HMAS Berrima

HMAS "Berrima" was an Armed Merchant Cruiser which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War I.

The P&O passenger liner SS "Berrima" was requisitioned for use by the Navy, refitted and armed at the Cockatoo Island Dockyard and commissioned into the RAN as the auxiliary cruiser HMAS "Berrima". "Berrima" left Sydney on 19 August 1914 carrying men of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, consisting of a battalion of 1,000 infantry and a small battalion of 500 Naval Reservists and time-expired Royal Navy seaman, for operations against the German New Guinea colonies. Troops were landed at Herbertshöhe and Rabaul on 11 and 12 September respectively, and on the New Guinea mainland on 24 September. "Berrima" subsequently returned to Sydney and, despite plans to employ her as an armed merchant cruiser, she was paid off in October and converted to a troop transport.

In her new role, SS "Berrima" sailed for the Middle East in December 1914 as part of the second troop convoy, carrying Australian and New Zealand troops and towing the submarine HMAS AE2. Berrima continued to work under the liner requisition scheme until 18 February 1917, when she struck a mine in the English Channel off Portland and was beached and later repaired.

"Berrima" was returned to commercial service 24 March 1920, and was sold to Japanese shipbreakers in September, 1939.

References

* "British Warships 1914-1919" by Dittmar, F.J. and Colledge, J.J. Ian Allan, London; (1972), ISBN 0-7110-0380-7
* "Australia's Ships of War" by John Bastock. Angus and Robertson, Sydney; (1975), ISBN 0-207-12927-4
* [http://www.navy.gov.au/reserves_new/reserveNews/Reserve_News_27_May_2002_Vol9_No5.pdf "Naval Reservists in WWI – first to fight, first to fall"] Dead link|date=September 2008 by LCDR Glenn Kerr, RAN in Navy Reserve News Volume 9 Number 5, May 27, 2002 retrieved 1 Jan 2007.
* Jeremy, John, "Cockatoo Island: Sydney's Historic Dockyard", p. 115. UNSW Press, Kensington (2005). ISBN 0 86840 817 4

External links

* [http://www.awm.gov.au/units/unit_12820.asp Australian War Museum page on HMAS Berrima]
* [http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=524 Clydebuilt info page on HMAS Berrima]