Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HMAS Brisbane (I)

HMAS Brisbane (I) Commissioned 31 October 1916/Decommissioned 24 September 1935: Battle Honours INDIAN OCEAN 1917

Extract from Navy.gov.au (www.navy.gov.au) - click for full feature

HMAS Brisbane and her sister ships HMA Ships Melbourne and Sydney were the first cruisers built for the RAN. They were constructed to the design of the Chatham group of the British Town Class.

Brisbane was launched on 30 September 1915 by Mrs Fisher, the wife of the then Prime Minister Andrew Fisher. Brisbane commissioned at Sydney on 31 October 1916 under the command of Captain Claude L Cumberlege RN. Several members of her ship's company came from the recently decommissioned light cruiser HMAS Pioneer which had recently returned to Australia after two year service in German East Africa.

On 13 December 1916 she departed Sydney for war service in the Mediterranean, arriving at Malta on 4 February 1917. Here she was docked for two months to receive upgrades to her equipment, that were not available when she was built in Australia, and also allegedly to make good some poor workmanship from her build at Cockatoo Island. After leaving dock Brisbane was transferred to the Indian Ocean to assist in the hunt for the German commerce raider SMS Wolf which was known to be active in this area. While in port at Colombo (Ceylon) in April 1917 a Sopwith Baby seaplane, from the seaplane carrier HMS Raven (II), was transferred to Brisbane to assist in her search for the Wolf . This was the RAN's first involvement in naval aviation but when the cruiser was ordered back to Australia, in June 1917, the ship unfortunately had to give up the aircraft. She then operated on patrol duty off the Western Australian coast until late September.

 
Between October 1917 and January 1918 Brisbane served on patrol duty in the western Pacific, visiting the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Ocean Island, Tarawa (Gilbert Group) and Fiji. This was as a result of concerns that the German raiders Wolf and SMS Seeadler were still active in the Pacific. Seeadler had actually been been wrecked on Mopelia Atoll in early August 1917 and Wolf was on her way back to Germany but this information was not known for several months. From February to October 1918 Brisbane served in Australian waters on patrol duties due to the fear that more German raiders would be sent to the Pacific Ocean.

On 21 October 1918 Brisbane departed Sydney for England and was at sea en route from Colombo to Aden when the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ended hostilities in World War I. She reached Mudros, on Lemnos Island, on 26 November 1918 and spent a month operating with the Australian Destroyer Flotilla in the Eastern Mediterranean. Sadly two of her sailors (Stoker 2nd Class JF Godier and Able Seaman TJ Chitts) died from Spanish influenza on 2 December 1918 and were buried ashore at East Mudros Military Cemetery. Brisbane sailed through the Dardanelles, to the Sea of Marmara, and then entered the Black Sea where she became part of British force that operated off Sebastopol and Smyrna; as a show of force to support White Russian forces engaged in fighting the Bolsheviks. In early 1919, Brisbane steamed to England and in late January commenced a refit, at Portsmouth dockyard which lasted three months.

The Brisbane rendered solid service in the inter war years, through two refits before being de-commissioned. The ship arrived at Portsmouth on 12 July 1935, where she finally paid off on 24 September 1935. In June 1936 Brisbane was sold for breaking up to Thomas Ward & Co Ltd of Sheffield, England, for £19,125.