A permanent commemoration of the Royal Australian Navy’s WW1 submarine, HMAS AE2 will be unveiled at the Western Australian Museum – Maritime this afternoon.

AE2 Commemorative Foundation Chairman, Rear Admiral Peter Briggs RAN (Rtd) and Perth Consul General for Turkey, Dr Cahit Yesertener were joined by the Hon Phillip Edman MLC to remember the first Allied submarine to penetrate the Dardanelles Strait.

The vessel was scuttled on April 30, 1915 after being fatally damaged in battle by the Turkish Torpedo Boat, Sultanhisa.

AE2’s wreck was found in 1998, beneath the waters of the Sea of Marmara, by the Turkish ‘wreck hunter’ Mr Selçuk Kolay OAM, in cooperation with an Australian team led by Dr Mark Spencer and Mr Tim Smith. 

Rear Admiral Briggs said that as the first boatloads of ANZAC soldiers approached Gallipoli on the dawn of 25 April 25, HMAS AE2, under fire from shore bombardment, dived into the heavily mined waters and against all odds succeeded in penetrating the Dardanelles.

AE2 escorted the second contingent of the AIF sent to the Middle East. On arrival in the Mediterranean, she was assigned to the Allied naval expeditionary force gathering off the Dardanelles.”

Under the command of LCDR Henry Stoker RN, the AE2 was ordered to try for a passage through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and attempt to block traffic between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

All previous attempts by submarines to pass through the Straits had failed and Stoker reported that as they navigated the heavily mined waters, mine wires continually scraped the AE2’s sides, she came under periodic fire and was once hit by a heavy object being dragged along the sea floor in an effort to locate her.

She eluded all attempts to put an end to her campaign until she was hit in the engine room by gunfire from Sultanhisar. No crew members were lost, but all were taken as prisoners of war. 

The AE2 Commemorative Foundation was established in 2006 to preserve and protect the wreck of the AE2 and to ensure survival of the story of her role of AE2 and her crew in the Gallipoli campaign.