Submariners to be remembered on 28 July in Brisbane

By Jayne Keogh, Naval Association of Australia

Brisbane has been closely associated with the ‘silent service’ via the historic AE1, our US allies in the Second World War and the historic Submarine Walk at Newstead.

AE1, the Royal Australian Navy’s first submarine made the incredible 24,000-kilometre journey from Scotland to Sydney in 1914. The torturous three-month journey, avoiding German warships along the way, was carried out by the newly trained captain and submariners in conditions that would horrify surface sailors. AE1, only 55 metres in length and six metres wide, was jammed with pipes, levers, torpedoes, the engine, navigation parts, and eating and sleeping quarters for 35 men.

It is ironic that the crew made that remarkable journey across the world, only to be our first casualty of the First World War, when they met with a mishap and sank off the coast of the Duke of York Islands, New Guinea in 1914. On AE1 were two young sailors from Brisbane – Stoker Ernest Fleming Blake from Sandgate and Petty Officer Stoker John Moloney from Capalaba.

By the Second World War, successive governments had disbanded the submarine service, but our United States allies stepped in, working closely with the RAN. The Submarine Walk commemorates this relationship.

One of the great untold stories of Australian Naval history is the role of the Oberon Class submarines in the Cold War. The ‘mystery boats’ conducted covert operations, intelligence gathering in the Asia-Pacific region, closely monitoring the Soviet fleet off the coasts of Vietnam, Indonesia, China and India.

The activity of the secret ‘O Boat’ patrols was known to a handful of people on a ‘need to know’ basis. Even on board, according to Warrant Officer Don Currell OAM, of Maroochydore, ‘only the captain and navigator knew the destination and position of the boat’. Don served on HMAS Orion for five years during the Cold War.

‘Submariners are a special breed,’ he says. ‘The enemy of the submariner is not surface ships and aircraft looking for you, or other subs to fire at you, but the water is our foe, it can literally crush us.’

However, on the other side, this intimacy and danger bonds the crew. Don says that the ‘Submariners are the best family you can have after your own.’

Sixty submariners died in service from 1914 until 1987. Able Seaman Hugh Markcrow, 24 from South Australia and Seaman Damian Humphreys, 20 of Queensland, were lost overboard as HMAS Otama was submerging. Only hours earlier, a young Leading Seaman Don Currell had completed overseeing his training and ‘handed over the ropes’ to the young sailor.

On Thursday 28 July at 11.00am the NAA (Naval Association of Australia Queensland) will highlight the service of members of the Royal Australia Navy in submarines, at the Jack Tar Memorial at Southbank in Brisbane.