BOOK REVIEW | The Tinpot Navy: The Extraordinary Exploits and Unsung Heroes of Australia's Fledgling Navy During the Great War
This is a quite delightful book about an important and very serious period of Australia’s naval history. As the author carefully explains, while Australia theoretically fielded its own navy from 1911, that navy was very much a closely controlled branch office of Britain’s Royal Navy that was just then reaching its “Britannia rules the waves” zenith.
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN), of course, was to remain under strong British influence, if not control, until after World War II. It continued to fly the RN’s white ensign on all its ships until then.
That reality made for many interesting and sometimes embarrassing situations where Nelson’s “blind eye” had occasionally to be applied. There were some very unnecessary disasters, especially when Winston Churchill and certain British admirals ignored the common sense of their juniors.
Nevertheless, Australia’s warships and many of their sailors and officers were indeed often perpetrators of heroic deeds involving extraordinary exploits.
The author well reminds us of a considerable amount of Australia’s important but oft-forgotten naval history. With such a culture inculcated into it from its origins, it is not hard to see why the RAN so often expensively veers off course.
Author: Anthony Delano
Available from Allen and Unwin, Sydney, Australia
