HMAS Melbourne (I)
| |
 | |
| Type | Light Cruiser |
|---|---|
| Laid down | 4 April 1911 |
| Launched | 30 May 1912 by Mrs Braund, daughter of Mr Barr Smith of Adelaide |
| Builder | Cammell Laird & Co Ltd, Birkenhead, England |
| Commissioned | 18 January 1913 |
| Displacement | 5,400 tons |
| Length | 456 feet 10 3/8 inches |
| Beam | 49 feet 10 inches |
| Draught | 19 feet 7 inches |
| Armament |
|
| Main Machinery |
|
| Speed | 23.2 knots11.935 m/s 42.966 km/h 0.0119 km/s 2,349.432 ft/min 39.157 ft/s |
| Complement | 485 |
HMAS MELBOURNE commissioned at Birkenhead, England, on 18 January 1913 under the command of Captain Mortimer L’Estrange Silver RN. The ship completed her delivery voyage from England when she arrived at Fremantle on 10 March 1913.
Following the outbreak of war in August 1914 MELBOURNE spent a brief period in Pacific waters as a unit of the Australian Squadron operating as a counter to the German Pacific Squadron under Admiral Graf von Spee. She took part in the seizure of the German Pacific possessions and on 9 September 1914 landed a naval party on Nauru Island to carry out the destruction of the wireless station. Her return to Sydney on 20 September 1914 ended this phase of operations. The cruiser covered 11,170 miles on Pacific patrols.
On 1 November 1914 MELBOURNE sailed from Albany, Western Australia, escorting in company with HMAS Sydney (I), HMS MINOTAUR and the Japanese cruiser IBUKI, the first Australian / New Zealand convoy, comprising 38 transports. Detaching from the convoy in the Indian Ocean, MELBOURNE reached Colombo on 14 November, proceeding the following day for Gibraltar, arriving there on 5 December 1914. On 10 December the cruiser received orders to sail for the Azores to assist in the search for the cruiser KARLSRUHE.
Arriving at Madeira on 12 December, MELBOURNE received orders to proceed direct to Bermuda for attachment to the North America and West Indies Stations for patrol duties. Operations began from Trinidad on 28 December 1914 when she departed that post with orders to search the coastal areas of Venezuela, Colombia and Panama for the KARLSRUHE and her attendant supply ship.
The following twenty months (January 1915 – 28 August 1916) were spent as a unit of the North America and West Indies Squadron maintaining a series of patrols in the West Indies with Jamaica as the centre point, and off Long Island and the entrance to New York Harbour with Halifax as the base. Squadron Headquarters were at Bermuda. MELBOURNE operated north to Halifax and south to the Para River, Brazil, taking in the Gulf of Mexico.
At the close of August 1916 MELBOURNE detached from the North America and West Indies Stations and proceeded for Devonport, where she arrived on 7 September. Following a month in port she departed for Scapa Flow, to become a unit of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron and part of the Grand Fleet.
A brief period of routine North Sea patrols ended in January 1917 when serious engine trouble forced her into dock at Birkenhead. She remained in dockyard hands until the end of June 1917.
On 27 June 1917 MELBOURNE sailed from Birkenhead to rejoin the Grand Fleet at Scapa and again became a unit of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron. The remainder of the war period was spent on routine patrols and fleet exercises in northern waters. She returned to Portsmouth on 30 November 1918. MELBOURNE took no part in any action at sea and suffered no casualties. On 7 March 1919 her service in the European theatre ended when she departed Devonport for Australia, finally entering Sydney Harbour on 21 May 1919 after a leisurely cruise via Suez, Singapore and Darwin.
On 5 August 1919 MELBOURNE paid off and lay inactive at Sydney until she was recommissioned on 14 April 1920.
The period of 1920 to 1924 was spent mainly in Australian coastal waters, interspersed with spring cruises to Pacific Island territories, two visits to New Zealand and cruises to Timor and the Moluccas.
On 29 September 1924 MELBOURNE again paid off and lay at Sydney for a year before recommissioning on 8 October 1925 in preparation for a voyage to the United Kingdom. Departing Sydney on 23 November 1925 she reached Portsmouth on 30 March 1926. She returned to Australia in August.
The remainder of her active life as a unit of the Australian Squadron was spent at Port Phillip, Westernport and Sydney. On 9 February 1928 MELBOURNE sailed from Sydney for the United Kingdom. She arrived at Portsmouth on 12 April 1928 and paid off at that port on 23 April 1928. In December 1928 the ship was sold to Alloa Shipbuilding Co, Rosyth, Scotland, for £25,000. She was broken up in 1929.
