Clydebank. H.M. Ship 'Australia'

10,000 tons of steel slides into the Clyde in the form of HMAS Australia, a ship that would serve the Australian Navy well in WWII.

The second Australian Navy cruiser to be called the HMAS Australia slides into the Clyde on 17 March 1927 with few imagining the life ahead of her. The first ship to bear the name had been the flagship of the Australian Navy in WWI, before being scrapped as part of post-war disarmament treaties. This second incarnation saw a quieter service until the outbreak of WWII, receiving 8 battle honours and almost as many kamikaze attacks. Between the time that Lady Cook, the wife of a former Australian PM, christened the HMS Australia, and her scrapping at Barrow-in-Furness in 1956, almost a million miles passed her bows.