Editor: Tony (Doc) Holliday Email: [email protected] Mobile: 0403026916 Volume 1 September 2018 Issue 3 Greenbank Sub Section: News and Events………September / October 2018. Saturday 01 September 2018 1000-1400 Merchant Marine Service Tuesday 04 September 2018 1930-2100 Normal Meeting RSL Rooms Wednesday 26 September 2018 1000 Executive Meeting RSL Rooms Tuesday 02 October 2018 1930-2100 Normal Meeting RSL Rooms Wednesday 31 October 2018 1000 Executive Meeting RSL Rooms Sausage Sizzles: Bunnings, Browns Plains. Friday 14 September 2018 0600-1600 Executive Members of Greenbank Sub. Section President Michael Brophy Secretary Brian Flood Treasurer Henk Winkeler Vice President John Ford Vice President Tony Holliday State Delegate John Ford Vietnam Veterans Service 18August 22018 Service was held at the Greenbank RSL Services Club. Wreath laid by Gary Alridge for Royal Australian Navy Vietnam Veterans. Wreath laid by Michael Brophy on behalf of NAA Sub Section Greenbank. It is with sadness that this issue of the Newsletter announces the passing of our immediate past President and Editor of the Newsletter. Len Kingston-Kerr. Len passed away in his sleep in the early hours of Tuesday 21st August 2018. As per Len’s wishes, there will be no funeral, Len will be cremated at a private service and his ashes scattered at sea by the Royal Australian Navy. A wake will be held at Greenbank RSL in due course. 1 ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY ADMIRALS: Rear Admiral James Vincent Goldrick AO, CSC. James Goldrick was born in Sydney NSW in 1958. He joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1974 as a fifteen-year-old Cadet Midshipman. A graduate of the Royal Australian Naval College, he holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New South Wales and an M.Litt. From the University of New England. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of Harvard Business School (AMP 168) and has been honoured with the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of New South Wales. He is an author, naval historian and analyst of contemporary naval and maritime affairs. He currently holds the position of Fellow at the Sea Power Centre, Australia. He is also a Non-Resident Fellow of the Lowy Institute, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, an Adjunct Professor in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of The Australian National University and a Professorial Fellow of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong. He was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford in the first half of 2015. A Principal Warfare Officer and anti-submarine warfare specialist, he has seen sea service around the world with the RAN and on exchange with the British Royal Navy, including the patrol vessel HMS Alderney, the frigates HMS Sirius, HMAS Swan and HMAS Darwin and the destroyer HMS Liverpool. He has served as Executive Officer of HMAS Tarakan and HMAS Perth. He was Commanding Officer of HMAS Cessnock and twice commanded the frigate HMAS Sydney before serving as the inaugural Commander, Australian Surface Task Group. During this posting, he commanded the Australian task group deployed to the Persian Gulf in early 2002 and also served as commander of the multinational naval forces conducting maritime interception operations to enforce UN sanctions on Iraq, including units from the RAN, the United States Navy, the Royal Navy and the Polish Armed Forces. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for this service. Goldrick’s shore postings have included serving as Aide to the Governor-General of Australia, as an instructor on the RAN's Principal Warfare Officer course, as Officer-in-Charge of the RAN's tactical development, tactical training and warfare officer training faculty, as Research Officer and later as Chief Staff Officer to the Chief of Navy, as Director of the RAN Sea Power Centre and as Director-General Military Strategy in the Australian Department of Defence. For his service, particularly at the Sea Power Centre, he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross. He commanded the RAN task group and the multinational maritime interception force in the Persian Gulf (2002) and the Australian Defence Force Academy (2003-2006). He was promoted to Rear Admiral and assumed duties as Commander Border Protection in May 2006. In May 2008, he was appointed Commander Joint Education, Training and Warfare (a position retitled in 2009 as "Commander Australian Defence College"). After completing his posting in August 2011, he served as Acting Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy until March 2012. He retired from full time service in 2012. Rear Admiral James Goldrick transferred to the Royal Australian Navy Reserve in June 2012 after 38 years of service. He was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia at the 2013 Australia Day Honours for distinguished service as Commander, Border Protection Command, Commander, Joint Education and Training, and Commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy and for outstanding scholarship in the study of Australian naval history. James Goldrick has lectured in naval history and contemporary naval affairs at many institutions. He spent 1992 as a Research Scholar at the US Naval War College and is a Professorial Fellow of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security. He was President of the Australian Naval Institute from 2005 to 2008 and is an Overseas Corresponding Member of the Society for Nautical Research. Published books include The King's Ships Were at Sea: The War in the North Sea August 1914- February 1915, With the Battle Cruisers (edited), Reflections on the Royal Australian Navy (co- edited), Mahan is Not Enough (co-edited) and No Easy Answers: The Development of the Navies of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He has contributed to many other works, including The Royal Australian Navy and The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Australian Navy and to professional journals, including The United States Naval Institute Proceedings. 2 As a junior officer he twice won the Guinness Prize of the British Naval Review. He has been a long term and active member of the Australian Naval Institute including a significant period on the Institute's governing council where he was President between 2005 and 2008. He is an Overseas Corresponding Member of the Society for Nautical Research and is a Councilor of the Navy Records Society. James Goldrick has contributed to many international journals and books on both historical and contemporary naval subjects. His research interests include naval and maritime strategic issues and the development of naval capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, as well as world navies in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, with a focus on their response to changing technologies and operational challenges. He is currently a Visiting Fellow of the Sea Power Centre-Australia, a Visiting Fellow of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and a Professorial Fellow of the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong. James Goldrick is married with two sons. NAVAL DISASTERS: HMS COBRA Type Destroyer Displacement 400 long Tons 410T Builder Armstrong Whitworth Length 223 ft Launched 28 June 1899 Installed Power 11,500 Shp Acquired 8 May 1900 Propulsion Parsons Turbines Yarrow Boilers 4 x sharfts Speed 36.6 knots Fate Sank near Cromer 1901 Armament 1 x 12 pounder 5 x 6 pounders 2 x torpedo tubes HMS Cobra was one of twenty-four "B" class turbine-powered destroyers built for the Royal Navy — a "30 knotter". She was built speculatively by Armstrong Whitworth and then offered for sale to the British Admiralty. She was launched on 28 June 1899, and purchased by the Navy on 8 May 1900 for £70,000. Her short career came to an end when she broke her back and sank near Cromer, North Norfolk UK, on 18 September 1901. The break occurred 150 ft (46 m) from her bows, between the two aft boilers. Twelve men — including the chief engineer — were saved; 44 Navy officers and men were drowned and 23 staff from the contractors, mostly employees of the turbine manufacturers, Parsons Marine. A court-martial enquiry held in October absolved the surviving officers of all blame, finding that "Cobra did not touch the ground or come into any contact with any obstruction, nor was her loss due to any error in navigation, but was due to structural weakness of the ship." This was contested by the manufacturers and other shipbuilders, with examples of equivalent boats being navigated to Australia or Japan without incident. The loss of Cobra came only six weeks after that of the destroyer Viper, the only other turbine- powered ship in the navy. Both ships had been intended as trial vessels to demonstrate the capabilities of the new technology. Neither loss was caused by problems with the turbines, but the losses were still a setback for the general introduction of turbines into warships. 3 The losses came after the loss of Serpent in 1890 and created an aversion in the Royal Navy towards snake names, and these names were not reused. Cobra was constructed by Armstrong Whitworth and company as a private venture and was one of two which they offered for sale to the British Admiralty on 12 December 1899. Ship number 674 was fitted with Parsons Marine turbines similar to those installed in the destroyer Viper. Such engines were expected to be 60% more powerful than reciprocating engines usually fitted to similar ships at that time. There were four shafts from the engines, each driving three propellers.