Ca. 1937: HMAS VOYAGER [I] and STUART [I] at Williamstown Naval Dockyard, Melbourne - Allan C. Green [1878-1954] SLV.

818. While undated, this Allan Green view of VOYAGER [I] and STUART [I] looks contemporaneous with the traditional Cup Week concentration of RAN ships in Melbourne shown four back - at pic 814.

 

It is also a good illustration of how transforming the State Library of Victoria's free public release of the Green Collection in late 2009 has been for our view of many of these RAN vessels. For more than 60 years the published record of these famous ships has been almost entirely confined to scratchy wartime images of camouflaged, hard-worked and beat-up old ships rejoicing in their nickname 'The 'Scrap Iron Flotilla.'

 

HMAS STUART would surely rank on any informed list of the ten most famous destroyers of the 20th Century.

 

Yet our whole mental concept of them is of ships that were gallant, but worn out, and held together by string and wire.

 

In that sense it's refreshing to see these close-up peacetime views of them, looking well-tended and presentable.

 

Photo: Allan C. Green [1878-1954], Green Collection State Library of Victoria.

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