HMAS AE1

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HMAS AE1

HMAS AE1 (originally known as just AE1) was an E class
British E class submarine

The British E class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D class submarine. All of the first group and some of the second group were completed before the outbreak of World War I....
submarine of the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the navy of the Australian Defence Force. Established in 1901, the RAN was formed out of the Commonwealth Naval Forces to become the small navy of Australia after federation, consisting of the former colonial navies of the new Australian states....
(RAN). She was the first submarine to serve in the RAN, and was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain
East New Britain

East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in a 1994 volcanic eruption....
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
, on 14 September 1914, after less than seven months in service.

The wreck of the submarine has never been found.

AE1 was laid down by Vickers Armstrong
Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Armstrong Whitworth in 1927....
at Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness , often known simply as Barrow, is an manufacturing and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England....
, England on 14 November 1911, launched on 22 May 1913 and commissioned into the RAN on 28 February 1914.

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Encyclopedia

HMAS AE1 (originally known as just AE1) was an E class
British E class submarine

The British E class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D class submarine. All of the first group and some of the second group were completed before the outbreak of World War I....
submarine of the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the navy of the Australian Defence Force. Established in 1901, the RAN was formed out of the Commonwealth Naval Forces to become the small navy of Australia after federation, consisting of the former colonial navies of the new Australian states....
(RAN). She was the first submarine to serve in the RAN, and was lost at sea with all hands near East New Britain
East New Britain

East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in a 1994 volcanic eruption....
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
, on 14 September 1914, after less than seven months in service.

The wreck of the submarine has never been found.

History

Commissioning
AE1 was laid down by Vickers Armstrong
Vickers Armstrong

Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Armstrong Whitworth in 1927....
at Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness , often known simply as Barrow, is an manufacturing and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England....
, England on 14 November 1911, launched on 22 May 1913 and commissioned into the RAN on 28 February 1914. After commissioning, AE1, accompanied by her sister ship AE2
HMAS AE2

HMAS AE2 was an British E class submarine submarine of the Royal Australian Navy . She was commissioned into the RAN at Portsmouth on 28 February 1914 and was scuttled less than a year later in the Sea of Marmara after being hit by an enemy torpedo during the Battle of Gallipoli....
, the other of the Royal Australian Navy's first two submarines, reached Sydney from England on 24 May 1914. Both submarines were manned by Royal Navy
Royal Navy

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British Armed Forces . From the mid-18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early 1940s....
(RN) officers with a mixed crew of sailors drawn from the RN and RAN.

Deployment
At the outbreak of World War ], AE1, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Thomas Besant, RN, was sent to capture German New Guinea
German New Guinea

German New Guinea was a former Germany protectorate from 1884 to 1914, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups....
as part of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force
Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force

The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force was a small volunteer force of approximately 2,000 men, raised in Australia shortly after the outbreak of the World War I to seize and destroy Germany wireless telegraphy stations in German New Guinea in the south-west Pacific Ocean....
. With her sister ship AE2, she took part in the operations leading to the occupation of the German territory, including the surrender of Rabaul
Rabaul

Rabaul is a township in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea. The town was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until it was destroyed in 1994 by falling ash of a volcanic eruption....
on 13 September 1914.

At 07:00 hours on 14 September, AE1 departed Blanche Bay, Rabaul, to patrol off Cape Gazelle with HMAS Parramatta. When she had not returned by 20:00 hours, several ships were dispatched to search for her. No trace of the submarine was ever found, and she was listed as lost with all hands. It is probable that she was wrecked on a reef or other submerged object. As well as LCDR Besant, two other officers and 32 sailors were lost in this disaster. The disappearance was Australia's first major loss of World War I.

Searches
The Maritime Museum of Western Australia, sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as the ABC, is Australia's national Public broadcasting.With a budget of Australian dollar840 million annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as overseas through the Australia Net...
, launched an unsuccessful attempt to locate the submarine in November 2003. The search area was concentrated to the south-east of the Duke of York Islands
Duke of York Islands

The Duke of York Islands, , are a group of islands located in East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. They are found in St George's Channel between New Britain and New Ireland islands and form part of Bismarck Archipelago....
.

In February 2007, a new effort to locate the submarine was mounted by the RAN, when the survey ships Benalla
HMAS Benalla (A 04)

HMAS Benalla is Paluma class survey motor launch survey motor launch of the Royal Australian Navy .Benalla is a twin-hulled hydrographic survey ship, designed to operate in shoaling and shallow reefs....
and Shepparton
HMAS Shepparton (A 03)

HMAS Shepparton is a Paluma class survey motor launch survey motor launch of the Royal Australian Navy .She is a twin hulled hydrographic survey ship designed to operate in shoaling and shallow reefs....
attempted to locate the submarine off East New Britain
East New Britain

East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in a 1994 volcanic eruption....
, based on data compiled over the previous 30 years. Benalla located an object of the appropriate dimensions using sonar on 1 March. Later identification conducted by HMAS Yarra
HMAS Yarra (M 87)

HMAS Yarra is the sixth Huon class minehunter to have been built for the Royal Australian Navy and the fourth warship to be named after the Yarra River in Victoria....
confirmed though that this object is a rock with the same approximate dimensions.

Further reading

External links

- Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Foreign Correspondent