What would the RAN look like if we started with a clean sheet of paper today?
The recent posts and discussions of the last few days has been very interesting, starting with ASSAIL saying that the “Navy was no bigger today than when he joined in 1968”, the list of ships in commission and reserve in 1968 that I put up after researching my “Warships of Australia” book and of course, Abe’s “conversion” of that 1968 list into what an equivalent fleet might look like today.
Its been a long time since I’ve looked at "Warships of Australia" in detail, so I started re-reading it. The chapter on “Birth of the Commonwealth Naval Forces” caught my attention.
All the discussions by the various parties, starting in 1900, which then evolved into the Fleet steaming into Sydney Harbour in October 1913 led by the Battlecruiser, HMAS Australia.
So I started to think, “What would the RAN look like if we started with a clean sheet of paper today?”
But first, below is a time line from that period (there is a hell of lot in the chapter, but I’ll try and summarise the main points):
- Late in 1900 Commander R M Collins had prepared a memorandum stating that as Australia had no land frontiers her security must rest on naval defence.
- June 1901, Rear Admiral Beaumont of the RN, replying to PM Barton’s request for his views, stated that there should be a force of 6 cruisers maintained by the RN and there should be no further development of Australian forces. Though “the future may see the creation of an Australian Navy”, the admiral felt that the new nation could safely rely on the power of the Royal Navy.
- September 1901, Captain Creswell penned an “eloquent and highly-detailed” plea for the building of new warships to be manned by Australian seamen and the establishment of training schools. (various newspapers took up the cause). Creswell wrote further articles. Creswell also stated that the “present Squadron should be trebled in size”.
- 1902, Minister for Defence Forrest, reaffirmed the Governments view that we should “place its reliance wholly upon the RN”, and that we should “get rid of the idea that we have different interests to the rest of the Empire”. (My comment: Just like a typical politician, pass the buck and save money too!)
- July 1903 PM Barton spoke in Parliament on the “New Naval Agreement Bill”, Australia would contribute 200,000, NZ 40,000 (all figures in Pounds), the agreement with the RN was to last 10 years. Billy Hughes said it “would give the death blow to the budding aspirations for an Australian Navy”. Senator Matheson opposed the bill, saying “How the Admiralty officials must have laughed when Barton asked ‘for a packet of the cheapest efficient defence they had in stock!’ ”
- May 1905, the Council of Defence reviewed the measures taken to date, found defences satisfactory in terms of land forces, but suggested harbour defences could be augmented by torpedo craft, destroyers, submarines and submersibles. Creswell was asked to comment on the report, he suggested nothing less than a “Five Year Plan” involving construction of a “cruiser-destroyer”, destroyers and torpedo craft. The fall of the Government postponed the discussion of his report.
- June 1905, In reply to Vice Admiral Fanshawe’s memorandum on all matters of “hypothetical invasions” and the prohibitive costs to Australia and NZ and that we could still rely on the RN, Creswell claimed that the coastal force of “32 torpedo craft and similar vessels” he had proposed could indeed be an effective force and one which the Commonwealth could afford under his Five Year plan.
- September 1905, Creswell reported on the “sad state” of the Commonwealths naval forces (referring to the former colonial ships), that for 15 years no new vessels had been purchased, “this service is practically on the verge of collapse” and the men were seeing the force “slowly dying under their eyes”.
- October 1905, Creswell informed the Minister of Defence that we should have a navy of 19 destroyers and 15 torpedo boats, phase out some of the old Colonial ships and also he suggested that the idea of submarines should be dropped.
And around this time there had been the destruction of the Russian fleet by the more modern and powerful Japanese fleet, HMS Dreadnought had been launched in 1906 making other vessels obsolete, the launching of the first German Dreadnought in 1908, the start of the “Naval Race” between Britain and Germany, and of course, the visit to Australia by the American “Great White Fleet” in 1908, which helped to reignite the aspiration of Australia having a fleet of its own.
- February 1909, Creswell made a final plea for our own Navy again, repeated his comments on the sad state of the Commonwealth forces (former Colonial vessels) he listed what ships were stationed in each port, Sydney for example had no local defence vessels at all!
- One day after Creswell’s plea, the Government, under PM Fisher, ordered two “I” Class destroyers to be built in Britain and a third to be shipped out in pieces and erected here.
- March 1909, with the growing strength of the German Navy, New Zealand made an offer to Britain to pay for a First-Class Battleship.
- April 1909, NSW and Victoria pledged to provide a Dreadnought, on a share basis, if the Commonwealth did not!
- Fisher suggested an “Imperial Conference” be held to discuss definite lines of co-operation for the naval defence of the Empire.
- Before the conference could be held, Fisher lost office and Deakin took over as PM, Deakin then offered an Australian Dreadnought to the empire.
- A plan was created to have a fleet consisting of, 1 Indomitable type armoured cruiser, 3 Bristol unarmoured cruisers, 6 destroyers, 3 submarines and the necessary auxiliaries, depot ship and stores ships.
- Cost was put at (in pounds) 3,700,000 and annual maintenance costs of 600,000.
- August 1909, after further meetings with the Admiralty the final composition of the fleet was produced, 1 Indefatigable class battlecruiser, 3 Bristol type cruisers, 6 “I” class destroyers, 3 “C” class submarines (later changed to 2 “E” class).
It took nearly 10 years, but in the end, we got an Australian Navy!
It was only just a little over a 100 years ago that all happened, not long in global terms, but almost half of the history of modern Australia. But back to today, 2012, 99 years after the fleet steamed into Sydney.
What would the RAN look like if we started with a clean sheet of paper today?
Yes of course there is how much money is available to be spent, regional and global threats, perceived or real, politics and political will too!
Would it look the same, similar, or totally different?
Cheers.
(PS, I hope you all enjoy this post as much as I had researching and putting it together, look forward to the debate!)
Does anyone know what year they were actually installed on her ? I have been looking but can't find a refernce to when or who came up with the idea ?
