly HMAS Platypus) commissioned to serve as a Depot Ship at Garden Island, acting also as parent ship for the submarines
- August 15, 1929
HMAS Platypus paid off and the following day commissioned as HMAS Penguin as a Depot Ship at Garden Island, acting also as parent ship for the submarines
HMAS Encounter decommissioned- July 23, 1929
HMA Ships MARGUERITE and MALLOW were paid off at Sydney.
- July 3, 1929
HMAS ALBATROSS, (seaplane carrier), sailed from Sydney with the Governor General Lord Stonehaven and Lady Stonehaven, for an official visit to New Guinea.
- May 15, 1929
RADM E. R .G .R. Evans, CB, RN, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding His Majesty’s Australian Squadron. Evans was a charismatic officer who had served with CAPT Robert Falcon Scott, RN, in his Antarctic expedition of 1912, and later commanded HMS BROKE, (destroyer), during WWI. While in command of this destroyer, he was involved in a night action with German destroyers, on 21 April 1917, in which BROKE rammed and sank the German destroyer G42, thus earning Evans the popular title, ‘Evans of the BROKE’. Later in life he was knighted, and took the title Lord Mountevans, which referred to his Antarctic service.
- April 11, 1929
HMAS ALBATROSS, (seaplane carrier), was dispatched from Sydney to search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s aircraft, the Southern Cross, in the vicinity of Wyndham WA.
The Southern Cross had been forced down onto a mud flat in Northern Australia, and the subsequent search became known as the ‘Coffee Royal Affair’, as some claimed that Kingsford Smith orchestrated the whole event as a publicity stunt. One of the many civilian aircraft searching for Kingsford Smith and his crew crashed landed in the northern Australia, and her crew perished.
The Southern Cross was located before ALBATROSS reached the search area.
- March 31, 1929
HMAS Platypus paid off to recommission in her former role as a Submarine Tender after 2 Royal Navy O Class submarines joined the RAN
- February 25, 1929
Six Seagull Mk III amphibian aircraft embarked in seaplane carrier HMAS ALBATROSS at Melbourne.