Historical information
In the early 1920s Australia was gifted six J class submarines from the Royal Navy. These were the latest and largest submarines built by the RN for service in World War I. They were competent but were in service with the Royal Navy for only a short time before the end of the war. Once in Australia they were placed into service but there was little appetite for submarines or in fact any other military endeavour in the early ‘twenties’. The world was exhausted from a long and dirty war followed by a devastating Influenza Epidemic. The J class boats were soon retired and sunk as breakwaters or scuttled in the ship graveyard area off the mouth of
Port Phillip Bay.
Significance
Popular diving sites in Ships Graveyard outside the rip between Point Lonsdale and Barwon Heads
Physical description
Circular brass plaque inscribed with J5 North Sea 1917 1918 made from a piece of navigational equipment used on the submarine J5 mounted on wood
Inscriptions & markings
Submarine J5 North Sea 1917 - 1918
