HMAS Waterhen
HMAS Waterhen (D-22/I-22) was a V class
destroyer laid down by Palmers Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Jarrow-on-Tyne on
3 July 1917, launched on
23 March 1918, completed on 17 July 1918 and commissioned into the
Royal Navy, transferred to the
Royal Australian Navy at
Portsmouth on
11 October 1933 and commissioned as HMAS Waterhen.
Waterhen departed for
Australia on
17 October 1933 and arrived in
Sydney on
21 December 1933, was paid off into reserve on
9 October 1934 but recommissioned on
14 April 1936 and served on the Australia Station, was decommissioned on
1 June 1938 but re-commissioned on
1 September 1939 upon the outbreak of
World War II, and served in the
Mediterranean where she was involved in the evacuation of
Greece in April
1941.
HMAS Waterhen, known as
the chook, was severely damaged during an attack by dive bombers off Sollum in
North Africa on
29 June 1941. HMS Defender took her in tow but, at 0150 on
30 June 1941, she rolled over and sank, the first ship of the Royal Australian Navy to be lost by enemy action in World War II.