HMAS Sydney (1912)
Sydney steaming for Rabaul, September 1914
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History | |
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Australia | |
Name | Sydney |
Namesake | City of Sydney |
Builder | London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Company |
Laid down | 11 February 1911 |
Launched | 29 August 1912 |
Commissioned | 26 June 1913 |
Decommissioned | 8 May 1928 |
Motto | "Thorough and Ready" |
Honours and awards | |
Fate | Broken up for scrap |
General characteristics | |
Class and type |
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Displacement | 5,400 long tons (5,500 t) |
Length | 456 ft 10+3⁄8 in (139.25 m) |
Beam | 49 ft 10 in (15.19 m) |
Draught | 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m) |
Propulsion | Parsons turbines, Yarrow boilers, 4 propellers |
Speed | 25.7 knots (47.6 km/h; 29.6 mph) |
Complement | 376 standard, 475 maximum |
Armament |
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Armour |
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Aircraft carried | 1 Sopwith Pup |
(RAN). Laid down in 1911 and launched in 1912, the cruiser was commissioned into the RAN in 1913.
During the early stages of World War I, Sydney was involved in supporting the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, and escorting the first ANZAC convoy. On 9 November 1914, she defeated the German cruiser SMS Emden at the Battle of Cocos. During 1915 and 1916, Sydney operated on the North America and West Indies Station, before joining the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at Greenock, Scotland in November 1916. On 4 May 1917, the cruiser was involved in an inconclusive action against the German zeppelin L43; neither was damaged. During late 1917, Sydney became the first Australian warship to launch an aircraft, and the first warship to do so from a rotatable platform.
After the war's end, Sydney spent a year in reserve before being reactivated to serve as Flagship of the RAN. The cruiser was decommissioned in 1928 and broken up for scrap. Several sections of the ship, including her bow and foremast, have been preserved as monuments, and three of the ship's main guns saw later use in shore fortifications.
Design and construction
Sydney was a
The cruiser's main armament was made up of eight single
Sydney was laid down by the
Operational history
Early career and initial war operations
Sydney arrived in Albany, Western Australia on 19 September 1913, after completing her maiden voyage.[2] The cruiser operated off eastern Australia until March 1914, when she sailed to Singapore to meet the two new Australian submarines AE1 and AE2.[2] The three vessels reached Sydney in May, and the cruiser was reassigned to patrols along the eastern coast.[2]
When World War I started, Sydney was north-bound to join Admiral George Patey and the battlecruiser HMAS Australia.[2] The ships were quickly assigned to protect the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, which was used to capture German colonial assets in the region; Sydney participated in operations against Rabaul and Anguar Island in September.[2] In October, Sydney and sister ship HMAS Melbourne left Patey's squadron for Sydney, where they joined the escort of the first convoy delivering Australian and New Zealand soldiers to Egypt.[2] The convoy sailed around the southern coast of Australia to Albany, then departed on 1 November for Colombo.[2]
Battle of Cocos
On the morning of 9 November, the communications station at Direction Island, in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands group, was captured by the German light cruiser SMS Emden. Before capture, the station was able to transmit an SOS, which was received by the troop convoy, and Sydney was ordered to investigate. Emden's wireless operators had overheard the distress call and the orders to Sydney, and prepared to meet the Australian warship.[2]
Sydney's first indication of Emden's location was when the German ship began to fire at a range of 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi). The Australian warship was able to
In the course of the engagement, Sydney had fired some 670 rounds of ammunition, with around 100 hits claimed.
Atlantic Ocean
Sydney spent eighteen months uneventfully patrolling along the west coast of the Americas.[5] On 9 September 1916, the cruiser sailed for the United Kingdom, and after a brief refit in Greenock, joined the 5th Battle Squadron at Scapa Flow.[5] On 15 November, Sydney was reassigned to the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron at Greenock.[5]
On 4 May 1917, while patrolling in the North Sea with the cruiser Dublin and the destroyers Nepean, Obdurate, Pelican and Pylades, Sydney took part in a battle with Zeppelin L43.[9][10] The airship dropped 10 to 12 bombs towards Sydney which failed to hit the ship (although the airship claimed to have hit one of the cruisers;[11] the first air attack on an Australian warship.[12] The Zeppelin was driven off by anti-aircraft fire.[12]
In August 1917, Sydney docked at Chatham for a three-month refit.
The Australian cruiser was present at the surrender of the
Post-war
Sydney was paid off into reserve on 13 April 1923.[9] Following a refit, she was recommissioned on 29 September 1924 to serve as Flagship of the RAN.[9][16]
Decommissioning and fate
Sydney paid off at Sydney on 8 May 1928 and arrived at the
During the 1930s, two of the 6-inch guns were transported to Western Australia, and in 1938 were installed at Buckley Point on Rottnest Island.[17] These were withdrawn from service and placed in storage in 1944, then were sold to a scrap merchant in 1963.[17] However, the dealer never collected them, and the guns remained on site until 1980, when army reservists retrieved and refurbished them, with one on display outside the Army Museum of Western Australia.[22] Another of the ship's guns was used on Thursday Island from 1940 to 1987.[22]
In 2014 a shield removed from HMAS Adelaide during a refit in 1943 and dumped on a tip on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, was transported to Perth for refurbishment. A member of the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Society of Western Australia, which had been searching for such a shield for 20 years as a match for a 6-inch Mk XI naval gun it held from HMAS Sydney had spotted the shield at location.[23] The naval gun and shield were installed at the Leighton Battery in September 2015 to replicate the original 6-inch guns at site.[24]
See also
- HMAS Sydney I - SMS Emden Memorial
Notes
- ^ a b c d e Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 138
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 139
- ^ Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 38
- ^ a b c d Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 141
- ^ "Narrative of the Proceedings of H.M.A.S. Sydney", p. 459
- ^ Forstmeier, p. 20
- ^ Cassells, The Capital Ships, pp. 140–1
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 143
- ^ Naval Staff Monograph No. 35 1939, pp. 2–3
- ^ Naval Staff Monograph No. 35 1939, pp. 3–4
- ^ a b c d Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 47
- ^ Cassells, The Capital Ships, pp. 143, 207
- ^ "Navy Marks 109th Birthday With Historic Changes To Battle Honours". Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ^ "Royal Australian Navy Ship/Unit Battle Honours" (PDF). Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ^ "New flagship: HMAS Sydney". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. 29 September 1924. p. 4. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
- ^ a b c d Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 144
- ^ Lucas, Alan (February 2011). "Death of a Titan". Afloat (256): 23.
- PerthNow. News Limited. 1 May 2013. Archived from the originalon 6 May 2013. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ "Fact Sheet: Links to New South Wales". Sydney-Emden 100th Anniversary. Newsboost. 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
- ^ ISBN 0-7081-1579-9.
- ^ a b Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 146
- ^ Brown, Simon Leo (19 November 2014). "Dumped World War II gun shield to be refurbished and displayed in Perth". ABC News. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
- ^ Wynne, Emma (24 September 2014). "World War II naval gun shield takes pride of place at Perth's former artillery base". ABC News. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
References
- Bastock, John (1975). Australia's Ships of War. Cremorne, NSW: Angus and Robertson. OCLC 2525523.
- Cassells, Vic (2000). The Capital Ships: their battles and their badges. East Roseville, NSW: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 48761594.
- Forstmeier, Friedrich (1972). "SMS Emden, Small Protected Cruiser 1906–1914". In Preston, Antony (ed.). Warship Profile 25. Windsor, UK: Profile Publications. pp. 1–24.
- "HMAS Sydney (I)". Royal Australian Navy. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
- "HMAS Sydney versus a Zeppelin". GWPDA. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
- Monograph No. 35: Home Waters—Part IX: 1st May 1917 to 31st July 1917 (PDF). Naval Staff Monographs (Historical). Vol. XIX. The Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division. 1939.
- "Narrative of the Proceedings of H.M.A.S. Sydney" (PDF). OCLC 9030883. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
Further reading
- Drummond, Barb (2010). Fine Ships and Gallant Sailors - The Sydney-Emden Battle. B. Drummond. ISBN 978-0-9562900-4-5.
- Jose, Arthur W. (1941) [1928]. The Royal Australian Navy 1914–1918. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Vol. IX (9th ed.). Sydney, NSW: Angus and Robertson. OCLC 215763279.
External links
- Australian War Memorial (AWM): Unofficial "Sydney Emden Medal"
- "Royal Navy Log Books – HMAS Sydney". Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2014. oldWeather.org transcription of ship's logbooks June 1913 to June 1914