Chapter 22 – Dacre

Many details and most of the dialogue in this chapter are taken directly from Lieutenant-Commander Henry “Dacre” Stoker’s autobiographical account Straws in the Wind . Dacre Stoker was an Irishman in the Royal Navy who had volunteered to captain one of the two E-Class submarines that Australia bought from England prior to World War I. The details and dialoghe of his visit to the Australian Hotel in December 1914 are included (pp. 77-82). Stoker comments on Sydneysiders’ obsession with “their harbour” (p. 59). He notes that the original voyage from England to Sydney took 83 days (p.57). Later, Stoker makes reference to the loss of a “very great friend” on AE1 (p. 270). He describes his visit to Melbourne where he successfully negotiated with the Defence Minister, Senator Pearce, for the submarine AE2 to be offered to the British Admiralty for  the war effort (p. 76-77). He notes that near Fiji he crossed the 180th degree of longitude, having taken AE2 half way around the world (p. 72).

In Stoker’s Submarine , Fred and Elizabeth Brenchley state that the AE2 arrived in Sydney for the first time on 24 May 1914, Empire Day in Australia, to the tunes of “Rule Britannia” and “Land of Hope and Glory” (p. 24). The Brenchleys indicate that Stoker’s “very great friend” lost on AE1 was First Officer, Lieutenant Leopold Scarlett who he had served with at Gibraltar (p. 30).

In Gallipoli Voyage, Peter Plowman states that the submarine AE2 was towed out of Sydney Harbour and during the convoy by ship A35 Berrima (p. 228).

In Official History of the War, vol IX, The Royal Australian Navy , Arthur Jose includes a chapter “Capture of the German Colonies: German New Guinea” (ch 3, p. 74-99), including the loss of submarine AE1 (p. 96-97), as well as landing and occupation by garrison troops at Rabaul, removal of enemy flags and the hoisting of the Australian flag (p. 98). Correspondence formally proclaiming the re-occupation of the island of New Britain (Part of German New Guinea), dated 11 September 1914, is included as an appendix (p. 600).