Oct 19, 1939: HMAS CANBERRA [I] launches her Seagull V in working up exercises with modernized HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] - Damien Peter Parer [1912-1944].

1528. This is yet another in a widely published series of photographs - a number of them appearing on this Photostream - that were taken on Oct. 19, 1939 by the the Department of Information photographer Damien Parer, soon to become one of the most celebrated combat photographers and film news cameramen of WWII. It shows a Seagull V aircraft being catapulted off HMAS CANBERRA whilst the cruiser was engaged in exercises off Sydney with her sister ship HMAS AUSTRALIA [II], which was being worked up after her long 1938-39 modernisation. When previously shown here in a close-cropped published version of the photo, it prompted a long discussion in comments on Flick as to whether this dating, captioning and ship identification, as recorded at the Australian War Memorial, was correct. A wider version that we have now obtained, showing HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] in the distance, supports the captioning however, as does the record of this aircraft, Seagull V A 2-1, which confirms that she was on HMAS CANBERRA at this time. With a much greater load capacity and range, the Seagull V was a vast improvement over the Seagull III carried on RAN ships in the 1920s to early 1930s. A major advantage of the Seagull V was that it could be launched by catapult with the ship still steaming, while it had had to stop to launch the Seagull III from the surface.

 

The ship still had to slow virtually to a stop to recover the Seagull V, as it had to do with the smaller Seagull III.

 

Photo: Damien Peter Parer[{detail], Naval Historical Collection, Australian War Memorial ID NO. 000041. It appears in Ross Gillett's book 'Australian and New Zealand Warships 1914-1945' [Doubleday Australia, 1983] p336, and other sources.

 

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