![Mid-1952: Brought from reserve, HMAS HOBART [I] is stripped of her tripod foremast at GI prior to the modernisation attempt. Photo RAN Historical. | by Kookaburra2011](http://live.staticflickr.com/5299/5470164120_5bb221cf98.jpg)
Kookaburra2011
Mid-1952: Brought from reserve, HMAS HOBART [I] is stripped of her tripod foremast at GI prior to the modernisation attempt. Photo RAN Historical.
4026. Sitting at the Cruiser Wharf towards the outer end of Garden Island, we have the sad sight of WWII cruiser HMAS HOBART [I], with the Q Class destroyer HMAS QUICKMATCH alongside.
HOBART has been brought across from the reserve fleet dolphins at Athol Bight, where she has lain since 1947, to be partially stripped before being taken to the State Dockyard, Newcastle in August 1952, for modernisation as a training cruiser.
This was abandoned in December 1955 after three and a half years 'work.' As far as we are aware, and this could be wrong, the public were never affordedan explanation of why this project was called off. A parliamentary debate was needed at least, an Auditor-General Report, but we've not found those things as yet.
The obvious suspicion would be Cold War industrial tensions on the Newcastle waterfront, but ex-Navy blokes have also mentioned that HOBART, 18-1/2 years old in 1952, was in no condition for the work to be started.
The cruiser was towed back to the reserve fleet dolphins, unfinished, at the end of 1955 and never raised steam again. As we have now shown a number of times, she was towed to Japan for scrapping in 1962.
Photo: RAN Historical section, it is held in the RAN Heritage Collection, ID. NO. 02482, and public through the RAN and sharing arrangements elsewhere. The image is out of copyright.
A two-part COMPENDIUM of the Photostream's 100 HMAS HOBART [I] images begins at Entry NO. 5464, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6734070483/in/photostream
Mid-1952: Brought from reserve, HMAS HOBART [I] is stripped of her tripod foremast at GI prior to the modernisation attempt. Photo RAN Historical.
4026. Sitting at the Cruiser Wharf towards the outer end of Garden Island, we have the sad sight of WWII cruiser HMAS HOBART [I], with the Q Class destroyer HMAS QUICKMATCH alongside.
HOBART has been brought across from the reserve fleet dolphins at Athol Bight, where she has lain since 1947, to be partially stripped before being taken to the State Dockyard, Newcastle in August 1952, for modernisation as a training cruiser.
This was abandoned in December 1955 after three and a half years 'work.' As far as we are aware, and this could be wrong, the public were never affordedan explanation of why this project was called off. A parliamentary debate was needed at least, an Auditor-General Report, but we've not found those things as yet.
The obvious suspicion would be Cold War industrial tensions on the Newcastle waterfront, but ex-Navy blokes have also mentioned that HOBART, 18-1/2 years old in 1952, was in no condition for the work to be started.
The cruiser was towed back to the reserve fleet dolphins, unfinished, at the end of 1955 and never raised steam again. As we have now shown a number of times, she was towed to Japan for scrapping in 1962.
Photo: RAN Historical section, it is held in the RAN Heritage Collection, ID. NO. 02482, and public through the RAN and sharing arrangements elsewhere. The image is out of copyright.
A two-part COMPENDIUM of the Photostream's 100 HMAS HOBART [I] images begins at Entry NO. 5464, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6734070483/in/photostream