VC out of reach for daring Irish captain of Australia’s first submarine BY LLOYD GORMAN
An Australian submarine – skippered by a fearless Dublin naval commander – played a defining role in the military events of April 25 at Gallipoli, the date that has become enshrined as ANZAC Day. At a highly critical moment for the massive land sea operation by Allied forces his actions determined the course of the whole campaign and it even helped to give us the popular term Diggers to describe the soldiers of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. At the outbreak of World War I Australia was not short on enthusiastic and proud men willing to do their part for ‘King and country’. But as the drums of war were beating harder the still fledgling former colony – which had just federated 14 years earlier – was poorly equipped in terms of the military hardware needed to take the fight to the enemy. For one thing, while it had ships and a long naval and maritime tradition the Royal Australian Navy did not have any submarines in its fleet. The RAN turned to the British for help. Two E Class subs (AE1 and AE2) were built in English
36 | THE IRISH SCENE
ship yards in 1913 and commissioned a year later with a mixed crew of sailors from the more experienced Royal Navy and RAN. The two new underwater boats set out from England on March 14 1914 and arrived into Sydney Harbour on May 24. At the time it was the longest distance travelled by submarine anywhere in the world. AE2 sailed under the command of Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Stoker, who was on loan from the RN to its Australian equivalent. Months after their arrival WWI broke out and the submarines were quickly despatched with the naval force sent to capture Germany’s pacific colonies, including New Guinea. Their role was to help protect the flotilla but unfortunately for the 35 crew members of the AE1 she disappeared without trace or explanation on the first day of action in mid-September. The mysterious loss marred what was otherwise a successful operation to occupy the islands (which were renamed, including New Ireland and New Britain). It would also have weighed
