Welcome to destall.com on July 10 2009.
This is an internet experiment running to monitor browsing habbits of individuals through wikipedia contents.

HMAS Australia (1911)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other ships of the same name, see HMAS Australia.
HMAS Australia
HMAS Australia
Career (Australia (RAN))
Builder: John Brown and Company
Laid down: 26 June 1910
Launched: 25 October 1911
Commissioned: 21 June 1913
Decommissioned: 12 December 1921
Fate: Scuttled 12 April 1924
General characteristics
Class and type: Indefatigable class battlecruiser
Displacement: 18,800 tons normal
21,300 tons full load
Length: 590 ft (179.8 m)
Beam: 80 ft (24.4 m)
Draught: 30 ft (9.1 m)
Propulsion: Parsons steam turbine, 4 screws
Speed: 25 knots (46 km/h) at 44,000 hp
Range: 6,300 nautical miles (11,700 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement: 820
Armament:

8 x BL 12-inch (304.8 mm) Mk X guns
14 x BL 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk VII guns

2 x 18 inch (450 mm) broadside torpedo tubes
Armour: 6-inch (150 mm) belt amidships

HMAS Australia was one of three Indefatigable class battlecruisers built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, Australia was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as flagship in 1913, and is the only capital ship to serve in the RAN.

Australia served in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans during World War I. She became the first battlecruiser to carry and launch an aircraft in 1918, and on her return to Australia after the war in 1919, several of the crew abandoned their posts in an abortive mutiny.

Australia was scuttled with her armament in 1924, as part of the British Empire's compliance conditions with the Washington Naval Treaty, the only time a disarmament agreement has impacted on the Australian military.

Contents

[edit] Construction and acquisition

HMAS Australia on delivery in the UK in 1913

Australia was laid down by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland on 26 June 1910.[1] She was launched on 25 October 1911 by Lady Reid, wife of Sir George Reid, the Australian High Commissioner in London and former Prime Minister of Australia.[1] The battlecruiser was completed and commissioned into the RAN at Portsmouth on 21 June 1913 as the navy's flagship.[2] At some point before departing England, Rear Admiral George Patey, the British admiral assigned as the 'Flag Officer Commanding the Australian Fleet', was knighted by King George V on Australia’s quarterdeck.[3]

Australia is the only capital ship to serve in the RAN.[1][I]

[edit] Operational history

On 21 July 1913, Australia departed for her namesake country in company with HMAS Sydney.[3] The ships arrived in Sydney on 4 October 1913, after a diplomatic visit to South Africa.[3] Australia and Sydney had been ordered to avoid other Australian ports, in order to perform a ceremonial entry into Sydney with other ships of the RAN.[3] On the same day, the role of Flagship of the Australia Station was transferred from HMS Cambrian to Australia, which also marked the transfer of responsibility from the United Kingdom to Australia.[4]

During her first year of service, Australia visited major ports along the south and east coastlines, in order to show the pride of the RAN to the public.[1]

[edit] World War I

On receiving a warning from the United Kingdom on 30 July 1914 that a declaration of war in Europe was imminent, RAN ships exercising off Queensland, including Australia, were recalled to Sydney to resupply.[5] The battlecruiser was assigned to the China Station, but was authorised to first seek out and destroy any enemy warships operating in the area.[6] Following the declaration of war, Australia was assigned to find the German East Asia Squadron, the only Central Powers naval force in the Pacific.[6] During this hunt, the battlecruiser was attached to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force and provided support during the Force's invasion of Rabaul, in case the German squadron was present.[6] The squadron's commander, Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, was wary of Australia, which he described as being superior to his squadron.[7]

Following von Spee's withdrawal from the Pacific, Australia was belatedly ordered to join a combined force off Mexico to resume the hunt for the German cruisers.[8] By this time, the German squadron had made its way to the South Atlantic, and in early December was destroyed by a separate British squadron in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.[9] Australia was sent to join the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron at Rosyth, Scotland, and was made flagship of the Squadron.[9]

As part of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron, Australia was involved in a series of mostly uneventful patrols of the North Sea.[9] Australia did not participate in the Battle of Jutland: at the time of the engagement, she was undergoing repairs to her armour plating following two successive collisions with sister ship HMS New Zealand while zigzagging in heavy fog on 22 June 1916.[9][10] After returning to service on 9 June 1917, Australia resumed the duties of flagship of the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron until the end of the war.[1] Australia was involved in a second collision, with British battlecruiser HMS Repulse in 12 December 1917, but was not heavily damaged.[10] The battlecruiser did not encounter any enemy ships during the entire war, and an abortive attack on a suspected enemy submarine on 30 December 1917 was the only time her weapons were fired in anger.[9]

In February 1918, eleven personnel from Australia were selected to participate in commando raids on two Belgian ports.[11] The British Admiralty hoped to close the ports of Ostend and Zeebrugge using blockships, although both raids were ultimately unsuccessful.[12] Of the eleven RAN sailors involved, one was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, three were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and three were mentioned in dispatches.[13] One of the sailors receiving the Distinguised Service Medal was nominated for the Victoria Cross, but did not receive it.[13]

In March and May 1918, Australia was used for experiments with ship-bourne aircraft.[1] On 8 March, a Sopwith 1½ Strutter biplane was launched from a platform mounted over one of the battlecruiser's 12-inch turrets; the first ever launching of an aircraft from a battlecruiser.[1]

On 21 November 1918, Australia was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet.[13] The battlecruiser led the port division of the Grand Fleet to meet the German fleet, and was tasked with specifically guarding the German battlecruiser SMS Hindenburg.[14]

[edit] Mutiny

Australia sailed for home on 23 April 1919, arriving in Fremantle on 28 May.[1] On 1 June the "HMAS Australia mutiny" occurred.[15] The crew had been given four days leave, and when the crew was ordered to make preparations to sail, to comply with a schedule of "welcome home" ceremonies, over 80 sailors assembled on the quarterdeck and requesting that the departure be delayed to allow further shore leave in Fremantle and Perth.[15] Other believed causes for the crew's frustration were the monotonous duty and lack of action during the war, several misunderstandings relating to crew pay and enlistment periods, and rivalry between the Australian and British sections of the crew.[15]

The group was addressed by Captain Claude Cumberlege, who listened to their concerns but informed them that the ship's departure could not be delayed due to the tight schedule.[1][15] The sailors dispersed unhappily but voluntarily, but when the orders came to sail, it was discovered that the duty stokers had abandoned their posts, preventing Australia from departing.[16] Petty officers were ordered to the engine room and the ship left port only one hour late, with the incident spreading no further among the crew.[1][15] Cumberlege pressed charges against 32 men: 27 were imprisoned in cells onboard Australia for 90 days, while five (including the Victoria Cross nominee from the Zeeburgee raid) were court-martialled for mutiny after the battlecruiser's arrival in Sydney on 15 June, and were variously sentenced to between one and two years imprisonment, with hard labour and dismissal from service.[16][15] After a public outcry, all five were released in December.[15]

[edit] Post-war

After World War I, Australia resumed her peacetime role as the flagship of the RAN.[1] In 1920, it was decided that the large amount of resources and manpower required for the ship could be used elsewhere, and that the ship's importance should be downgraded.[17] Another factor contributing to this was that the 12-inch shells used for the battlecruiser's guns were no longer being manufactured for the Royal Navy.[17] Australia’s crew was downsized, and she was sent to Victoria and retasked as a gunnery and torpedo drill ship, with a secondary role as a defensive gun battery.[17]

[edit] Decommissioning and fate

In November 1921, Australia was returned to Sydney, and was decommissioned into reserve on 12 December 1921.[1] Over the next three years, the ship was stripped of all useful equipment, as well as numerous souvenirs.[1]

The Washington Naval Treaty, signed in 1922, required the participating nations to downsize their naval forces.[17] As she was part of the British Empire, Australia was required to scuttle the battlecruiser with her main armament.[17] Australia was towed out to sea and scuttled on 12 April 1924,[17] an event that was seen as either the loss of a symbolic but obsolete part of the RAN, or as significantly weakening the navy's strength.[18] The scuttling of Australia is the only time a disarmament treaty has impacted on the Australian military.[19]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

^[I]  Although the Royal Australian Navy claims that Australia was the only capital ship to serve in the RAN, some sources also define the aircraft carriers Sydney, Vengeance, and Melbourne as capital ships.

[edit] Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m HMAS Australia (I), Sea Power Centre
  2. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 24
  3. ^ a b c d Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 25
  4. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 26
  5. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 30
  6. ^ a b c Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 32
  7. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 33
  8. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, pp. 36-7
  9. ^ a b c d e Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 37
  10. ^ a b Dennis et al, The Oxford companion to Australian military history, p. 139
  11. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 51
  12. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 51-2
  13. ^ a b c Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 52
  14. ^ Stevens, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 52-3
  15. ^ a b c d e f g HMAS Australia mutiny, Australian War Memorial
  16. ^ a b Sears, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 56
  17. ^ a b c d e f Sears, in The Royal Australian Navy, p. 65
  18. ^ A Loss More Symbolic than Material?, Sea Power Centre
  19. ^ Dennis et al, The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, p. 186

[edit] References

v • d • e
Indefatigable class battlecruiser
Indefatigable · New Zealand · Australia
Preceded by:Invincible class · Followed by:Lion class
List of battlecruisers of the Royal Navy
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Australia_(1911)"
Personal tools
Visit joltnews for the latest headlines
Visit bloit.com for company information
Geed Media does computer consulting on long island.
This page viewed times. See Logs