HMA Submarine AE1 on patrol in waters off New Britain. A further exchange of signals followed during which Parramatta advised AE1 that her “orders were to search to the south’ard with submarine and anchor off Herbertshohe at 5:30pm.” The two vessels met off Herbertshohe at 8:00am and exchanged signals before proceeding to Cape Gazelle where they arrived at approximately 9:00am. The following day, at 7:00am the destroyer HMAS Parramatta left her night patrol ground off Raluana Point and proceeded at slow speed in the direction of Cape Gazelle to rendezvous with AE1 and conduct a patrol in St George’s Channel to the south and east of the Duke of York Islands.
With AE2, she took part in the operations leading to the occupation of German New Guinea, including the surrender of Rabaul on 13 September 1914. Although the submarines remained surfaced for almost all of the delivery voyage it was at the time the longest transit distance ever traveled by a submarine.Īt the outbreak of World War I, AE1 joined the naval forces assigned to the capture of the German Pacific colonies. (Tony Todd collection)Īccompanied by her sister AE2, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Henry Stoker, RN, AE1 departed England in March 1914, transited the Suez Canal, and reached Sydney on.
The inscription commemorating the launch of the RAN's first submarines.
