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Monday 9 October 2017

Synchronicity and the Australian Navies

Occasionally a number of seemingly unrelated events come along at roughly the same time ... and turn out to be related. This is called synchronicity.

In my case, the three events were:
  • Researching and writing about the life story of Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey, who became the fourth Rear Admiral Commanding His Majesty's Australian Fleet. (He held the post from 4th September 1918 to 21st March 1919.)
  • Reading an article in the most recent issue of WARGAMER'S NOTES about how Greg Horne built a model of HMVS Albert (Note: HMVS stands for Her Majesty's Victorian Ship).
  • Reading the copy of WARSHIP that Tim Gow gave me at COW2017, and which contains an article entitled AUSTRALIAN COLONIAL NAVIES, 1855-1900.
As a result of this 'synchronicity', my thoughts turned to whether or not the separate Australian Colonial Navies* might make an interesting starting point for a small wargame fleet. I therefore gathered together the information that I had to hand, and what will follow over the next few days are the results of my brief researches.

* Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the separate Colonial Navies were amalgamated to form the Commonwealth Naval Forces. This was granted the title of 'Royal Australian Navy' in 1911.

4 comments:

  1. It was a shame that this vessel wasn't preserved - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMVS_Cerberus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nigel Drury,

      I know that they are trying to stabilise and protect the remains, but it is a great pity that it cannot be preserved in its original state.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  2. Nigel beat me too it, but at least parts are around. I like the (possibly apocryphal) story of them firing their gun out to sea once, only to find it was pointing into the town. There's a book called 'The Three Headed Dog' about Cerberus somewhere on my shelves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Joppy,

      I love the story! It certainly sounds like the sort of thing an inexperienced crew might do.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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