HMAS #74: WILLIAM CRESWELL Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

Smittengranny: As I have said for previous caches, I am archiving these caches as they disappear.

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Hidden : 6/14/2014
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:


Information about this Series

The HMAS cache series has been created by Cankid and Delta Response Team to celebrate the 2013 fleet review and this is 74 of 101 caches. The series features 53 ships, 11 bases, 20 knighted seamen, 5 engagements and 1 cache about the RAN. There are also 9 puzzles for each section of the series, with one final cache. There is also one extra for the enthusiasts out there. The series can be done in a day and is best done in order. The best mode of transport in doing this series is bike.

The Location

The series is located just off Coppins Crossing road and continues through an area quite close to the arboretum. Park at the parking coordinates as provided in the first cache and continue from there. Please show caution and do not obscure the gate. This series will take almost all day so plan ahead, take water and snacks for the trip. As said previously, it is best done by bike. Most of the caches are on fire trails but there are some where you will have to go off track to find them.

This cache



Sir William Rooke Creswell (1852-1933) was born on 20 July 1852 at Gibraltar, son of Edmund Creswell, the colony's deputy-postmaster-general, and his wife Margaret Mary Ward, née Fraser. Educated at Aitken's Private School, Gibraltar, and Eastman's Naval Academy, Southsea, England, he entered the Royal Navy's training ship Britannia as a cadet in December 1865. Promoted midshipman in May 1867 he joined HMS Phoebe; two of his four years on it were spent on a world training cruise, including Australia late in 1869.

Creswell’s next posting was to HMS Minotaur, flagship of the Channel Fleet. He was promoted sub-lieutenant in 1871 and later transferred to HMS Thalia on the China Station. He also served in the gunboat HMS Midge and on 16 September 1873, during a skirmish with pirates on the Malay coast, was shot in the hip. However, he remained at his post and for his gallantry was specially promoted lieutenant. Invalided home, upon recovery he studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. His next sea-going appointments were aboard HM Ships Topaze, Undaunted (flagship of the East Indian Station) and London, at Zanzibar, East Africa where the navy was suppressing the slave-trade. Creswell became an interpreter in Swahili and commanded a flotilla until fever invalided him.

On resuming duty in April 1878 Creswell under took a torpedo course aboard HMS Vernon before taking command of the training ship HMS Lion. He retired from the RN on 6 September 1878 and the following year migrated to Australia with his brother, Charles, hoping to become a pastoralist. In 1885 while visiting Adelaide, he met an old shipmate, Commander John Walcot, naval commandant of the South Australian Defence Forces, who offered him an appointment as a lieutenant-commander. Creswell took up duty on 12 October as first lieutenant of HMCS Protector and became an advocate for adequate Australian naval forces to supplement the RN squadron based at Sydney. On 29 December 1888 he married Adelaide Elizabeth Stow.

Five years later, in the rank of commander, he succeeded Walcot as naval commandant. He was promoted captain in June 1895 and appointed CMG in 1897. In 1899, at a conference of Australian naval officers in Melbourne, he recommended the raising of an Australian navy.

Creswell was appointed commandant of the Queensland Naval Forces on 1 May 1900 before commanding Protector in Chinese waters on the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion. Upon Federation, Creswell recommended that Australia gadually establish her own naval defence. However, the Colonial Conference of 1902 resulted in a naval agreement which provided for a financial subsidy and the acceptance of Australians for service as sailors (but not officers) in Royal Navy ships on the Australian Station.

Creswell was being looked upon as the nation's chief spokesman on naval matters and, on 25 February 1904, the government appointed him to a newly created position of Naval Officer Commanding the Commonwealth Naval Forces (CNF). This was additional to his duties as naval commandant in Queensland and, after 20 October 1904, in Victoria. In December he became Director of Naval Forces, pending a board of administration, and in January 1905 he was made a member of the Council of Defence and of the Australian Navy Board, while remaining navy commandant in Victoria. Creswell was a persistent advocate for new ships and increased manpower for the CNF. He found support in both the Deakin and Fisher Governments but none in the Admiralty. In February 1909 the Fisher government decided to press ahead and order three destroyers.

The 1909 Imperial Defence Conference, alarmed by the rapid increase of German naval power, recommended the acquisition of one battle cruiser, three unarmoured cruisers, six destroyers and three submarines. The proposal came from the Admiralty which now acknowledged Australia's needs in the existing international situation. The order for construction of the new vessels was placed soon after.

Having been an advocate for a navy Creswell now found himself administering one. He was promoted rear admiral and became First Naval Member of the Australian Naval Board on 1 March 1911. He was appointed KCMG in June. On 10 July King George V granted the title of 'Royal Australian Navy' to the Permanent Commonwealth Naval Forces.

The Australian Fleet Unit assembled in Sydney on 4 October 1913 and Admiralty control of the Australian Station ceased. That the Australian ships were ready for active service when war began in August 1914 was in large part due to Creswell’s efforts; and not only did Australia have a fleet, it was the strongest British naval force in the Pacific, it effectively deterred the squadron of German cruisers in the Pacific, and an Australian ship, HMAS Sydney, destroyed the German raider, SMS Emden.

Creswell was active in formulating a post-war defence programme based on lessons of the war, reaffirming the importance of continued development of the Royal Australian Navy and not a return to reliance on one great Imperial navy. He was appointed KBE in 1919 and relinquished office on 14 August that year before formally transferring to the retired list on 27 November. He was promoted vice admiral in September 1922. In retirement he engaged in farming at Silvan, near Melbourne, and kept up his interest in public affairs. Survived by his wife and three of their six children (two sons had been killed in action) he died on 22 April 1933 after a bout of pneumonia.

Regarded today as the 'Father of the Royal Australian Navy', the home of the Royal Australian Naval College, HMAS Creswell, is named in his honour.

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