February 19th - On This Date - Royal Australian Navy

1893

HMQS PALUMA, (gunboat), floated free from Brisbane Botanical Gardens after being stranded by record floods in the Brisbane River.

1920

HMAS SLEUTH, (patrol vessel), was sold out of service and renamed AURORA.

1942

Japanese bombers attacked Darwin. HMA Ships MAVIE and KELAT, USS PEARY, and merchant ships BRITISH MOTORIST, NEPTUNA, ZEALANDIA, MAUNA LOA, and MEIGS, were sunk. HMA Ships PLATYPUS, SWAN, GUNBAR, WARREGO, KARA KARA, KOOKABURRA, KANGAROO, BAROSSA, and COONGOOLA, the hospital ship MANUNDA, USS WILLIAM B PRESTON, and five merchant ships were damaged. One hundred and seventy of the 250 dead in the attack were ships' complement.

1943

The Brisbane-based USS GATO, (submarine), and aircraft sank the Japanese transport HIBARI MARU off Bougainville.

1945

The services reconnaissance department (SRD) craft HMAS RIVER SNAKE, (LEUT J. P. Gowling, RAN), was commissioned at Fremantle. HMAS WARREGO, (sloop), completed a survey of Lingayen Gulf in preparation for the landing.

1961

HMAS VENDETTA, (destroyer), took off 12 passengers from the Shaw Savill freighter RUNIC, aground on Middleton Reef, QLD.

1967

RAN Clearance Diving Teams commenced operations in Vietnam.

1968

HMAS PERTH, (guided missile destroyer), attacked and damaged three large enemy barges drawn up on the beach near Dong Hoi, Vietnam.

1980

The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. M. Fraser, announced plans for increasing the size of the RAN.

1988

The office of Hydrographer in the RAN was upgraded from Captain to Commodore.

2002

HMAS CANBERRA, (frigate), escorts the two illegal fishing vessels MV LENA and MV VOLGA into Gage Roads in Western Australia to be handed over to civilian authorities. The two vessels had been apprehended near Heard Island in early February and escorted back to mainland Australia with RAN steaming parties onboard each vessel.

'On This Day' is based on the book "Navy Day by Day: Historic Naval Events in Australia and Abroad" written by the late Lew Lind.