Kookaburra2011
1917-1919: A rare image of Australia's submarine depot ship HMS PLATYPUS at Devonport in WWI Royal Navy Service - RAN.
4277. What a wonderful 'big picture' photo of Australia's submarine depot ship HMS PLATYPUS. In WWI Royal Navy service, she is anchored at the mouth of the Lynher River, a tributary of the Tamar, with an RN D Class submarine alongside, another approaching [ thanks for location details to Brisey47, see more details of the railway, Defiance Platform and Wearde Quay in the background in Bisey's comments below]. The sign for Defiance station can be seen on the hill left, just beneath the trees. Because the RAN had lost both its submarines by the time PLATYPUS was completed on March 2, 1917 she was commissioned on loan into the Royal Navy, and served the remainder of WWI in Biritsh home waters until finally taken over and commissioned into the RAN on March 13, 1919.
We think this is quite a rare image - we've not seen one of PLATYPUS in RN service before - and thanks also to Gordon.Branch [comments below] for first putting us on the right track as to the timing and location.
Prior to Gordon's spotting the glaringly obvious, the D Class number of the boat alongside, Kookaburra had gone through a couple of quite rambling and now pointless speculations as to the locality of this photo, ranging from Hobart in 1921, to Corio Bay Geelong, where PLATYPUS and the J Class were based in the early 1920s, and where the crews and staff occupied the old shoreside mansion Osborne House, the first RAN College [next photo].
It's no good trying to unscramble the eggs of Kooka's past errors any further, so we'll just press on ...
We had some good images of 'Plats' and the J Class subs down at Hobart at. Pic NO. 3075 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/5041424824/
And, a quite eccentric pic, NO. 2223, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4711187819/
This photo: RAN Historical, Heritage collection, image ID NO. 02778.
1917-1919: A rare image of Australia's submarine depot ship HMS PLATYPUS at Devonport in WWI Royal Navy Service - RAN.
4277. What a wonderful 'big picture' photo of Australia's submarine depot ship HMS PLATYPUS. In WWI Royal Navy service, she is anchored at the mouth of the Lynher River, a tributary of the Tamar, with an RN D Class submarine alongside, another approaching [ thanks for location details to Brisey47, see more details of the railway, Defiance Platform and Wearde Quay in the background in Bisey's comments below]. The sign for Defiance station can be seen on the hill left, just beneath the trees. Because the RAN had lost both its submarines by the time PLATYPUS was completed on March 2, 1917 she was commissioned on loan into the Royal Navy, and served the remainder of WWI in Biritsh home waters until finally taken over and commissioned into the RAN on March 13, 1919.
We think this is quite a rare image - we've not seen one of PLATYPUS in RN service before - and thanks also to Gordon.Branch [comments below] for first putting us on the right track as to the timing and location.
Prior to Gordon's spotting the glaringly obvious, the D Class number of the boat alongside, Kookaburra had gone through a couple of quite rambling and now pointless speculations as to the locality of this photo, ranging from Hobart in 1921, to Corio Bay Geelong, where PLATYPUS and the J Class were based in the early 1920s, and where the crews and staff occupied the old shoreside mansion Osborne House, the first RAN College [next photo].
It's no good trying to unscramble the eggs of Kooka's past errors any further, so we'll just press on ...
We had some good images of 'Plats' and the J Class subs down at Hobart at. Pic NO. 3075 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/5041424824/
And, a quite eccentric pic, NO. 2223, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4711187819/
This photo: RAN Historical, Heritage collection, image ID NO. 02778.