HMAS Australia (1911) - Guide 357
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- The Australia, a battlecruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, is today's subject.
Read more about the ship here:
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'Legionnaire' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Pinned post for Q&A :)
Can you review the only two "battleships" Chinese navy ever owned? The DingYuan and ZhengYuan.
A common criticism of the original battlecruiser concept shown with Invincible, which I tend to agree with, is that while the battlecruiser is tactically effective when used properly against lesser opponents, strategically you end up with a capital ship that cannot be used as a capital ship (i. e. Against other capital ships), making it a poor investment overall. What are your thoughts on this?
Ship collisions - I’m guessing they would be more common in wartime. Do you know of any good data on collision frequency, causes, results, etc that is accessible?
I was suddenly struck with how much money was burnt building the Capital Ships of WWI. Is it possible to give the total, inflation adjusted, for all major navies and close associates such as Australia as in this example?
@@scottgiles7546
Neat question!
I miss the old theme, but Legionnaire and Juggernaut have been good replacements. Scott Buckley is an excellent artist.
I just miss the old theme. This music isn't in keeping with the imagery.
While I like the style of the intros and think they fit the channel, I think both intros are too long. I skip it every time. The 30+ seconds could easily be reduced to half without missing anything...
@@Blutrauschhobbitbut that would risk a five minute guide actually being five minutes.
Right? Let’s face it tho. The dry dock tune is banger…
nah I skip the opening now
Appreciation comment for Drachinifel. Your channel has been helping me for years at this point. When things are so hard having this place to go to is a real tool. Being able to listen and feeling transported into somewhere in history is an incredible way to dissociate. Thank you for all of your hard work!
Amen to that
100%!
Australian here, thanks for covering our first flagship. Interestingly enough, I found out an inquiry into her condition early this millennium found her in relatively good shape- I'd like to see her raised to be a museum ship (especially as there are no battlecruisers nor British-designed dreadnoughts left), although it would be very expensive.
Even if the condition are good I heard that she's turning into a coral reaf so she wouldn't be refloated anyway
@@SeveralWeezelsInaTrenchcoatkind of poetic if you think about how this ship was meant to protect Australia and now it's part of it especially when coral reefs are getting decimated by the weather and this ship is becoming one.
and one day some mysterious ship will appear at her position and destroy her using explosives and mines all valuable steel as happened to other wrecks unfortunately...
@@Aiwendill the ships you are referring to are in less protected waters, Australia is near the australian coast
Technically it was always Britain's.
I was reading Mark Carlton's "Flagship" which is about HMAS Australia II
But it has almost a tribute or foreword to the Old Lady.
The whole nation mourned her loss, schools sent thousands of wreaths which were placed on her and it was almost as if the nation had lost one of its Heroes.
But in reality we did. Australia was to Australia a gigantic behemoth like nothing we'd ever seen and a symbol of us being more than just a colony. Through her we were not just English or Scottish we were Australian and we were the Kings sword in the Pacific and our battlecruiser would vanquish his foes.
I miss when our national identity was that of England's Pacific vanguard.
A fitting reply for a great ally. Australia was and is a great nation assisting the war effort during WW2 and since.
@@frankbodenschatz173 I long for the day we can rest happily watching a setting sun upon on the empire.
Gone but her citizens safe and her legacy secure.
It seems tho that even we the denizens our now decaying empire will fade away too.
I fear what the future has in store for us Saxons.
@@PrinceofbelkaLove your comment. Speaking as a Brit, I think that in generations to come, once the smoke of Woke has finally disappated, the Empire will be looked on much like the Romans- with a fascination for its technical prowess, organisational achievements, the brilliance of its benign common purpose, and how the globe was stabilised across its dominion, until the rise of the US, and the 2 enormous conflicts which saw its ultimate demise, and then the emergence of the "New Dark Age".
Huzzahhhh
It still is but for the last super power. Us Yanks
From an Australian.Thank you for doing an another Australian ship.
I find it very odd that she was just scuttled rather than scrapped or used as a target hulk.
A quick look at Wikipedia tells me that Australia didn't have the facilities to scrap her and the Royal Navy already had plenty of targets from their local Washington Treaty downsizing. Presumably it would have cost too much to send her back to Britain for scrapping.
Thanks. You've answered a question I was curious about.
On a purely technical note, the audio level on the introduction is just about perfect. Sounds good, with good cannon shots, and the subwoofer isn't knocking the knick-knacks off the mantle.
Thank you so much for covering this Ship and its history.
This is one of several Warships that my Grandfather served upon during his career in the Royal Australian Navy.
Thanks for this as my Great Uncle George was a stoker for 8yrs in HMAS Australia 🙂🙂
Great video. Certainly better than mine on the same ship. It served an important purpose and played its part, even if never in the thickest of action. An early doom due to the naval treaties.
Beautiful ship with a proud record.
Australia is thus one of five countries (Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Ottoman Empire/Turkey being the others) to own a classic battlecruiser. A shame it did not get preserved.
It is preserved.
Just preserved at very great depth!
Malaya got a super dreadnought but I don't think it ever served under the Malayan flag.
@@stanleyrogouski HMS Malaya actually did fly the Federated Malay States naval ensign, hence her being nicknamed "enraged P&O" (because the four triangle red-white-black-yellow ensign looked very similar to the blue-white-red-yellow P&O House Flag).
Technically this ship was always British.
Australia wasn’t a country, unlike all the other ones you listed. It was a dominion under the British empire.
It seems that this proud ship did not miss an opportunity to bring bag back the glorious days of raming 😂
Though not the then in vogue habit of spectacular detonation.
It would be nice to hear a Story telling of the somewhat inept Australian Ship HMAS Psyche. It's main claim to fame would be a somewhat overheated mixed English and Australian crew's Mutiny over a lack of air-conditioning, or cooled air as the case maybe. My grandfather Stan Cleal served as a gun captain. He started as an English sailor and finished up as an Australian Sailor settling in Melbourne where he raised four children. According to accounts of his oldest daughter Norma, he was put up on charges relating to the frackar of the overheated Englishman while sailing up and down the Malacca straights. Seemingly the ship saw no more action than it's own disgruntled crew. :)
Mike Carlton"s excellent book 'Flagship' does offer interesting insight into HMAS Australia as does his first book "First Kill' too
Finally the audio volume levels have been fixed after months. Thank you.
The only difference is that this video was rendered I mp4 instead of wmv, all other settings were the same 😀
Sad end for a nice ship.
Thanks for sharing the story.
I like this intro theme. Best of the bunch so far I think...other than the old theme of course.
Maybe a minor description error but it currently reads:
"The Vestal, a battlecruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, is today's subject."
Which I find quite amusing.
Fixed 😂
@@Drachinifel Hey, typos happen.
I can't help but wonder if Australia had the resources to maintain this battlecruiser up to the 1940s, and how that would have affected the Battle of Java Sea.
In that case I suspect the Japanese would have tried to pull another Force Z or bring a Kongo.
Unmodernised she was only slightly more powerful than the Australia (ii)
@@flakstruk-8481 But Kongo and her sisters were modified before Japan went to war, so they would have been modified by the time of Java Sea.
So she was faster, always had an 8 gun broadside, her guns were bigger, her armor thicker and Australia might as well been unarmored to Kongo's guns.
Though I think a replay of Force Z, the more likely outcome, or they would have pulled her back out of aircraft range.
Unless she had recieved a phenomenal refit (and even then) she would have shared the fate of the other ABDA vessels. Java Sea was a desperate action at a time when the Japanese were running riot. ABDA was a hotchpotch collection of vessels from 3 different nations who had never worked together previously in such a way.
Long lances against a bigger,older target which probably out range it in any case? Not an attractive proposition.
Certainly when you add in the lack of air superiority .
@@MattVF but she could certainly apply alot of hurt into a Myoko-class Heavy Cruiser?
Within the span of a few years later, Vickers Vimy G-EAOU would FLY to Oz from England.
None of us could imagine the testicular fortitude involved in THAT feat....
🚬😎👍
This is my favorite of the new opening music options so far.
Great video as always.
Fun video and such beautiful views! Great that you could see it with your mom!
Sadly decomissioned before the Emu war.
Or fortunately, if you view it from the Emus PoV
Unfortunately, Campion is a tad too far inland for effective shore bombardment.
I also suspect naval gunfire would do more damage to the emu ravaged farmland than to the resourceful and resilient emu who appear to rapidly form splinter cells and adopt guerrilla tactics.
Would have made an epic sea battle with the Emu fleet.
This theme should be used for Age of Sail videos, while the original one should serve from the ironclads onwards.
Thanks Drach.
That’s some nice music right there.
4:10 That black painted turret with white barrels looks fascinating.
The ship is a dark gray.
Thanks!
Truly enjoy your channel. Thanks so much for your efforts.
I like the intro music. Very war like.
In hate it and p0refer the older music. So we're tied
awesome thanks drach!
Good summary: thanks Drach
can u review hmas rushcutter 1321 our only wooden hulled patrol boat left , my grand father was on her a bit , she sank in darwin harbour and they have brought her up to shore , she took commandos up around papua new guinea in the war ill fated , thanks .
To hell with naval treaties!
Have you thought about reviewing RMS Lancastria? It is a facinating history and much is still held secret.
Imagine how much more popular the Australian navy would have been if she had been called the HMAS Beer.
It would at least explain the number of collisions.
Been waiting a very very long time for this,.
Those kiwis should watch their driving. Hitting the queen of our fleet like that!
Thank You to the Great Sea Koala for this Drach!!
😃
Oh man, really like the opening to the video, new favorite
Lucky for HMAS Australia lies so far from the salvage pirates’ favored areas of operations. Unlike other wrecks, HMAS Australia is not classified as a war grave but is a protected historic shipwreck.
Any nefarious salvager ship should be dealt with by a boarding party of fully grown dude kangaroos 🦘🦘🦘🦘 (jk, fully grown ‘roos are big, buff and not to be messed with). Heheh
Better yet, drop bears. Make them really suffer.
Better send a boarding party of emus. They proved their worth in Emu War, so a salvage ship would be no match for said emu boarding party. :P
@@CipiRipi-in7df hahaha.
Ah yes, best intro music replacement
Don't you just hate that when someone goes around "hoovering up" your colonies?
G'day Drachinifel,
Ohh splendid our first capital ship sniff I do wish we had kept it for it could've served later as a guardship or if modernized but curse the Washington naval treaty CURSE YOU!! (rasied hand shaking).
Now a suggestion if I will for a video review & relation to scuttling our ships post war off of NSW, How about the HMAS Pioneer? A Pelorus class cruiser (you've covered it slightly during a video on the SMS Königsberg) but that ship served a long career until finally being scuttled in the 1930's just off Sydney of all places & was only rediscovered during the 2010's.
I like the new theme! No offense but it sounds similar to music in "Pirates of the Caribbean" but anyway it's like the channel has grown & evolved. The little shantee at the beginning with the champaign being broken to launch the channel/ship and now we at sea & shooting at stuff!!
So many collisions during this era and back to the 1860's. I study this time a lot and it feels like somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 the ships I've read about in all the navies have collided with something or other.
And to think how many had ram bows.
No radar.
@Drachinifel Any thoughts on why she was scuttled and not scrapped? I would have thought that shed be worth scrapping given her size
According to Part 2, article IV of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ships marked for disposal should be rendered incapable of further warlike service (as described in Part 2, Article III (b) of the Treaty) within SIX months from the coming into force of the Treaty, and the scrapping shall be finally effected within EIGHTEEN months from such coming into force.
Australia did not had the facility to comply with the timetable imposed by the Treaty. So, the only other option available was provided by Part 2, Article II (a) of the Treaty: Permanent sinking of the vessel.
There was an awful lot of scrap available after WWI and the Naval Treaty. More than was needed, or digestible by scrappers. They also needed to keep supporting industries like iron mining running and improving until the next war. This also provided more employment, which was crucial to Britain
Can you do HMNZS Leander or Moa?
please make a playlist of all of these
I like this music
Do a video on the HMAS Australia II now?
It's so weird to hear that much steel being disposed of by sinking rather than scrapping
We (Australia) dispose of a lot (most?) of our retired vessels in the same way, scuttling, thereby creating artificial reefs, replacing ones lost to the warming coastal currents or damaged by other factors. They also form a not inconsequential part of our tourism industry, bringing in scuba divers from all over the world to dive on the wrecks.
Lol how common is "running into your sister ship"? Seems to happen A LOT in British and US navies
Warships operate close together, and pre-radar that was always a problem. (For ALL navies...if you'd heard of more RN/USN that merely reflects their greater number of vessels) If you want to be truly shocked, look up just how many merchant ships TODAY manage to run into each other..with all the benefits of modern radar etc...
RIP the only RAN capital ship.
Yay... Ay Chemm Ay Esss Straya!
"...when she collided with her sister ship HMS New Zealand. Coming off somewhat the worse of the two vessels..." Kinda like we always do whenever the Wallabies clash with the All Blacks.
What are the diagonal objects seen on the exterior of the hulls of older ships like HMAS Australia?
Those are booms for torpedo nets. Look closely, and you can see the rolled-up nets at deck level in some pictures.
Those form the arms of torpedo nets that are extended while the ships are stationary. Mostly placed on capital ships which are vulnerable and expensive.
@@jintaytouch5905 The Good Idea Faerie had struck, Danger was if the nets were damaged in action they could foul the screws. Can you say "Duck, Sitting, One Each" kiddies? Quickly removed when that sank in
I recall reading somewhere that Australia was actually exempt from the naval treaties. The Australian government, however, was having an understandable bout of postwar pacifism (and likely lack of budget given she was in reserve) and had her scuttled as a sign of peace in their time.
You should demand a refund for that book, Australia was NOT exempt as the Treaty applied to the entire British Empire "The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major Allies of World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference in Washington, D.C. from November 1921 to February 1922 and signed by the governments of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India), United States, France, Italy, and Japan.
Camped out and waiting!
Wow! I share her birthday, June 23rd [+]
Drachinifel, just a quick question if I may? The pic at 6.15 shows a gun being removed and one already on the wharf, is this pic captioned as HMAS Australia being stripped? Why I ask is that in the scuttling pics, it shows her with gun barrel's still in place.
The new article that published the photos mentions the guns in place having been cut with torches to prevent salvage and reuse by others, so possibly the guns are being removed to do this in the picture, or new-ish guns are being removed for use elsewhere and older worn out guns were put back for the scuttling. Not entirely sure.
1:07 "[A] 'half-flotilla" of destroyers." Is there a set number of destroyers that constitutes a "flotilla of destroyers?"
"The Vestal, a battlecruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, is today's subject."
*Ogey*
Helmsman must have been Victorian. :P
Half Australian and Half British crew you say. o~0 I can imagine the cross banter within the crew members was a bit colorful to say the least. >~
Recycling, wasn't in vogue back then?
..
how the hell does something the size of a large village collide with another large village?
A "large village" have a proportional mass and hence, a proportional inertia. And in confined spaces, if you screw it, no matter how fast you react, you're done. The "large village" will turn the blind eye to your desperate commands until is already too late.
Also, in the pre-radar days heavy weather in the North Sea or English Channel would reduce visibility, and thus affect when and how the big ships maneuvered. Add in the fact that RN ships still relied on flags for signaling, and things could suddenly get dicey under low visibility conditions!
IJN Yubari please
Why scuttled instead of scrapped? Was steel value to low to bother at that point?
May not have had a proper yard in Australia to do so and no desire to send it back to britian? Just guessing, dunno.
According to Part 2, article IV of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ships marked for disposal should be rendered incapable of further warlike service (as described in Part 2, Article III (b) of the Treaty) within SIX months from the coming into force of the Treaty, and the scrapping shall be finally effected within EIGHTEEN months from such coming into force.
Australia did not had the facility to comply with the timetable imposed by the Treaty. So, the only other option available was provided by Part 2, Article II (a) of the Treaty: Permanent sinking of the vessel.
That wreck must be worth a lot of money today. 🤔
Wait, why was she scuttled and not scrapped?
🐉Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club Member 1968-69🐉 🇺🇸⚓
✌
I couldn't pronounce Indefatigable to save my life!
Miss the old intro
OK but this one is quite good too
The new Saturday song is slowly growing on me. The Wednesday song just isn't working for me though.
Why scuttling rather than scraping?
Was there anywhere in Australia that could scrap her at that time? Also there I suppose a degree of symbolism in scuttling her as opposed to simply cutting her up.
Cheaper, easier, quicker. She'd have had to go back to the UK to be broken up.
Any idea why she was scuttled rather than scrapped? (Did I miss that?)
No facilities capable of scrapping her in Oz at the time.
Strange that this ship was scuttled with her main armament still in place - might these weapons not have been used in coastal defence?
The Army didn’t want them - they could not man them or afford them. Perhaps they should have been put in storage as Australia was desperately short of coastal artillery in WW2, ut we did have some 9.2” guns out of the old scrapped British Armoured Cruisers mounted in Sydney, Darwin and Perth which were quite effective against any warship up to Nagato and Mutsu size.
Better intro music. Still not as good as your original!!! Love your work.
Why was the ship not scraped, lots of high quality metal in that ship.
1) Cost to tow back to UK as Oz didn't have the facilities to do the job
2) @CipiRipi-in7df
According to Part 2, article IV of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ships marked for disposal should be rendered incapable of further warlike service (as described in Part 2, Article III (b) of the Treaty) within SIX months from the coming into force of the Treaty, and the scrapping shall be finally effected within EIGHTEEN months from such coming into force.
Australia did not had the facility to comply with the timetable imposed by the Treaty. So, the only other option available was provided by Part 2, Article II (a) of the Treaty: Permanent sinking of the vessel.
I hope her rediscovery did not make her vulnerable to the criminal scavengers who have been cutting up and salvaging ships built of "pre-atomic" steel as so many pillaged war-graves have been.
She’s resting relatively close to Sydney Harbour, it’s pretty unlikely anyone would be able to do so without notice.
Kinda sad she never saw any combat. Feel like that's the worst thing for a flagship. Apart from sinking in the harbour on it's maiden voyage.
No, the worst would be being strategically (or worse, even tactically) obsolete by the time the capital ship in question enters service and thus being at best a pointlessly gigantic and expensive supporting unit akin to a destroyer.
See; all the ships of the line that entered service during the transition to ironclads, all predreadnoughts that entered service after Dreadnought, and all the WWII-gen fast battleships (the two exceptions being Washington at Second Guadalcanal and DoY at North Cape, but even they were unable to serve as capital ships on all other occasions, and Washington still failed to stop the Japanese landing and resupply run that night-that was done by Henderson Field).
> Kinda sad she never saw any combat. She did make a fair attempt to ram the flagship of our natural enemy :-).
@@bkjeong4302 True, I'd forgotten about that.
@@TandemTrainRider99 She didn't sink her with her guns.
00:22 Anyone have an idea what the stuff is flying about when those big guns fire? Looks like styropor.
It's been asked and answered before. The suspicion is that it was something that was never properly stowed being smashed by the shock of firing.
Paper, One of the things remarked about by my infantryman uncles and others I have read is how much paper blows around a modern battlefield - reports, forms, packing lists, manuals, etc, etc
But how big was its Marmite storage?
Zero. Think the Australians have Vegemite instead.
Marmite is terrible british stuff, Vegemite is our terrible Aussie stuff.
@@questionmark05 Exactly. Englishman here, can't stand Marmite. Never tried Vegemite but happy to take your word that it is terrible 🙂
@@gwtpictgwtpict4214 well it was built in a British yard, I'm sure they had to clean it out to convert to Vegemite storage
Vegemite only came onto the market in 1923 - www.google.com/search?q=vegemite&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU753AU753&oq=vegemite&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgAEAAYjwIyBwgAEAAYjwIyDAgBEC4YQxixAxiKBTINCAIQLhiDARixAxiABDIKCAMQABixAxiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABNIBCDk0MThqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
The story of HMAS Australia is one about how to be blackmailed by a narcissistic mommy. We stayed poms well until after WW2.
I hope that little tantrum made you feel better.
00:37. Come again, The end of the what?
Look it up
One consideration for Canada refusing to fund this is that having any military capability might upset the Americans. It's too easy for a popular politician or newsman to sabre rattle against a foreign enemy like Canada 🇨🇦.
It wouldn't have been a problem, really. The Wyomings and New Yorks were built relatively fast, and then the Standards began rolling out. Canada could've had three battle cruisers and nothing would have really changed.
Canada just hates spending money on its Navy. Always has, still does. Prairie Provinces don’t see the need and Quebec sees it as an Anglo institution. Plenty of more urgent calls on the public purse, such as funding macrame-weaving dance-based collectives…
It was an excuse for not spending the money. The Canadian Parliament of the era was even stingier than Congress was at the time.
@@adam_mawz_maas That would be a new record for fiscal stinginess.
What a wonderful museum ship she would have made.
Why? She did virtually nothing of note
Good day! What ever happened to HMS Canada?? She only served in the R.N.
She was sold back to Chile and resumed her original name Almirante Latorre for the next 38 years.
@@RedXlV Its too bad we (RCN) couldn't buy her?
@@patlittle4642 Chile had dibs, they sold her to the UK when WW1 broke out (since she was still under construction at Elswick) and bought her back afterward.
@@RedXlV We most likely couldn't man or afford her! Sad
@@patlittle4642 As part of the agreement when she was requisitioned by the RN, Chile had right of first refusal at the end of the war.
How big a problem was commerce raiding between the wars?
No navy would raid commerce during peacetime. That would be simple piracy
It wasn't. Commerce raiding IS a wartime activity. Anything like it BETWEEN the wars is Piracy!
Please define "half a flotilla" of destroyers
Usually 4 - RN Flotilla at this time was 8 ships plus a leader.
Flotilla = how many similar ships they could combine to sail together.
Half a flotilla = half of of above.
This Wikipedia?(font of all wisdom?) article may help - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Australia_(1911)
drach these platforms and planes, how did they expect that to work in the case of having to go into battle? did they expect to just chuck the whole lot overboard or did it get to the point where they needed to work that out before they gave up on it?
The planes were for reconaissance over the horizon only and the platforms were built for easy disassembly so it was assumed there would be enough time to take them down before an enemy ship came within range.
@@kenoliver8913 Also as anti-Zepplin Aircraft
@@kenoliver8913 assumed and reality rarely if ever meet or are the same, the question remains what would they do if battle was imminent and the planes and platforms were still in place with no time to launch?
@@keithmoore5306 Throw them overboard, obviously. A tactic reserved only for emergencies, obviously, but one that would work.
@@kenoliver8913i was going more the official procedure they developed for situation rather than the obvious move! knowing the official procedure tells you just how out of touch with the tech leadership was at the time and how bad they were flailing with keeping up with that particular tech!
I love your work very much, though most useful would be to focus on
1. lessons from the past for the present
2. contemporary issues or fleet units
Outside the scope of the channel.
Avoiding modern social / political discourse is a wise decision.
Why scuttled instead of scrapped?
Australia couldn't scrap her quick enough to comply with the treaty
Obviously she went down with her turrets, why didn't they pull them for coastal artillery? did they not have cranes capable of such a task at the time in Australia?
They did keep the guns, but the turrets of a ship like this are part of the barrette, hoist and magazine system. So often it's easier to just remount the gun for a coastal battery.
Ammunition production for the 12" guns stopped just after the war, so they would have been of limited use. And building big shore batteries would have been prohibitively expensive at a time of very tight budgets. The guns were initially removed, but were sunk with the ship.
@@alun7006 you mean to tell me they used up all the 12" ammo made for most of the pre-dreadnoughts and all dreadnoughts before the Orion class or whichever introduced 13.5"?
@@Drachinifel so they removed the guns but left the gun tubes in place or whatever the outer cladding is called?
@@Drachinifel I was under the impression that the 12 inch guns were flame cut 3/4 of the way through (assumedly with acetylene) as part of the demilitarisation. I’m pretty sure that at least one 4 inch gun was retained as a memorial.
Im curios... why wasent she scraped? Sinking such a ship seems wastefull.
According to Part 2, Article IV of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ships marked for disposal should be rendered incapable of further warlike service (as described in Part 2, Article III (b) of the Treaty) within SIX months from the coming into force of the Treaty, and the scrapping shall be finally effected within EIGHTEEN months from such coming into force.
Australia did not had the facility to comply with the timetable imposed by the Treaty. So, the only other option available was provided by Part 2, Article II (a) of the Treaty: Permanent sinking of the vessel.
Thx for the answer, that explains it 100%! @@CipiRipi-in7df
Curious why some warships are sold for scrap while others just get scuttled out at sea.
Expediency?
Might be a location thing. It might not have been economical for the British to move it to a scrap yard from Australia.
The us navy hulked the armored cruiser New York (Rochester at the time) and left it in Java rather than move it back across the pacific.