kookaburra
24-07-2009, 10:51
The first of several posts portraying ships of the Royal Navy on the Australia Station in Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart from the last decade of the 19th Century into the first decade of the 20th Century.
Some charming scenes will follow, and for history buffs I think you'll find there will be some high-resi sepia treasures among them too. I hope you enjoy:
Pic 1. The flagship of the Australia Station, HMS Royal Authur rests in the Sutherland Dock on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, in the first years of the 20th Century. The 7,700 ton Edgar Class cruiser, carrying one 9.2 inch gun, twelve 6-inch QF, and twelve six pounders, she preceded the even mightier and much-photographed HMS Powerful, the greatest cruiser of her time, as flagship on the Australia Station.
Royal Arthur, laid down as Centurion, was completed at Portmouth Dockyard in 1891, served through WW1, and was sold for scrapping in Germany in August 1921.
Pic 2: Two ships of the Auxiliary Squadron, five small cruisers and two torpedo boat destroyers provided under the Australian Naval Defence Act of 1897, and given Australian names, also rest in Sutherland Dock. The ships were the cruisers Katoomba, Mildura, Ringarooma, Tauranga (NZ name), and Wallaroo, plus TBDS Boomerang and Kattakarra.
In the foreground here are one of the Destroyer TBs, Boomerang or Kattakarra, with one of the cruisers astern.
Pic 3. HMS Boomerang fires a torpedo, Moreton Bay Queensland, c1895.
Pic 4. An unidentified RN ship in the Brisbane River in the 1890s. Quite possibly, I think this could be after the great floods of February 1893, when three ships - including the colonial gunboat HMQS Paluma - ended well up on the banks of the Botanical Gardens, although I can't quite tell whether those ships opposite are actually ashore.
Pic 5: HMS Ringarooma, one of the small cruisers. It's a bit of a search to find her details - I'll edit in any I find.
Pic 6: Postcard on board the Ringarooma in the Brisbane River, 1894.
Pics 7 & 8: HMS Penguin, survey vessel, Sutherland Dock 1894, and one of the officers, Lt G.W. Gubbins aboard in Brisbane the same year.
Pics 9 & 10: TBD HMS Boomerang at Hobart [wonderful vierw of Mt Wellington, note man standing in the sailboat]; and gun crew at practice, Moreton Bay Qld, 1892.
Pic 11: Crew of HMS Pylades at general quarters, Brisbane 1896.
Pic 12: 'England Expects' ...more next post
Some charming scenes will follow, and for history buffs I think you'll find there will be some high-resi sepia treasures among them too. I hope you enjoy:
Pic 1. The flagship of the Australia Station, HMS Royal Authur rests in the Sutherland Dock on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, in the first years of the 20th Century. The 7,700 ton Edgar Class cruiser, carrying one 9.2 inch gun, twelve 6-inch QF, and twelve six pounders, she preceded the even mightier and much-photographed HMS Powerful, the greatest cruiser of her time, as flagship on the Australia Station.
Royal Arthur, laid down as Centurion, was completed at Portmouth Dockyard in 1891, served through WW1, and was sold for scrapping in Germany in August 1921.
Pic 2: Two ships of the Auxiliary Squadron, five small cruisers and two torpedo boat destroyers provided under the Australian Naval Defence Act of 1897, and given Australian names, also rest in Sutherland Dock. The ships were the cruisers Katoomba, Mildura, Ringarooma, Tauranga (NZ name), and Wallaroo, plus TBDS Boomerang and Kattakarra.
In the foreground here are one of the Destroyer TBs, Boomerang or Kattakarra, with one of the cruisers astern.
Pic 3. HMS Boomerang fires a torpedo, Moreton Bay Queensland, c1895.
Pic 4. An unidentified RN ship in the Brisbane River in the 1890s. Quite possibly, I think this could be after the great floods of February 1893, when three ships - including the colonial gunboat HMQS Paluma - ended well up on the banks of the Botanical Gardens, although I can't quite tell whether those ships opposite are actually ashore.
Pic 5: HMS Ringarooma, one of the small cruisers. It's a bit of a search to find her details - I'll edit in any I find.
Pic 6: Postcard on board the Ringarooma in the Brisbane River, 1894.
Pics 7 & 8: HMS Penguin, survey vessel, Sutherland Dock 1894, and one of the officers, Lt G.W. Gubbins aboard in Brisbane the same year.
Pics 9 & 10: TBD HMS Boomerang at Hobart [wonderful vierw of Mt Wellington, note man standing in the sailboat]; and gun crew at practice, Moreton Bay Qld, 1892.
Pic 11: Crew of HMS Pylades at general quarters, Brisbane 1896.
Pic 12: 'England Expects' ...more next post