Submarines

Association

Australia

08/10/2026

Crest

125 years under the waves for the Royal Navy

Today 03/10/2026, we celebrate our people. The crews who serve in silence. The families who support them. The veterans who paved the way. And every submariner who as helped shape 125 years of history.

In 1900 the Royal Navy ordered five submarines from Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering of Barrow-in-Furness, designed by Electric Boat Company. The following year the first submarine, Holland 1, was launched, and the navy recruited the first three officers for the Submarine Service, Lieutenants Stephen Bowle-Evans (N) and Forster Delafield Arnold-Forster (T), under Reginald Bacon as Inspecting Captain of Submarines, on the 20th of August 1901. They were shortly thereafter joined by Lieutenant John Alfred Moreton in early October 1901. At the beginning of World War I it consisted of 168 officers, 1,250 ratings, and 62 submarines.[4] During the war it was awarded five of the Royal Navy's 14 Victoria Crosses of the war, the first was to Lieutenant Norman Holbrook, commanding officer of B11, for passing through minefields to sink the Ottoman warship Mesudiye. Late in the war, the Royal Navy introduced the large K-class submarines. In order to be fast enough to operate alongside the battlefleet, they used steam propulsion while surfaced. En route to a training exercise with the fleet in a disaster, afterwards nicknamed "the battle of May Island", two K-class submarines were sunk, with death of most of their crew, and three more and a light cruiser damaged.

HM Holland 1

Royal Navy facebook Video

HM Submarine A7 review

Australian Submarine AE1 page links

Submarine memorial AE1
AE1 memorial Day
AE1_110 years

VALE
WOMTP4SM ROBERT DUNCAN WILSON R55742

Vale Robert Wilson The Submarines Association of Australia is saddened to advise of the passing of member Robert "Jock" Wilson.

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Submariners worldwide are a special breed, rarely understood by mere mortals and never understood by skimmers. Submariners of all nations understand this and show respect to each other, knowing the hardship and danger that each has faced to achieve membership to that elite club to which they belong.

The Association's aims and goals are:
•To keep alive the unique esprit de corps of the Submarine Service;
•To establish and maintain a charitable trust, being a welfare foundation;
•To assist one another as occasion may require and to encourage social activities;
•To liaise with kindred organisations, both nationally and internationally; and,
•To educate members about their entitlements and provide access to Department of Veterans' Affairs advocates

The Association maintains a close relationship with several overseas Submariners' Associations. Membership is open to all submariners, regardless of the Navy in which they served.