Emden gun targets public awareness

8 December 2010 By Michael Brooke

RESTORED: POET Damien Tanaka oversees the final touches to the Emden Gun by ABET Brad Madsen, SMNET Rebekah Hanser and ABET Damon Gniel-Morris. Photo: LSIS Brenton Freind.

ONE of the 10 4.1-inch guns from the German raider SMS Emden has been restored and now occupies pride of place at the RAN Heritage Centre on Garden Island, Sydney, where it will raise public awareness of the Navy’s first victory at sea in World War I.

The gun is an important war relic that provides a historical link to the RAN’s first victory at sea, when HMAS Sydney (I) destroyed the German cruiser in a battle near the Cocos Islands.

The Director of the Naval Heritage Collection, CMDR Shane Moore, said the 5-tonne gun and shield mount was one of the RAN’s most significant artefacts.

He said the gun was worth about $350,000 and was restored and moved “home” to the RAN Heritage Centre on November 29 to allow greater public access.

“The gun was originally kept at HMAS Kuttabul but was moved to HMAS Penguin in the 1950s where, until recently, it was displayed alongside a spare barrel and a 6-inch shell from Sydney I,” he said.

The challenge of restoring the Emden gun was completed by the sailors at Fleet Support Unit – Sydney (FSU-S).

Under the supervision of curators from the Naval Heritage Collection, FSU-S sailors restored the gun which involved dismantling it into three large components, water and grit blasting, as well as repainting it in the German paint scheme of 1914.

LEUT Matt Calvert, 2IC FSU-S, said the restoration project allowed FSU-S personnel to advance their competency logs while learning something about the RAN’s history.

“It has been an honour to have such an important piece of Australia’s naval history in our workshop,” he said.

In recent times FSU-S sailors have established a fine reputation for restoring and refurbishing items of great historical significance for Navy’s collection at the RAN Heritage Centre, as well as other war relics for the RSL.

On November 9, 1914, Emden was set ablaze by Sydney’s gunfire and forced aground on Cocos Island, thus bringing to an end a ship which captured or sunk 22 Allied ships in six short weeks in the Indian Ocean.