HMA Ship Histories
HMAS AUSTRALIA (I)
| Type: | Battle cruiser |
|---|---|
| Displacement: | 18,800 tons |
| Length: | 590 feet (overall) |
| Beam: | 80 feet |
| Draught: | 30 feet (maximum), 26 feet 6 inches (mean) |
| Builder: | John Brown & Co Ltd, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Laid Down: | 26 June 1910 |
| Launched: | 25 October 1911, by Lady Reid, wife of Sir George Reid, Australian High Commissioner in London and former Prime Minister |
| Completed: | 21 June 1913 |
| Horsepower: | 44,000 |
| Speed: | 25 knots |
| Armament: | 8 x 12-inch guns 14 x 4-inch guns 2 x 18-inch torpedo tubes (broadside, submerged) |
| Armour: | Maximum 6 inches (belt) amidships |
| Fuel: | Coal - 3170 tons maximum bunkerage; 1200 tons normal bunkerage Oil - 840 tons |
The Australian Navy's first flagship, the battle cruiser HMAS Australia was the centrepiece of the 'Fleet Unit', whose acquisition signalled the RAN's arrival as a credible ocean-going force. Ordered from John Brown and Company in March 1910, construction began three months later with the total cost of the ship and fittings expected to be some £2 million. The Commonwealth Government decided upon the name Australia, and it proved a popular choice, carefully avoiding any suggestion of favouritism towards any one Australian State. The ship's badge maintained the national theme by featuring the Federation Star overlaid by a naval crown, while the motto 'Endeavour' reflected the ideal of the Australian spirit and recalled Lieutenant James Cook's ship of 1768-71.
Notwithstanding some construction delays, John Brown delivered Australia £295 000 under budget. Following successful gun, torpedo and machinery trials she commissioned as an Australian unit at Portsmouth, England, on 21 June 1913 under the command of Captain Stephen H. Radcliffe, RN. Two days later the ship hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral George Edwin Patey, MVO (later Vice Admiral Sir George Patey, KCMG, KCVO), who had been selected to command the Australian Fleet.
In company with the new light cruiser HMAS Sydney, Australia sailed from Portsmouth on 21 July 1913, and their voyage home was seen as a further opportunity to stimulate public awareness and naval sentiment around the British Empire. The appearance of the Australian warships would, the Sydney Morning Herald remarked, provide a practical demonstration of the RAN as a 'thoroughly competent, efficient, and considerable force'. Australia called in at Capetown where Patey and his officers were directed to extend every possible courtesy. The visit proved very successful. It might not have altered South African defence plans, but it gave clear evidence that Australian authorities understood the diplomatic leverage they might obtain from the considered use of their new Navy.
On the morning of 4 October 1913 Australia, leading the remaining ships of the Fleet Unit (the cruisers Melbourne, Sydney and Encounter, and the destroyers Warrego, Parramatta and Yarra), entered Sydney for the first time. Port Jackson was no stranger to imperial and foreign warships, but the battle cruiser, both majestic and forbidding at the same time, was something different. She was the embodiment of the Commonwealth's own sea power, and unquestionably superior to every other European warship in the Pacific. Already described as a 'living sentient thing', Australia's entry at the head of the fleet evoked a nationalistic euphoria never before experienced. 'The sight of the Fleet meant more to the Australian people than the visit of any foreign fleet. It was our expression of patriotism, ships of defence bought in love of country and empire…' wrote the Sydney Mail, while the Australian Defence Minister, Senator Edward Millen, remarked:
Since Captain Cook's arrival, no more memorable event has happened than the advent of the Australian Fleet. As the former marked the birth of Australia, so the latter announces its coming of age, its recognition of the growing responsibilities of nationhood, and its resolve to accept and discharge them as a duty both to itself and to the Empire. The Australian Fleet is not merely the embodiment of force. It is the expression of Australia's resolve to pursue, in freedom, its national ideals, and to hand down unimpaired and unsullied the heritage it has received, and which it holds and cherishes as an inviolable trust. It is in this spirit that Australia welcomes its Fleet, not as an instrument of war, but as the harbinger of peace.
Arrangements were made at the first opportunity for the flagship to visit many of the principal Australian ports. Within a year she had called at Albany, Port Lincoln, Hobart, Glenelg and Melbourne, and steamed as far north as Townsville in a deliberate attempt to showcase the Navy to the widest national audience. Australia's popularity extended to mass entertainment and in addition to becoming the subject of several popular songs she played the starring role in the feature film Sea Dogs of Australia, which opened on 12 August 1914.
On the outbreak of World War I Australia operated (with other ships of the Australian Fleet) as a counter to the German East Asiatic Cruiser Squadron under Admiral Graf von Spee. The battle cruiser's presence deterred von Spee from operating in local waters, and as Prime Minister W.M. 'Billy' Hughes later declared, 'but for the "Australia"…the great cities of Australia would have been reduced to ruins, oversea trade paralysed, coastwise shipping sunk, and communications with the outside world cut off'. Australia meanwhile kept busy, taking part in a series of operations to seize German Pacific colonies and destroy the enemy's radio network. During these operations Australia captured the German ship Sumatra.
(For further details see: http://www.navy.gov.au/spc/semaphore/Before Gallipoli _as printed_.pdf )
In late December 1914 Australia received orders to sail to England via the Pacific and reached Devonport on 28 January 1915. En route she captured and sank von Spee's supply ship Eleonore Woermann (5000 tons) off South America. From Devonport Australia proceeded to Rosyth in Scotland, where in February 1915 she became flagship of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron, flying the flag of Rear Admiral Sir William Pakenham, KCB, MVO. The squadron as initially formed comprised Australia and her two sister ships, HMS New Zealand and HMS Indefatigable. From then until 22 April 1916, Australia was based at Rosyth accompanying the Battle Cruiser Fleet on a succession of sweeps, patrols, and convoy escort tasks across the length and breadth of the North Sea. The enemy was rarely if ever seen, and a shot at a suspected submarine on 30 December 1917 marked the only occasion when she subsequently fired in anger.
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