HMAS

Hiawatha

With much of the Royal Australian Navy fleet deployed to foreign waters in the early years of World War II, the defence of Australia’s coastlines became a primary concern for the Naval Board. The Naval Auxiliary Patrol (NAP) was a war-raised unit approved on 25 June 1941, charged with patrolling and safeguarding Australia's inner harbours, ports, rivers and estuaries against enemy sabotage or attack. The NAP fleet was comprised primarily of former pleasure craft, offered freely by their owners.

In May 1942, the NAP was transferred to the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (RANVR) and was thereafter known as the RANVR NAP. By October 1942 the total strength of the NAP had increased to over 3000 mobilised and unmobilised reserves. This was to remain the case until early 1944 when it was considered that the danger of enemy attack was remote enough to reduce the strength of the NAP to a minimum. https://seapower.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/naval-auxiliary-patrol.

Hiawatha was a 50 foot Motor Launch that served as a Naval Auxiliary Patrol vessel and Channel Patrol Boat. The boat was requisitioned for naval service on 15 May 1941, before being commissioned into the RAN on 3 July 1941. HMAS Hiawatha was purchased by the Australian Government on 15 May 1942. em>Hiawatha was decommissioned and sold on 17 December 1945.

HMAS Hiawatha first appeared in the October 1941 edition of the Navy List: https://seapower.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Navy_List-October-1941.pdf

Reports of Proceedings submitted by the Commanding Officer of HMAS Hiawatha can be found at: https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1420945. (AWM collection)