HMAS Adelaide (1918)
Template:Other ships Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Adelaide was a Template:Sclass2 light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), named after Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Laid down in 1915, wartime shortages and design modifications meant the ship was not completed until 1922, earning her the nickname "HMAS Longdelayed".
Adelaide served with the Royal Navy's Special Service Squadron during 1924 and 1925, and was involved in the 1927 Malaita massacre. She was decommissioned in 1928, but was modernised and returned to service just before World War II began. During the war, Adelaide was involved in successful efforts to secure the colony of New Caledonia for Free France, was present during the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour, and intercepted the German blockade runner Ramses.
The cruiser was decommissioned in 1946, and broken up for scrap in 1949.
Design and construction
The design of Adelaide was modified from the Chatham subclass of the Template:Sclass2 light cruisers, with similarities to the Birmingham subclass.<ref name=Cassells6/> The ship was Template:Convert long overall and Template:Convert between perpendiculars, with a beam of Template:Convert, and a draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=Cassells5>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 5</ref> The initial ship's company stood at 33 officers and 450 sailors, but by 1941, this had dropped to 26 officers and 436 sailors.<ref name=Cassells6/>
The propulsion system consisted of Parsons turbines providing Template:Convert to two propeller shafts.<ref name=Cassells6/> As designed, the ship had a maximum speed of Template:Convert, but modifications during her career saw this increase to Template:Convert during the 1920s, then drop to Template:Convert by 1941.<ref name=Cassells5/> The cruiser was originally fuelled by both coal and oil, but the ship's refit in 1938–39 saw her converted to oil only, along with the removal of the foremost funnel and boilers.<ref name=Cassells6>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 6</ref>
Adelaide was laid down at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney on 20 November 1915.<ref name=ShipHist>Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Adelaide (I)</ref> She was launched on 27 July 1918 by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, the wife of the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson.<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1>Perryman, Ships Named Adelaide, p. 1</ref> Construction was not completed until 31 July 1922 because of wartime shortages, loss of machinery part forgings for items that could not be made in Australia to enemy action, and modifications based on wartime experience: the ship was consequently nicknamed "HMAS Longdelayed".<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1/> She was finally commissioned into the RAN on 5 August 1922.<ref name=Cassells6/> Adelaide cost 1,271,782 pounds to build.<ref name=Cassells6/>
The ship's badge was based on the municipal seal of the City of Adelaide.<ref name=Cassells8/> Her motto was "Ut Prosint Omnibus Conjuncti", Latin for "United for the Common Weal".<ref name=Cassells9>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 9</ref> Some incorrect versions of the ship's badge show the motto as "United We Stand", the motto for Template:HMAS.<ref name=Cassells9/>
Armament
At launch, the cruiser's armament consisted of nine BL 6-inch Mk XII naval guns, a single QF 3-inch anti-aircraft gun, a single Ordnance QF 12-pounder 8 cwt field gun, four QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss saluting guns, ten .303-inch machine guns (a mix of Lewis and Maxim guns), two submerged broadside 21-inch torpedo tubes, and two depth charge chutes.<ref name=Cassells5/> The number of machine guns was increased to twelve in 1924.<ref name=Cassells5/>
During a refit in 1938 and 1939, AdelaideTemplate:'s armament was altered.<ref name=Cassells6/> One 6-inch gun, the field gun, the anti-aircraft gun, and the torpedo tubes were all removed. They were replaced with three 4-inch anti-aircraft guns.<ref name=Cassells6/> Fire-control equipment was also upgraded at this time.<ref name=Perryman2>Perryman, Ships Named Adelaide, p. 2</ref> During May and June 1942, the anti-aircraft armament was supplemented by six 20 mm Oerlikon guns.<ref name=Cassells6/> Another refit lasting from June to September 1943 saw a second 6-inch gun removed, the 4-inch armament reduced to two guns, and four hydraulic depth charge throwers installed.<ref name=Cassells6/>
Operational history
1922–1939
After a brief sea-trials and working up period off Jervis Bay, Adelaide spent the period from commissioning until February 1924 operating on standard duties and exercises throughout the Australia Station.<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1/> On 18 April 1924, following a brief refit, she joined the Royal Navy's Special Service Squadron for a flag-showing cruise outside Australian waters.<ref name=Cassells6/> During the voyage, Adelaide visited New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the western coasts of Canada and the United States, the Panama Canal (becoming the first RAN ship to travel through), the Caribbean, and eastern Canada, before reaching Portsmouth on 28 September.<ref name=Cassells6/> The cruiser left for home on 10 January 1925, sailing via the Mediterranean, Ceylon, Singapore, and Thursday Island, and reached Sydney on 7 April.<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1/>
In October 1927, Adelaide was called to the Solomon Islands in response to the killing of a district officer, a cadet, and fifteen native police by Kwaio natives at Malaita.<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1/> Arriving at Tulagi on 14 October, an officer and sixteen sailors were sent ashore to reinforce local law enforcement.<ref name=Perryman1/> The ship then proceeded to Malaita to protect the landing of three platoons of troops on 17 October, then remained in the area to provide personnel support for the soldiers as they searched for the killers, in what became the Malaita massacre.<ref name=Cassells6/><ref name=Perryman1/> Adelaide returned to Australia on 23 November.<ref name=Cassells6/> Over the next year, Adelaide continued a pattern of exercises and promotional visits to Australian ports.<ref name=Perryman1/>
The cruiser was paid off into reserve on 27 June 1928.<ref name=Cassells6/> During 1938 and 1939, the ship underwent a 60,000 pound modernisation, which included the conversion from both coal and oil as fuel to oil-only (requiring the removal of two boilers and an exhaust funnel), and alterations to the cruiser's armament.<ref name=Cassells6/> The cruiser was recommissioned on 13 March 1939, and undertook exercises with the Australian and New Zealand Squadrons.<ref name=Perryman2/> The ship returned to Sydney in late April, and was paid off again on 17 May, so that the ship's company could be sent to England aboard Template:SS to commission the new light cruiser Template:HMAS.<ref name=Perryman2/> With the threat of war in Europe imminent, Adelaide was prepared for a return to service, and was commissioned on 1 September.<ref name=Cassells7>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 7</ref>
World War II
The ship was initially used for convoy escort and protection duties in Australian waters.<ref name=Cassells7/>
In September 1940, Adelaide carried the French official Henri Sautot from the New Hebrides (later Vanuatu) to Nouméa, New Caledonia. Sautot had been appointed governor by Free French leader Charles de Gaulle, following attempts by Vichy France to gain control of the French colony.<ref name=Cassells7/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> On 3 September, while en route, Adelaide collided with the merchant vessel SS Coptic. (Although both ships only suffered minor damage, the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line sued the Australian government in 1947 for £35,000 in damages.<ref name=Cassells7/>) After Sautot landed, on 25 September, Adelaide patrolled off the coast, to counter a perceived threat from the Vichy sloop Dumont d'Urville.<ref name=Cassells7/> The Australian cruiser remained in the area until the situation had stabilised, returning to Sydney on 8 October.<ref name=Cassells7/> Adelaide resumed escort and patrol duties around Australia and New Guinea waters.<ref name=Perryman2/>
During May to July 1942, Adelaide was docked at Garden Island for a refit, focused primarily on increasing the ship's anti-aircraft weapon outfit.<ref name=Cassells8>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 8</ref><ref name=Perryman2/> Consequently, the ship was one of several major Allied vessels in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack of 31 May 1942.<ref>Gillett, Warships of Australia, pp. 193–4</ref> After the refit, Adelaide was assigned to Fremantle for convoy escort work in the Indian Ocean.<ref name=Cassells8/>
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In November 1942, Adelaide, along with the Dutch cruiser Template:HNLMS and the Australian corvettes Template:HMAS and Template:HMAS, escorted a convoy across the southern Indian Ocean.<ref name=Cassells8/> On 28 November, the ships spotted an unidentified vessel, which claimed to be the Norwegian merchantman Taiyang.<ref name=Cassells8/> Officers aboard Adelaide recognised the ship as the German blockade runner Ramses, but did not receive a response to their challenging until two boats were lowered from the ship, followed by the sound of an explosion from a scuttling charge.<ref name=Cassells8/> Adelaide opened fire, hitting with the third salvo onwards, and continued shooting until Ramses sank eight minutes later, then recovered the Germans from the boats.<ref name=Cassells8/>
Adelaide continued to operate from Fremantle until October 1944, apart from a refit at Williamstown Naval Dockyard from June to September 1943, where further armament alterations were made.<ref name=Cassells8/><ref name=Perryman2/> On 8 October 1944, the cruiser made for Sydney.<ref name=Cassells8/> On 26 February 1945, Adelaide was decommissioned, but then recommissioned on 19 May to serve as a tender to the naval base Template:HMAS.<ref name=Cassells8/> Adelaide was awarded the battle honours "Pacific 1941–43" and "East Indies 1942" for her wartime service.<ref name=newhonours>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=honourslist>Template:Cite web</ref>
Decommissioning and fate
Adelaide was decommissioned for the final time on 13 May 1946.<ref name=Cassells8/> The ship was stripped of equipment during 1947, and on 24 January 1949, the hulk was sold to Australian Iron and Steel for breaking up.<ref name=Cassells8/><ref name=Perryman2/> Adelaide was towed by the tug Template:HMAS to Port Kembla during 1 and 2 April, where she was scrapped.<ref name=Cassells8/> The deck timber was used to build the ferry Radar for Charles Rosman.
As a memorial to the ship the main-mast was erected alongside the Sphynx Memorial in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Sydney, in about 1950.<ref name=Cassells10>Cassells, The Capital Ships, p. 10</ref>Template:Citation needed An information plaque with a diagram of the ship was installed nearby. One of the cruiser's 6-inch guns was found at a rubbish tip in Victoria; this was restored, then placed on display at HMAS Cerberus, Victoria.<ref name=Cassells10/> The ship's bell came first to the Amazon Hotel in Exeter, England,<ref name=Cassells10/> removed to the Spice Lounge restaurant in Exmouth.Template:Citation needed
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, a ship scrapped in 1928, had spotted the shield at location.<ref name="Dumped" >Template:Cite news</ref> The naval gun and shield were installed at the Leighton Battery in September 2015 to replicate the original 6-inch guns at site.<ref name="Pride" >Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Clear left
Citations
References
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