Wooden plate : HMAS Sydney (I)

Place Oceania: Australia, New South Wales, Sydney
Accession Number REL37960
Collection type Heraldry
Object type Heraldry
Physical description Wood
Maker Cuneo, Francis Walter 'Frank'
Place made Australia
Date made c 1929
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Description

Circular wooden plate made from timber recovered from the Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Sydney (I). A red and green waratah has been hand engraved and painted into the face of the plate. Around the internal edge of the plate is carved a decorative pattern. 'TIMBER OUT OF HMAS. SYDNEY 1929 DESTROYED EMDEN 1914' is hand carved on the reverse. Below this is carved a signature, 'FWC'.

History / Summary

This plate is made from wood recovered from HMAS Sydney I, a light cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, commissioned in June 1913. During the First World War she was initially engaged in operations in the Pacific and in November 1914 escorted the first troop convoy to the Middle East. On 9 November she engaged with and defeated the German Cruiser SMS Emden off the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Through the rest of the war she served in the Caribbean and also with the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in the North Sea. After the war the Sydney returned to Australian waters and undertook routine duties until she was paid off in 1928 and broken up in 1929. This plate is a souvenir from that period, made from wood recovered before she was broken up and sunk off Sydney Heads.