Adele as a private yacht, around 1939.
After serving as a tender to the RAN College, Jervis Bay, Franklin was sold out of service on 18 September 1922. In June 1924 it was transferred to the Administration of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea where it was subsequently employed as a government yacht until 1932 when, for reasons of economy, it was laid up at Rabaul (New Britain). Franklin was then sold on 7 December 1932 to Mr WL Buckland of Melbourne for £826, who refitted it as a private yacht for ocean cruising. Later it was on-sold to Mr C H Relph of Sydney and was for some years was moored in Rose Bay, Port Jackson.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the vessel was again requisitioned by the RAN and commissioned as the examination vessel HMAS Adele on 24 October 1939, under the command of Temporary Lieutenant Philip J Sullivan RANR(S). In that capacity it saw service in Darwin during late 1939 before being relocated to Sydney in mid-1942. On the night of 8 June 1942 Adele sighted gunfire flashes south-east of Port Jackson which turned out to be the Japanese submarine I-24 shelling Sydney.
