![Ca. 1913: SYDNEY [I] receives a welcome to Melbourne - A. C. Green, SLV. | by Kookaburra2011](http://live.staticflickr.com/4040/4583074903_a7fe57be89.jpg)
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Ca. 1913: SYDNEY [I] receives a welcome to Melbourne - A. C. Green, SLV.
1649. If one looks below the smoke into this busy pic, there is a definite sense of occasion here, but it is hard to pinpoint what it is. A best guess is that it is HMAS SYDNEY [I] 's maiden voyage to Melbourne, which took place after the fledgling RAN fleet's ceremonial entry in Sydney Harbour with HMAS AUSTRALIA on Oct. 4, 1913.
The pole masts indicate that it is prior to Sydney's WWI departure from Australia as one of the escorts for the 38 troop transports of the first Anzac Convoy, on Oct 1, 1914 [which was when the ships left Albany WA]. That departure would be her last sight of Australia for almost five years, and hence her famous baptismal battle with SMS EMDEN off the Cocos/Keeling Islands on November 9 was marked at home in her absence.
SYDNEY received a heavy tripod foremast and new bridgeworks during a three-month refit at Chatham Dockyard from late August to November 1917 - and thus she returned a rather different-looking vessel to that which left.
Returning to the photograph, there is a definite feeling of introduction, with what look like press representatives out in the two boats closest to the camera, along with yachts off her starboard bow, and the famous twin-funnelled tug JAMES PATERSON at the stern.
Photo: Allan C. Green [1878-1954] Green Collection, State Library of Victoria [La Trobe Library]. Copyright expired, this usage permitted.
Ca. 1913: SYDNEY [I] receives a welcome to Melbourne - A. C. Green, SLV.
1649. If one looks below the smoke into this busy pic, there is a definite sense of occasion here, but it is hard to pinpoint what it is. A best guess is that it is HMAS SYDNEY [I] 's maiden voyage to Melbourne, which took place after the fledgling RAN fleet's ceremonial entry in Sydney Harbour with HMAS AUSTRALIA on Oct. 4, 1913.
The pole masts indicate that it is prior to Sydney's WWI departure from Australia as one of the escorts for the 38 troop transports of the first Anzac Convoy, on Oct 1, 1914 [which was when the ships left Albany WA]. That departure would be her last sight of Australia for almost five years, and hence her famous baptismal battle with SMS EMDEN off the Cocos/Keeling Islands on November 9 was marked at home in her absence.
SYDNEY received a heavy tripod foremast and new bridgeworks during a three-month refit at Chatham Dockyard from late August to November 1917 - and thus she returned a rather different-looking vessel to that which left.
Returning to the photograph, there is a definite feeling of introduction, with what look like press representatives out in the two boats closest to the camera, along with yachts off her starboard bow, and the famous twin-funnelled tug JAMES PATERSON at the stern.
Photo: Allan C. Green [1878-1954] Green Collection, State Library of Victoria [La Trobe Library]. Copyright expired, this usage permitted.