RAN Milestones

Brisbane salutes the King

NAVAL OFFICER ON HORSEBACK Royal Review of Forces THE Royal Review of naval and military forces, to be held in The Domain on Monday [ 29 June 1936 ], in commemoration of the King’s birthday, will be the most colourful parade seen in Brisbane since the inception of voluntary training. Read more…

By Peter Collins, ago
RAN Milestones

Training in 1921

The Naval Brigade. Brisbane Boys. Sailors in the Making. “Non Sibi Sed Patriae” — not for himself, but for his country — a great motto; a motto expressing the highest of ideals; the motto of the Royal Australian Navy. And it is this spirit of self-effacement that permeates the whole Read more…

By Peter Collins, ago
RAN Milestones

Training in 1904

Naval Brigade: Annual Training Work. Gunnery and Mine Practice. WHILE the gunboats, Gayundah and Paluma, manned by 11 officers and 102 members of the Naval Brigade under Captain Creswell [ the future Sir William Rooke Creswell ] and Lieutenant Curtis [ George Arthur Hamilton Curtis ] are cruising in Moreton Bay, Read more…

By Peter Collins, ago
RAN Milestones

The quiet achiever

Guarding the Seas. Silent Work of the Navy. Commander’s Reminiscences. GREY phantom shapes moving through the morning mists, guarding the shipping lines of the seven seas, silently doing their work that the life blood of a great Empire may pulse evenly through its veins and that the humblest individual of Read more…

By Peter Collins, ago
RAN Milestones

On a war footing in 1939

Navy’s War Plan Ready 20 Years: SILENT SERVICE AT SEA FROM time to time sleek grey ships slip unobtrusively into Australian ports. More instructions from land bases, all available data are checked and revised. Then to sea again. Perhaps for a day. Sometimes for an unbroken month. The Royal Australian Navy is Read more…

By Peter Collins, ago