Australian Maritime Issues 2007 - Royal Australian Navy

20 AUSTRALIAN MARITIME ISSUES 2007: SPC-A ANNUAL
Notes
1
Arthur W. Jose, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, Vol. IX, The Royal Australian
Navy, Angus and Robinson, Sydney, 1928, p. 494; see also pp. 238-239, 481, 494-495.
2
Suva’s groundings are somewhat understandable, given the Red Sea coast was essentially
a coral formation with outlying reefs, with harbours mostly inlets between reefs that were
only approachable at certain times of the day. Surveying was almost non-existent until 1917
and many of the buoys and beacons had been removed by the Turks in the early part of the
war. ‘Naval operations in the Red Sea, 1916-17’, Naval Review, Vol. 13, 1925, p. 652.
3
Captain William Boyle, RN, was Senior Officer of the Red Sea Patrol between December 1915
and November 1917. His career is discussed elsewhere in this paper and his autobiography
is Earl of Cork & Orrery, My Naval Life, 1886–1941, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1942.
4
The image of HMS Suva is from the Imperial War Museum UK, SP2072, , published with permission.
5
The HMS Suva logs are retained in the United Kingdom (UK) National Archives, ADM
53/61865-61894. A summary of Suva’s activities may also be found on Log Extract Cards at
the Royal Navy’s Historical Branch, Portsmouth, UK.
6
Suva is mentioned several times in Thomas E. Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) books, Seven
Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, The Complete 1922 Edition, Castle Hill Press, Fordingbridge,
1997; and the condensed version, The Arab Revolt, Jonathon Cape, London, 1927. The navy is
often mentioned by Lawrence, particularly in T.E. Lawrence, ‘The Arab Campaign: Land and
sea operations: British Navy’s help’, The Times (London), 26 November 1918, reprinted in
S. and R. Weintraub (eds), Evolution of a Revolt, Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park Pennsylvania, 1967, pp. 33-39. The biography by Lawrence James, The Golden
Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Abacus, London, 1995, is also valuable.
7
For the ‘Holy Carpet’, see Boyle, Earl of Cork & Orrery, My Naval Life, pp. 101-102.
8
Here the terms ‘high-end’ and ‘low-end’ refer to positions on the spectrum of operations that
range from benign peace actions (low) to national wars of survival (high).
9
The proposed high/low mix of the future British sustained surface combatant capability
recognises three levels of required capability, with the command, control and commununication
general purpose corvette substituting for the WWI auxiliary cruiser. Paul Halpern has
highlighted the British capacity to source auxiliary cruisers ‘that after conversion performed
tasks scarcely dreamed of before the war’. Paul G. Halpern, A Naval History of World War I,
Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1994, p. 8.
10
Boyle, Earl of Cork & Orrery, My Naval Life, 1886–1941, p. 3.
11
Boyle, Earl of Cork & Orrery, My Naval Life, 1886–1941, p. 29.
12
Boyle, Earl of Cork & Orrery, My Naval Life, 1886–1941, p. 92.
13
For the role of Admiral Wemyss during the Arab Revolt, see Lady Wester Wemyss, The
Life and Letters of Lord Wester Wemyss, Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1935, pp. 275-280,
317-360.
14
For an overview of the Norway Campaign, see Stephen W. Roskill, The War at Sea 1939–1945,
Vol. 1, The Defensive, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, London, 1954, pp. 169-204; and Correlli
Barnett, Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War, Hodder &
Stoughton, London, 1991, pp. 97-139.