M
ostlyforgottentoday,theSuper-
marine Southampton was a re-
markably successful inter-war
military aircraft. In 1927, two
wooden-hulled Mk.I Southamptons, S1158
andS1159,wereshippedtoMelbourne,Aus-
tralia,aboardtheSSFerndale,withthe
firstflightofthetwooccurringinMayand
June of 1928 respectively. At the time, they
werethelargestaircrafttheRAAFhadever
operated,andtheyhadhadanewbuilding,
theSeaplaneHangarerectedforthemon
theSouthernTarmacareaofRAAFPoint
CookbyPortPhilipBay.Initially,theyre-
tained their RAF serials but were allocated
Austral ian ser ials A11-1 (S1158) and A11-2
(S1159)andwereassignedtothenewly
formedCoastalReconnaissanceFlightat
Point Cook.
TheRAAF’slongandsuccessfuluseof
the Southampton didn’t start well, with the
firstaircraft,S1158,struckbyawindsquall
which overturned the aircraft moored on
thePortRiver,Adelaide,SA,on22June
1928.ItwastheretomeettheRAF’sFar
Eastern Flight Southamptons [to be covered
inPartTwo].AfterbeingreturnedtoPoint
Cook, the six months of repairs cost an esti-
mated £3,500. Afterwards, in 1929 and
1930,A11-1wasusedforsurveyflightsin
Tasmania, with several forestry officials
aboard. One unsurprising conclusion
reached was that “Many more rivers, head-
landsandbaysexistthanappearonthese
charts,andthosethatappearareincorrect-
lyshaped”!AfteritsfirstflightinAustralia
andupuntil1934,A11-2wasmainlyused
for RAAF publicity flights between Tasma-
niaandalongtheEasterncoastunderthe
guiseof‘recruitmentinterviews’andthe
like. These flights included the first non-
stop flight between Hobart and Sydney on
23February1929,takingsevenhoursand
forty minutes. Another one-off was when
Air Commodore Richard Williams, then the
ChiefofAirStaff,flewtheMinisterforDe-
fence, Sir William Glasgow from Sydney to
Brisbaneformeetingson15April1929.
Another of the Southamptons’ duties was
to liaise with the Royal Australian Navy
(RAN).ThiswaspartofthepricetheRAAF
paidforhavingsquashedtheRAN’sattempt
athavingitsownairarm.Inearly1934,
Squadron Leader A. E. Hempel flew A11-1 to
Metung in Gippsland, Victoria, and man-aged to locate HMASCanberraoffGaboIs-
land as part of a joint exercise, while less
than a month later Southampton A11-2 tried
to‘intercept’an‘enemy’navalforcenear
King Island. Bad weather prevented them
finding the RAN ships initially, although
theywerelocatedthefollowingday.InApril
1934 Hempel and Sergeant Spooner flew to
TwofoldBay,NSW,forNavyexerciseswith
the HMASCanberrain what proved to be a
particularly frustrating, and ultimately
abandoned, effort. The Southampton’s wire-
less was compromised by water, and during
anabortedtakeofffromTwofoldBaythe
tailplaneandstarboardpropellerwerebad-
lydamagedduetoaheavyswell.
On 7 April, after leaving Metung, Victoria
(wheresomefuelwasoffloadedtolighten
theaircraft)duetoengineproblemsthe
Southampton was forced to land almost im-
mediatelyonLakeReeve.Thoughlanded
safely,theshallowlakeeffectivelyhadit
boggedonthesoftshellyandseagrassbot-
tom, making it impossible to take off again.
It was decided to move the Southampton
overlandtoadeeperlake.Afterbeing
brought‘ashore’(nosmallfeatinitself)the
aircraftwasdismantledandtakenoverland
to Lake Wellington where it was reassem-
bledandrepaired,andfromwhereitwas
able to return to base on 15 May, over a
month after the forced landing.MAIN:One of the RAAF’s two
Southamptons being uncrated at RAAF
PointCookafterdelivery,andtothe
great interest of resident senior oicers!
[Via Maurice Austin]LEFT:Southampton S1158 (later A11-1)
afterbeingstruckbyawindsquallwhile
moored on the Port River, Adelaide, in
1928.[RAAF Museum Archive]BELOW:Unable to take of from Lake
Reeve, Southampton A11-2 was
dismantled,and(asseenhere)taken
overland to Lake Wellington from where
itwasabletoreturntobasemorethan a
month later.[RAAF Museum Archive]