A team of experts is now analysing the footage to better understand what happened to AE1.The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Over 8000 digital still images were collected during the survey and those images have been processed to generate a full photogrammetric 3D model of the entire wreck. The ship's ROV, fitted with high-definition video and stills cameras, undertook a comprehensive, non-invasive inspection of the submarine, revealing new information.

In April 2018, an expedition was conducted using the Research Vessel RV Petrel to perform a detailed Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) survey of the wreck of HMAS AE1. On 21 December 2017 the Australian Government formally announced that the exact location of the wreck would not be publicly disclosed. In December 2017 a new search, using the vessel Fugro Equator, located the wreck of AE1 in 300 metres of water off the Duke of York Island group. Until 2017 none of these had been successful. It is not known what caused AE1 to disappear without trace, and the first of several new searches was conducted in 1976 to establish her location. The loss of AE1 with her entire complement of three officers and 32 sailors was the RAN’s first major tragedy and it marred an otherwise successful operation to seize the German colonies in New Guinea and the South Pacific. The last known image of AE1, 9 September 1914, with HMA Ships Yarra and Australia in the background.

No trace of AE1 was found, not even the tell-tale shimmer of escaping oil floating on the surface of the water. The light cruiser HMAS Sydney, on her way to the west coast, also received instructions to keep a lookout and later HMA Ships Encounter and Warrego also joined the search together with launches from Rabaul and Herbertshohe. Consequently Parramatta proceeded to the north-west and rounded Duke of York Island before heading to Credner Island, later anchoring off Herbertshohe at 7:00pm.īy 8:00pm the submarine had not returned and Parramatta and her sister ship HMAS Yarra were ordered to search for the submarine. No sign of AE1 was found and it was considered that she must have steamed back to harbour without informing Parramatta. At 3:20 the submarine was lost sight of and Parramatta altered course and steamed in the direction she was last seen. Given these conditions, Parramatta’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant William Warren, RAN, considered it advisable not to lose sight of the submarine for too long.Īt 12:30 Parramatta turned to the north west and by 2:30 she was close to AE1 when the submarine asked by signal: ‘What is the distance of visibility?’ Parramatta responded: ‘About 5 miles’.

Parramatta reported that AE1 was obscured by the haze for some time, as was the nearest land. The weather was hazy and visibility was observed to be between 9 and 10 nautical miles, at times decreasing to 5 miles. Parramatta then proceeded independently in a southerly direction while AE1 advanced in a north-easterly direction. HMA Submarine AE1 on patrol in waters off New Britain. A further exchange of signals followed during which Parramatta advised AE1 that her “orders were to search to the south’ard with submarine and anchor off Herbertshohe at 5:30pm.” The two vessels met off Herbertshohe at 8:00am and exchanged signals before proceeding to Cape Gazelle where they arrived at approximately 9:00am. The following day, at 7:00am the destroyer HMAS Parramatta left her night patrol ground off Raluana Point and proceeded at slow speed in the direction of Cape Gazelle to rendezvous with AE1 and conduct a patrol in St George’s Channel to the south and east of the Duke of York Islands. With AE2, she took part in the operations leading to the occupation of German New Guinea, including the surrender of Rabaul on 13 September 1914. Although the submarines remained surfaced for almost all of the delivery voyage it was at the time the longest transit distance ever traveled by a submarine.Īt the outbreak of World War I, AE1 joined the naval forces assigned to the capture of the German Pacific colonies.

(Tony Todd collection)Īccompanied by her sister AE2, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Henry Stoker, RN, AE1 departed England in March 1914, transited the Suez Canal, and reached Sydney on. The inscription commemorating the launch of the RAN's first submarines.

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