HMAS Kuttabul

The ferry Kuttabul was built for Sydney Ferries Ltd at the Walsh Island Shipyard in Newcastle, NSW, in 1922. On entering service, it ran the Circular Quay-Milsons Point run on Sydney Harbour.

On 7 November 1940 Kuttabul was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy as a depot ship to the naval base at Garden Island, at that time known as HMAS Penguin. It later commissioned as HMAS Kuttabul on 26 February 1941 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alan Lewis RAN. In its role as a depot ship Kuttabul was used primarily as an accommodation ship for ratings posted to Penguin. It soon became a familiar sight moored against the sea wall along the east side of Garden Island.

On the night of 31 May 1942 3 Japanese miniature submarines launched an attack on Sydney Harbour. At around 12.30 am on 1 June, the submarine M-24, crewed by Sub Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and Petty Officer Mamoru Ashibe, fired one of its torpedos at the American heavy cruiser, USS Chicago, but missed its intended target. The torpedo struck the seabed underneath Kuttabul sinking the vessel with the loss of 21 lives.

It took several days to recover and account for the 21 ratings that were killed in Kuttabul. On 3 June 1942 Rear Admiral GC Muirhead-Gould DSC, Flag Officer-in-Charge Sydney and over 200 Navy personnel attended a burial service conducted with naval honours for those killed in Kuttabul. On 1 January 1943, the naval depot at Garden Island was commissioned as HMAS Kuttabul to further perpetuate the memory of the 21 men killed during the attack. The name Penguin was subsequently passed on to the Balmoral Naval Depot.