HMAS Nereus
HMAS Nereus (19) was a channel patrol boat operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during the Second World War. She was one of thirteen similar vessels, known to Sydneysiders as the 'Hollywood Fleet'.[1]
 HMAS Nereus on Sydney Harbour | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Australia | |
| Name: | Nereus |
| Builder: | Lars Halvorsen and Sons, Neutral Bay |
| Launched: | 1939 |
| History | |
 | |
| Name: | HMAS Nereus |
| Fate: | Destroyed by fire in 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length: | 66 feet (20 m) |
| Armament: | 1 .303 Vickers MG, 4 Depth charges |
Prior to the War, she was a private vessel built by Lars Halvorsen & Sons and launched in 1939.[1]
She was requisitioned and later commissioned by the RAN on 30 December 1941 under the command of Second Lieutenant E B Beeham RANVR. Nereus was armed with .303 Vickers machine guns fore and aft and depth charge racks on the stern.[1]
Nereus played no role in the Battle of Sydney Harbour (often referred to as the Attack on Sydney Harbour) and her whereabouts at the time has not been established. However, Muirhead-Gould’s (commander of Sydney Harbour) 22 June Report, includes that on the night after the Battle, Nereus attacked and claimed to have sunk a submarine in Vaucluse Bay. At the time of his report, Muirhead-Gould believed the claim was genuine, but later considered the report to be a false sighting.[1]
Fate
On 2 July 1942, just over a month after the Battle of Sydney Harbour, HMAS Nereus was destroyed by fire. At the time, she had just relieved HMAS Yarroma at the buoy in Obelisk Bay, Sydney Harbour.[1]
References
- Blunt, William; Lolita and the Hollywood Fleet, First Edition, May 2020. ISBN 978 0 6488420 0 2
- Cassells, Vic; For those in peril: a comprehensive listing of the ships and men of the Royal Australian Navy who have paid the supreme sacrifice in the wars of the twentieth century, Kenthurst, Kangaroo Press, 1995