January 11th - On This Date - Australian Navy

1824                The following monthly rates of pay for naval officers were fixed by the Admiralty:- £61 7s 4d (1st rate ship); £23 0s 4d (sloop); First Lieutenant £11 10s 0d (1st rate ship); £9 4s 0d (sloop); Lieutenant £9 4s 0d (1st rate ship); £7 13s 4d (sloop); Master £ 13 0s 8d (1st rate ship); £7 13s 4d (sloop); Midshipman £2 8s 0d (all ships); Chaplain £12 5s 4d (all ships); Surgeon £12 5s 4d (all ships); Assistant Surgeon £9 4s 0d (all ships); Purser £7 0s 0d (all ships); Second Master £5 9s 4d (1st rate ship); £4 14s 0d (6th rate ship). 

1843                LEUT Charles B. Yule, RN, of HMS BRAMBLE, discovered and named Heron Island.

1872                The British Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone, proposed the use of HMVS VICTORIA, (survey vessel), for policing blackbirding in the South Seas. 

1930                The Australian Government agreed to the transfer of HMA Ships PARRAMATTA and SWAN, (torpedo boat destroyers), to the NSW Government for use as accommodation ships for civil prisoners. The vessels were never put to this use. The State Opposition Leader, Mr J. T. Lang, moved a successful recission vote in Parliament, claiming the convict system had been abolished in NSW in 1842. 

1945                Twenty German POWs escaped via a tunnel from the officers' POW camp at Dhuringle, VIC. One of the escapees was CAPT Theodore Detmers, who was the Commanding Officer of the raider KORMORAN. Detmers was recaptured on 20 January, some 32 km from the camp. He was sentenced to 28 days solitary confinement in the camp

1965                RADM T. K. Morrison, CBE, DSC, was appointed Flag Officer Commanding Her Majesty's Australian Fleet.

1969                The Attack class patrol boat, HMAS BUCCANEER, was commissioned. BUCCANEER was laid down in Evans Deakin Yard, QLD, in June 1968, and launched on 14 September 1968. BUCCANEER was decommissioned on 27 July 1984.

1991                HMAS PARRAMATTA, (destroyer escort), was decommissioned after nearly 30 years of service. During her career she had been the escort ship for the Royal Yacht BRITANNIA during Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1963, and had also conducted escort ship duties to Vietnam in 1968 and 1971.