HMAS Encounter (1902)

HMAS ''Encounter'' was a second-class protected cruiser of the operated by the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built by HM Dockyard Devonport and completed at the end of 1905.

''Encounter'' spent the first six years of her career operating with the RN's Australia Squadron, before being transferred to the newly formed RAN. During World War I, the cruiser became the first ship of the RAN to fire in anger when she bombarded Toma Ridge. ''Encounter'' operated in the New Guinea, Fiji-Samoa, and Malaya areas until 1916, when she returned to Australian waters. The ship spent the rest of the war patrolling and escorting convoys around Australia and into the Indian Ocean. In 1919, ''Encounter'' was sent to evacuate the Administrator of the Northern Territory and his family following the Darwin Rebellion.

''Encounter'' was paid off into reserve in 1920, but saw further use as a depot ship until being completely decommissioned in 1929. In 1932, the cruiser was scuttled off Sydney.

Design and construction

''Challenger'' class vessels had a standard displacement of 5,880 tons, a length of overall and between perpendiculars, a beam of , and a draught of . The cruisers were propelled by a Keyham 4-cylinder triple expansion steam engine, which provided 12,500 horsepower to two propeller shafts, allowing her to reach speeds just over . Her economical cruising speed was , which allowed the ship to travel before exhausting her 1,314 tons of coal. In British service, the ship's company stood at 450, but while operated by the RAN, this was reduced to 29 officers and 269 sailors.

She was among the first ships of the Royal Navy to receive water-tube Dürr boilers.

As completed, the ship's armament consisted of eleven BL 6-inch Mk VII naval guns, nine QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval guns, six 3-pounder guns, three machine guns, and two 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes mounted broadside.Cassells, ''The Capital Ships'', p. 67 By the 1920s, the 6-inch and 12-pounder guns had been reduced to three and four respectively, although a 12-pounder field gun was added to the ship's arsenal. A single QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss gun replaced the six 3-pounders, while the original three machine guns were supplanted by four Maxim guns and two Lewis guns.

''Encounter'' was laid down for the RN by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth on 28 January 1901. The ship was launched on 18 June 1902, when the naming ceremony was performed by Lady Sturges Jackson, wife of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Sturges Jackson, Admiral-Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 21 November 1905, and completed on 16 December 1905. The ship sailed for Australia on 31 December.Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 49

Operational history

From April 1906 to June 1912, ''Encounter'' served as part of the RN Australia Squadron.Cassells, ''The Capital Ships'', p. 68 In 1909, 15 of her crew drowned when a naval longboat was run over by the small coastal steamer ''Dunmore'' in Sydney Harbour. Herbert Wilson, a petty officer aboard ''Encounter'', published his personal log covering 1910–1912, including an account of the British expeditions to Vavaʻu for the total solar eclipse of 28 April 1911. On 1 July 1912, the ship was commissioned into the RAN on loan, for use until was completed.Jose, ''The Royal Australian Navy 1914–1918'', p. 1.

World War I

Assigned to the Pacific Station during 1914–15, ''Encounter'' was part of the force which occupied German New Guinea. In the course of that operation, she captured the steamer ''Zambezi'' on 12 August and, on 14 September, bombarded Toma Ridge to support the Australian Military and Naval Expeditionary Force which was besieging the town. That action made her the first RAN ship to fire in anger