Hand written journal of a sailor on board HMAS SYDNEY

Ship's log containing details of places visited by HMAS SYDNEY during its service in WWI including postcards, photographs and ephemera from places visited and dates and distances recorded.

It written in the hand writing of at least two people. On the cover is a faint name that appears to be I or J Breen. HMAS Sydney crew list in 1914 has a John Francis Bree, Able Seaman.

The diary covers the extensive patrolling of HMAS Sydney during WWI in the Pacific, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and North Sea. It includes a description of the battle with the German raider SMS EMDEN, and a chart of the course of the EMDEN with the HMAS SYDNEY in pursuit. It also contains photographs of the extensive damage inflicted upon the EMDEN.

Trainee RAN officers were required to keep their own unoffical ship's logs and this log may be one of these. There is a similar log, handwritten, in the Australian War Memorial collection. It has different images however. Research continues into the provenance and author of the log.