Royal Australian Navy - World War II
Why are warships named as they are? The Royal Australian Navy has inherited a tradition handed down from the Royal Navy, but in recent years has moved to adopt its own ideas on how to decide these significant titles.
A lot of significance can be attached to a name, and for a long time ships have been regarded by mankind almost as living things. They can also be seen as symbols of a country or ruler's authority.
In 1418, Britain's King Henry V paid the Bishop of Bangor five pounds for christening the largest warship of the time, the Henri Graze A Dieu, which translated as 'Henry By Grace of God', certainly reminded the general public that he was appointed by divine right.
A look through the history of the RAN's many hundreds of ships shows that while themes have often been followed in ship-naming, this is not always the case.
The ship list of 2001 is relatively disciplined, with FFGs following city names; the patrol boats carrying the names of towns - and therefore following in the footsteps of the WWII corvettes; Collins-class submarines carrying famous RAN members' surnames, and so on.
However, a look through Joe Straczek's The Royal Australian Navy: Ships, Aircraft and Shore Establishments, shows a bewildering variety in the past: from Acheron and Aeolus to Yippee to Zetta.
To name a warship after a country or sovereign is particularly significant. Consider what happens to the nation's morale if that warship is heavily damaged or sunk. Perhaps for that reason, the liner Queen Elizabeth II was kept well out of harm's way in the Falklands War.
The RAN has had two Australias. The first was scuttled outside Sydney in 1924 as a result of the Washington Treaty, and the second saw action in WWII, being hit five times by kamikaze aircraft in 1944. Since then the name has lain dormant.
Some ship names might be considered ill-fated.
Two Voyagers have been lost by the RAN, the first off Timor in WWII, when she went aground and was partially destroyed by her own ship's company to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. The second Voyager was sunk off Jervis Bay in February 1964 by a collision with the aircraft carrier Melbourne.
Will the Navy ever have another ship of this name?
Sometimes the ships' names themselves can provoke argument. Some years ago the present Anzac-class ship Arunta's naming was in some confusion over claims that the spelling should have been 'Arrente' or another variation, which would reflect better the pronunciation of the Arrente Aboriginal tribe after which the original WWII ship was named.
After some argument and further research - including a visit to the tribe - the original spelling was retained.
Aboriginal names have featured further in the RAN - Otama for example, is an Aboriginal word meaning 'dolphin', which is particularly apt, as this vessel is a submarine. (1)
Our first submarines were named AE1 and AE2, with the 'A' in their name standing for 'Australian', added to the 'E'-class letter and number.
A tendency in the RAN to use abstract concepts or place names for ships has been changed with the naming of the Collins-class submarines. These all use the names of distinguished past members of the force, with HMAS Sheean being distinguished by carrying the name of sailor Teddy Sheean, who died in action on board HMAS Armidale in WWII.
The Royal Australian Navy has also sometimes followed the RN with also using placenames, spiritual attributes or mythological titles for its ships. So the RN has had as examples of the first HMS Belfast; for the second HMS Victory and for the third HMS Jupiter.
The Royal Navy has ship names which go back in time for hundreds of years, and like other navies, are called back into service as necessity dictates. Ark Royal; Royal Sovereign, Invincible, Revenge and so on are ship names that have been used many times.
During the past 400 years or so of the formal existence of the Royal Navy there have been some 24,000 ships. (2)
RN ship names extend across a wide spectrum from counties and towns, to bird species, to heroic individuals and places, and the mythical Gods. The naming conventions have evolved over the many years of the Navy and the origins are unclear.
Some ship nicknames within the RN are quite clever: (3)
- 'Eggshells', the nickname for Achilles (1905)
- 'The Smoke', London (1927)
- 'Gin Palace', Agincourt (1913)
- 'Tea Boat', Ceylon (1942)
- 'Big Lizzie', Queen Elizabeth (1914)
- 'Despair Ship Remorse', Resource (1928)
- 'Tin Duck', Iron Duke (1913)
Starting at the beginning of the 20th Century, US Navy ships followed a system tailored to ship types.
Names of states, for example, were borne by battleships. Cruisers were named for cities while destroyers came to be named for American naval leaders and heroes, as today's destroyers are still named.
Starting in 1931, submarines were named for fish and denizens of the deep.
Mass-produced anti-submarine patrol and escort ships were named in honour of members of the naval service killed in action in World War II. Some were named for destroyers lost in the early stages of that war. Ships lost in wartime were normally honoured by having their names reassigned to new construction. During World War II the names of individuals were once again assigned to aircraft carriers. (4)
Until the 1970s, the United States also followed a custom of not naming a ship for a person while the person was still alive.
The first ship named for a then-living person was USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), named in 1975. Other examples of ships named for then-living people include: USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76); USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51); USS Hyman G Rickover (SSN 709); USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) and USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR 300)
Notably in USN history there has featured a USS Canberra, that name being given to a cruiser commissioned in 1943. This was in honour of the Australian cruiser Canberra, sunk while operating with American warships during the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942.
The naming "...was seen to be an appropriate exception to the custom of naming cruisers for American cities", according to one US source. Canberra's loss can in part be related to the failure of the American radar ships in that battle to detect the oncoming Japanese force.
Another unusually-named US ship is the Fletcher-class destroyer USS The Sullivans, launched in 1943, and named for five brothers who lost their lives in the Battle of the Solomon Islands when their ship was sunk. (5)
Some of the more unusual RAN ship names have arisen because ships were taken up from trade in time of conflict and retained their, rather 'non-naval', names in their service career.
Some names which might be worth a second glance:
- Blowfly - a survey launch of 1944.
- Bluenose - a part-time Naval Auxiliary Patrol vessel.
- Bogan - a frigate ordered in WWII, but which never eventuated with the cancellation of the order.
- Cockroach - a motor launch of 1914.
- The 'Snake' series of 66 armed trawlers of WWII - so Coral Snake; Grass Snake and so on.
- Mate-O-Mine - a requisitioned cabin cruiser which served in WWII.
- Tasmania - a destroyer of the 1920s - there has not been another Tasmania but there have been two Tassie's - both auxiliary patrol vessels of WWII.
- Vagrant - name given to two patrol vessels of WWII.
- Wyatt Earp - two Antarctic patrol vessels, the first entering service in 1947 and the second in 1993, and still serving. As RT Sexton tells us in Ships That Passed, the unusual name of this ship was because she was taken up from trade and that was her name at the time. She was originally the Fanefjord, built in Norway in 1919. A wooden ship, she was a single-deck motor vessel, 150 feet in length, of 402 tons, and made of Baltic pine. She had two masts and carried fore-and-aft auxiliary sails. Her superstructure, with one tall thin funnel, was placed well aft. After 10 years of herring fishing in the North Sea, she was purchased by a sealing firm which operated her in the Arctic seas around Greenland.
Sexton relates: "While engaged in this she was seen by the famous Australian explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins, who had been commissioned by the American Lincoln Ellsworth to purchase a suitable vessel for Antarctic exploration. He bought the Fanefjord and Ellsworth renamed her Wyatt Earp after a Wild West character - the fighting Sheriff of Tombstone, whose deeds have become part of American folklore". (6)
However, perhaps the most unusual names of RAN vessels were those of the Chinese ships of WWII.
These were all ex-Chinese river steamers or ocean-going vessels on the Japan-China-Australia run.
During WWII they were requisitioned and manned by RAN members, serving from December 1941 to 1946.
They were HMA ships Ping Wo, Poyang, Whang Pu, Yunnan and VSIS (Victualling Supply Issue Ship) Changte and Taiping.
Sources:
- Royal Navy. Covey Crump website: http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/content/377.html
- Royal Navy. http://www.warships.net/royalnavy/
- Straczek, Josef. The Royal Australian Navy: Ships, Aircraft and Shore Establishments. Sydney: Navy Public Affairs, 1996.
- Sexton, RT. Ships That Passed. Friends of the South Australian Maritime Museum. No other publishing information on site except ISBN 0 646 31467 X. Complete text given at: http://www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/malcolm/shippass.htm
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