Flatiron Gunboats: The Australian vessels

Before the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, several of the colonies had their own naval forces. The flatiron gunboat design proved to be a popular choice of vessel for several of these fledgling navies, and examples were acquired by Queensland, Victoria, and South Australia.

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QUEENSLAND

Gayundah-class

Their characteristics were:

• Displacement: 385 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 115ft
• Beam: 26ft
• Draught: 9ft 6in
• Propulsion: 2 horizonal compound steam engines, each driving a propeller shaft
• Speed: 10.5 knots
• Complement: 55
• Armament:
• Gayundah (1894): 1 x 8-inch BL gun; 1 x 6-inch BL gun; 2 x  3-pounder Nordenfelt QF guns; 2 x machine guns
• Gayundah (1905): 1 x 8-inch BL gun; 1 x 4.7-in BL gun; 2 x 12-pounder QF guns; 2 x machine guns
• Gayundah (1917): 1 x 4.7-inch BL gun; 2 x 12-pounder QF guns
• Paulma (1894): 1 x 8-inch BL gun; 1 x 6-inch BL gun; 2 x  3-pounder Nordenfelt QF guns; 2 x machine guns
• Paulma (1899): 2 x 5-inc BL guns; 2 x 3-pounder Nordenfelt guns; 2 x machine guns

These two ships were given aborigine names for Thunder and Lightning. They were both equipped as topsail schooners for delivery journey from the United Kingdom to Queensland.

• HMQS Gayundah: She was incorporated into the Australian Commonwealth Naval Force in 1902 and rearmed in 1905. She then became part of the Royal Australian Navy in 1911. She served as a coastal patrol vessel throughout the Great War, being rearmed in 1917. She was hulked and sold into commercial service in 1921 and used as a lighter. In 1930 she sank at her moorings and was then re-floated and used as a gravel barge until June 1958, when she was beached at Woody Point, Moreton Bay, Queensland.
• HMQS Paluma: From 1885 to 1895 she was leased to the Royal Navy for use as a survey vessel. During her time as a Royal Navy vessel, her armament was removed. Whilst her boilers and engines were under repair in February 1893, she was beached in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens by a sudden flood of the Brisbane River. She was re-floated two weeks later by a second flood. She was rearmed in 1899 and incorporated into the Australian Commonwealth Naval Force in 1902 as a Training Vessel and into the Royal Australian Navy in 1911. She was sold to the Victorian Public Service Department in 1916, renamed Rip, and subsequently used as a navigation light tender in Port Phillip. She was scrapped in 1951.

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VICTORIA

HMVS Albert

HMVS Albert is depicted in this plan with the sails used during her passage from Great Britain to Australia. These were not used in normal service.

Her characteristics were:

• Displacement: 381 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 115ft
• Beam: 25ft
• Draught: 9ft 6in
• Propulsion: 2 horizonal compound steam engines, each driving a propeller shaft
• Speed: 10.5 knots
• Complement: 55
• Armament: 1 x 8-inch BL gun; 1 x 6-inch BL gun; 2 x  3-pounder Nordenfelt QF guns; 2 x machine guns

HMVS Albert was very similar to the Gayundah-class vessels. She was originally named Melbourne, and on her passage to Australia (in the company of the torpedo boat Childers) she was diverted to Suakin to support the British Empire's occupation of the port during the Sudan Campaign of 1884 to 1885. She was not needed and continued her journey to Australia. Albert was a poor sea boat and spent most of her service in harbour at Port Phillip. In 1897 she was transferred to the Department of Public Works for use as a buoy tender and blasting vessel. In 1917 she was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy, who intended to convert her into a tug, but the cost proved to be prohibitive, and she was sold and converted into an oil lighter.

HMVS Victoria

HMVS AVictoria is depicted in this plan with the sails used during her passage from Great Britain to Australia. These were not used in normal service.

Her characteristics were:

• Displacement: 544 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 140ft
• Beam: 27ft
• Draught: 11ft
• Propulsion: 2 horizonal compound steam engines, each driving a propeller shaft
• Speed: 12.6 knots
• Complement: 53
• Armament:
• 1884: 1 x 10-inch (18-ton) RML gun; 2 x  12-pounder QF guns
• 1888: 1 x 8-inch BL gun: 1 x 6-inch BL gun; 2 x 12-pounder QF guns

She was the biggest of the conventional flatiron gunboats acquired by the Australian states. She was sold to Western Australia in 1896 and converted into a tug and survey vessel. By 1917 she was in Sydney (New South Wales) where she was sold for scrapping in 1920. Her hulk was abandoned in Kerosene Bay, Sydney, and she was finally dismantled in 1835.

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SOUTH AUSTRALIA

HMCS Protector

HMCS Protector is depicted in this plan with the sails used during her passage from Great Britain to Australia. These were not used in normal service.

Her characteristics were:

• Displacement: 921 tons
• Dimensions:
• Length: 185ft
• Beam: 30ft
• Draught: 12ft 6in
• Propulsion: 2 horizonal compound steam engines, each driving a propeller shaft
• Speed: 14 knots
• Complement: 90
• Armament:
• 1884: 1 x 8-inch BL gun; 5 x 6-inch BL guns; 4 x machine guns
• 1912: 3 x 4-inch QF guns; 2 x 12-pounder QF guns; 4 x 3-pounder QF guns

She was a much-enlarged version of the flatiron gunboat which at the time she was built was referred to as being a small cruiser. She initially based in Port Phillip and acted as guardship or undertook training exercises. She was offered for service in China during the Boxer Rebellion, where she mainly acted as a despatch vessel. She was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy when it was formed in 1911 and subsequently rebuilt and used as a gunboat. At the beginning of World War I she acted as tender for the two Australian submarines AE1 and AE2 at Port Jackson. She then took part in the capture of Samoa from the Germans and spent most of the rest of the war on patrol in Australian waters. Once the war was over, she served as the tender to HMAS Cerberus before being sold in 1924. Her hulk was renamed Sydney in 1931, and she was used as a wool lighter until she was requisitioned by the US Army in 1943. Whilst under tow to New Guinea she broke free and was beached off Heron Island, Queensland, where she became a breakwater. Her remains still exist today.

HMCS Protector after she was rebuilt and rearmed in 1912.