Tugs, boom-defence vessels, cable-maintenance ships, lighters, general purpose vessels - there were dozens of them going about the RAN's business every day of the war in harbours as far apart as Sydney and Mios Woendi. As with store-ships, they came to the Navy from a variety of sources - an improvised administrative and logistic "tail" for the sixty or seventy-odd warships. Their very numbers show how significant their duties were.
Fleet Tugs
Boom Defence
Maintenance
Examination
Tugs
HMA Ships Elwing, Forceful, St Giles, Waree, Wato, Reserve, Sprightly, Tancred.
Australia began World War II by requisitioning five tugs for Naval service. These were Wato, Forceful, St Giles, Waree and Elwing. Eventually the requisitioned trawler Heros was also turned over to tug duties. Wato was a 292-ton coal-burner requisitioned in April 1941. She was at Darwin during the Japanese air-raid of 19th February 1942; Wato very bravely came alongside the ammunition carrier MV Neptuna, and a fuel-tender - both of them on fire - in her attempts to rescue ships and sailors. Neptuna blew up during Wato's attempts to rescue the freighter Barossa, wrecking the freighter; fortunately Wato survived.
St Giles (380 tons) and Forceful were built in 1919 and 1927 on the Clyde; St Giles was used for anti-submarine detection and patrol work as well as a tug. The wooden Elwing was the smallest of them all, a mere 47 tons. Waree (233 tons) was the youngest, launched at Sydney's Cockatoo dockyard in 1939 and requisitioned in September 1942.
Reserve, Sprightly, and Tancred were lend-lease tugs built in America (ex-USN BAT 11, BAT 12 and BAT 13 respectively), big and very modern. They were all 800 tons full load, with diesel electric engines and such unheard of luxuries as refrigeration and forced ventilation. They joined the RAN between 1943 and 1944.
Although rarely armed with anything heavier than a couple of machine guns, tugs were by no means stay-at-homes. They were used to haul barges and pontoons in operational areas and rescue damaged ships. Reserve was narrowly missed by a kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf (12/1/45) and Sprightly was attached to the US Seventh Fleet and later the British Pacific Fleet.
Boom Defense Vessels.
HMA Ships Kangaroo, Koala, Kookaburra, Karangi, Kara Kara, Kuramia, Koompartoo, Kinchela, Kimbla, Lanikai
Boom-vessels played the tedious but important role of tending the anti-submarine boom stretched across harbour-mouths. Kookaburra was of the British "Net" Class, Kangaroo, Koala and Karangi were of the "Bar" class. The "Nets" were 530 ton ships 159.75 feet long, capable of 11.5 knots at 850 IHP; they were armed with a single 3-inch AA gun and had a complement of 32. The "Bars" were larger - 730 tons, 173.75 feet, but otherwise very similar. All four were at Darwin during the big Japanese air-raid (19th February 1942).
Their designed purpose did not prevent the broad minds of the RAN employing them otherwise; Kangaroo served with the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla off New guinea and the Solomons later in the war, and Karangi was used on coastal patrol after 1944.
Kara Kara, Kuramia, Koompartoo, Kinchela, Kimbla, and Lanikai were all requisitioned at various stages during the war to supplement the other ships. As requisitioned ships, their specifications and armament varied greatly. Koompartoo (448 tons) was armed with 2 20 mm Oerlikons and four machine guns; Kara Kara (525 tons) with a twelve pounder and two machine guns. Kuramia (335 tons) was a wooden passenger-ferry on Sydney Harbour, requisitioned for war service in September 1942. Kinchella was a 209-ton wooden flat-topped lighter requisitioned in March 1942 and used as a boom-gate vessel at Brisbane until the end of the war. Lanikai was a 105-ton wooden schooner of Great War vintage armed with a 3-pounder and machine guns. Owned by the US Navy (USS Hermes) in Manila, she escaped the Japanese invasion of the Phillipines and helped out in Fremantle Harbour for the rest of the war.
Maintenance and General Purpose Vessels.
HMA Ships Bangalow, Innisfail; Motor lighters 251(?) to 260(?); General Purpose Vessels 945, 949, 950, 952, 961, 962, 968 (possibly others).
Cable Repair Ships had the tedious task of keeping anti-submarine cables intact across harbour mouths. Innisfail, a 399 ton coal-burner, ex-Blaxland, was requisitioned on 3rd September 1941 and spent all her time maintaining the barrier across Sydney Harbour. Bangalow, a 648-ton coal-burner, had a more varied war. Commissioned for war service on 23rd June 1941, she laid anti-submarine loops in Sydney, Darwin and Port Moresby; then converted for service in the Hydrographic section. In this role she became a lighthouse repair ship, steaming betwen Port Moresby and Manus, Madang and Rabaul and then back to Sydney on duty. Both these ships paid off and returned to civillian ownership at the end of the war.
Lighters and GPVs were built in Australian yards during the last two years of war; not all of those built were completed in time to see war service. The Motor lighters were all of a type; steel-built, 120 feet long with a top speed of about 9 knots. They do not appear to have been armed. They were designated MRL (Motor Refrigeration lighter - three boats), MWL (Motor Water Lighter - six boats) or MSL (Motor Stores Lighter - one boat). As these designations suggest, they were fitted out to ferry particular kinds of stores to ships in harbour. In keeping with the affectionate practice of other small ships in the RAN, many bore unofficial names as well as numbers. 253, for example, was referred to as Gayundah; 251 as Gunga Din. Those which saw war service spent much of their time in New Guinea waters, where they proved sufficiently useful that construction of the type was continued in the post-war RAN.
General Purpose Vessels were of wooden construction, 75 feet long, capable of about 10 knots with a complement of 10 or 12. They carried stores from time to time, and at least two of them appear to have been equipped to carry out radar maintenance for ships at sea. 945 and 949 were listed as loop-repair ships and/or Examination Ships late in the war. Like the lighters, they bore unofficial names; 952 was called Sterna, 945 Limicola, 949 Larus, 950 Limosa, 961 Albatross,962 Walrus, 968 Tallarook. Like the lighters, they continued their useful service well into the post-war years.
I have also seen reference to a small vessel of unknown type, Cape Leeuwin. She is said to have been used to restore lighthouses around the Phillipine coast after its liberation in 1945. Since HMAS Cape Leeuwin was also the name of an Australian shore establishment at the same time, the reference may not be accurate, or may refer to a merchant ship by that name. But someone must have carried out this important task; so Cape Leeuwin, whatever and whoever you were, here is a small salute to your war service.
Examination Ships
Akuna, Alexander Thiompson, Arcadia, Bareto, Birubi, Captain Cook, Ellan, Emerald, Factus, Falie, Fauro Chief, Gerard, John Oxley, Kooraka, Kyeema, Larrakia, Magnetic, Marana, Matthew Flinders, Miro, Mongana, Moreton, Moruya, Nordecia, Norseman, Otter,Paluma, Panawina, Pardion, Penguin, Peter Pan, Premier, Sea Bird, Sir Wallace Bruce, Venture, Victoria, Violet,Waratah, Warrawee, Westwind, Wollomai, Zephyr.
Examination ships carried out the important task of inspecting vessels entering port and checking for contraband and belligerant status. Other ships than those above, mentioned elsewhere, also undertook this service; for example the Auxilliary Patrol Vessel King Bay, and the Larus and Limicola (GPVs 949 and 945), and the Naval Auxilliary Patrol vessel Flying Foam. The raider Kuru began her war career in 1939 as an examination vessel, as did the armed yachts Adele,, Southern Cross and Stradbroke II, although the last named was not taken up until April 1941. The auxilliary minesweeper Mirimar also began her war career as an examination vessel, as did the depot ship Wongala.
Specifications, of course, varied widely, from the motor-launch Kuru to the 953-ton Akuna. Armament was rarely more than a couple of machine guns - sea-keeping qualities and reliability were greater assets in an Examination Vessel than fighting ability. The ketch Falie (215 tons) was relatively heavily armed, particularly for her size, with single 20 mm Oerlikon guns fore and aft. A photograph of Wongala, dated 1943, shows her sporting an antique 12-pounder.
The origins of these craft were varied. Akuna was a 1914 war prize, the 1911 German ship Komet. One of the oldest was Matthew Flinders, built in Scotland in 1914; one of the newest was Ellan, a trawler built in Australia in 1942. Falie was built in Holland in 1919 and sold to the Spencer Gulf Trading Company, John Oxley had been pilot vessel since her purchase in 1927.
Often, these vessels never became Naval craft in the strictest sense of the word. Unless commissioned into the RAN, they remained requisitioned civilian vessels carrying Naval examinations officers. One such was Birubi, another Captain Cook, while Peter Pan was not commissioned until she became a unit of the Naval Auxilliary Patrol in 1942.
The war careers of many Examination Vessels were very brief - in the cases of some of those singled out above, they lasted as such for barely more than a month or two. Captain Cook served only between September 1939 and October 1940; Nordecia patrolled Tasmanian waters only between 2nd September and 13th October, 1939. Adele and Fauro Chief were lost during the war. By conrast, others stayed in service for much of the war, occasionally changing roles part-way. One such was Falie, requisitioned in July 1940, serving in the examination service at Sydney until August 1943 when she was refitted as a stores carrier, serving thus until the end of the war. She remains afloat to this day; still available for charter and pleasure cruises in the Spencer Gulf off South Australia.