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AE1 was in fact launched on 22nd May 1913. She then
underwent final fitting and was made ready for trials.
She was not actually delivered to Portsmouth by the
contractors until 22nd January 1914.
The submariners who were to make up the crews for the
AE1 and AE2 came from the Royal Australian Navy as well
as the Royal Navy.
As recorded by
Australian submariner, Charles Suckling of the AE2;
| "September
1913 I found myself with a few other
submarine ratings in Barrow-in-Furness
Lancashire England, standing by two
submarines being built for the Australian
Government, HMA Submarine AE1 and AE2, these
two submarines were the very latest in
submarines. They were both finished about
the end of December and we were joined by
the rest of the officers and crew and then
began a very hard worked period, for a heavy
task lay ahead in the long passage to
Australia, and extreme care had to be taken
in tuning up and trials of engines and
machinery." 2 |
On the 21st November
1912, a "nominal list of Active Service Ratings
transferred on loan from Royal Navy for 3 years service
in AE1 as from 17/11/13, and list of ratings who will be
similarly transferred for service in AE2 and as spare
crew from 1/12/13."3 was drawn up.
From this initial list,
fifteen names would become associated with the tragedy
of the AE1. The only Royal Navy Submariners not on this
list, who also perished in the AE1, are Fred Woodland,
AB and Henry Joseph Gough. Henry Gough had made the
voyage to Australia as spare crew on the HMS Eclipse.
The three officers on
the AE1, also on loan to the Royal Australian Navy for
three years from the Royal Navy, were
Lieutenant-Commander Thomas Fleming BESANT,
Lieutenant Charles L. MOORE, and Lieutenant the
Honourable Leopold SCARLETT.
| This made a total of
nineteen Royal Navy submariners. The rest of the AE1
crew were Royal Australian Navy personnel, even though
some were English born. There was also one New
Zealander, John Reardon, AB.
The only crew
photograph known to survive - Chief Engine
Room Artificer - Joseph Wilson - AE1 :
Studio Photo with the cane as a prop. |
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It might be prudent at
this stage to give a short description of the entry and
training requirements of the men on AE1 and AE2.
| "In peace
time an officer who wished to join the
Submarine Service had first to receive a
recommendation from his own captain. He then
had to produce either a first class
certificate for his torpedo examination for
Lieutenant or, if he had not that
qualification, a certificate from the
Torpedo-Lieutenant of his ship to the effect
that he showed special zeal in that branch
of his duties. If his name was accepted it
was placed at the bottom of the candidates'
list, and in due time, after an interval
which varied from year to year, he was
appointed to Fort Blockhouse, the Submarine
Depot at Gosport. There the batch of new
officers were medically examined, and (The
standard being high) the unfit were weeded
out and returned to their ships.
For the
next three months he went through a course
of practical submarine instruction, his
training period terminating in examinations
which provided another obstacle, the meshes
of which prevented certain candidates from
proceeding from further.
The
officers of the class were then sent as
"third hands" to different boats to await
vacancies as First Lieutenants. After two to
four years as First Lieutenant (the time
varied with the number of new boats built),
an officer obtained command of an 'A' boat
(of 204 tons), from which he rose by
seniority to larger and more powerful
commands.
The men entered in much the same way, being
recommended, of first class character and of
excellent physical standard. They went
through a less comprehensive training
course, but had the same weeding out to
undergo, so that as far as possible the
"duds" were got rid of before they had cost
the country much in useless teaching."4 |
Thomas Fleming S. BESANT had entered the Royal
Navy at the age of 15 years in 1898. Thomas was the
third child of five children to Edgar Besant and Mary
Evans. (double check this with Dorothy) His eldest
sister married but had no children; his elder brother
Reginald never married. Younger brother Lionel migrated
to Canada and his youngest sister Janette went to Hong
Kong. In 1930, a cousin, Arthur Digby Besant, had this
to say about Thomas Besant in a monologue called 'The
Besant Pedigree' -
| "He joined
the navy at the early age of 15, that being
the practice of those days; and less than
two years later, as a young midshipman, he
saw active service in China during the Boxer
rising. On his return home he began by
specialising in gunnery and torpedo courses;
but shortly afterwards he decided to devote
all his energies and brains to a study of
the new field which submarines and
hydro-aeroplanes were then opening up to the
keenest type of the young school of
intellectual naval officers.
He quickly
became recognised as an expert in submarine
matters, and early in 1914 was selected to
command A.E.1., the first submarine
constructed here for service in Australian
waters. His vessel, travelling under its own
power, reached Sydney in May, and was the
first submarine to stand the test of a long
ocean voyage. The next few months were
occupied in cruises and naval manoeuvres
There his
submarine A.E.1. mysteriously disappeared
and no trace of her has ever been found. War
broke out in August and the movements of the
vessel in the preceding weeks had not been
kept secret. Of her fate nothing can learnt:
we can only surmise what happened. Fleming ,
at any rate, with all his gallant crew, went
down with his ship."5 |
Lieutenant the Honourable Leopold Florence Scarlett,
had come out of retirement to be a part of the AE1 crew.
He was an old classmate of Thomas Besant's and had been
placed on the retired list "Unfit" from the Royal Navy
on the 13th June 1913. His condition was listed as
"Tubercule of Lungs". [He then traveled to Australia -
find out how he got to Brisbane and re-enlisted]
 While the AE1 and the
AE2 were undergoing refit at Cockatoo Island in Sydney,
Besant, in mid June 1914, pointed out in a letter to the
Naval Secretary that only "the exact compliment of
Lieutenants exists for submarines and if one goes sick
then half the submarines would be unable to go to sea".
Besant then suggested obtaining a trained officer from
the United Kingdom asap.
By the middle of
August, the Navy Office had replied to the Navy
Secretary that Scarlett, late Lieut, RN, of Submarine
Service, now in Brisbane, volunteers for and is
recommended for spare Submarine Officer to be borne in
HMAS Protector. Protector was the depot ship for the
Australian submarines. Scarlett had forwarded a clean
bill of health. The navy Office required approval to
enter him immediately as a submarine service officer
with experience. At this stage an extra officer for AE1
was essential as Britain was into the first week of war.
On 11th August, he was
considered cured and medically fit. Once approved for
duty however, his seniority had to be sorted out so as
not to cause problems with the third most senior
officer, Lieutenant Haggard of AE2. This was resolved by
giving Scarlett seniority for all time served as a
Lieutenant in the Royal Navy up to 13th June 1913, which
was 2 years 7 months and 13 days. Subtracting this time
from the date of his appointment to the Royal Australian
Navy, his seniority as a Lieutenant in the RAN was dated
27th December 1911. This then made him junior to Haggard
whose appointment is listed as 31st December 1910.
Footnotes -
5. "The Besant
Pedigree" - Digby Besant
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