History of Botany Bay Division

The division was set up about the same time as the patrol started - see RVCP home page - to cover the general Botany Bay area and from Bondi to Port Hacking and seawards.

List of Divisional Commanders

2004  Michael Brogan

2001-2004 Graham Martin

1999-2001 Bill Keleher

1996-1999 Martin Borg

1995-1996 John Sivyer

1991-1995 John Bell

1986 -1991 Jack Hawkins

19?? - 1986 Phil Lee

19?? - Bert Fraser

19?? - Bert Carrol

Botany Bay Lifeboat

44-003 Originally named "Khami" and came from UK RNLI built 1967and was stationed at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston, England.

Arrived in Australia 10 November 1999 Transported by P&O Nedlloyd at no cost to our Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol. Renamed "P&O Nedlloyd Stratheden".

The original P & O "Stratheden".

(Information provided by Dimitri Mentis from : "20th century Passenger ships of P&O"- Author: Neil McCart).

Stratheden was the first of two sister ships built by P&O (the other was the Strathallan). She was named after the valley of the river Eden in Fifeshire.

Both ships were capable of carrying 530 1st class passengers and 450 tourist class and the single reduction geared turbines were capable of 20 knots. Crew was approximately 560.

When Stratheden was launched, it turned out that an Aberdeen trawler already owned the name, and after some difficult (and probably costly) negotiations the trawler owner was persuaded to rename his boat to 'Earnmore'. She was launched on June 10 1937, and the ceremony included speeches wishing peace between Germany and Britain in the uneasy build up to WWII.

Her maiden voyage began Christmas Eve 1937 with a destination of Brisbane and she did not arrive back to England until April 1938. Subsequent voyages included Bombay, Tangiers, Gibraltar and Suez, some UK cruising, fjords (presumably Scandinavia), Madeira, Casablanca, Malta, Athens and Australia.

In 1940 she was requisitioned for war which included carrying Australians to the Middle East. She was modified to include anti-aircraft guns and was used in Operation Torch. In some cases she served with the sister ship Strathallan. During the war, she carried Australian, British and NZ troops, over half a million miles, and carried 150,000 troops overall.

In 1947, she was reconditioned again, and resumed cruises. The Greeks are eternally grateful for two SOS calls she attended. The first was on a voyage near Italy, where, during a gale, she assisted the sinking trawler 'Iason' on March 11 1955. Within minutes of arriving, a life boat was dispatched, but on the return trip, it was overturned by rough seas and 8 Stratheden crew and 13 of the Greek Ships crew perished (4 Greeks survived). A second life boat recovered the survivors. This gallant attempt raised many tributes from the Greek Government.

The second rescue occurred near Madeira on Dec 23 1963, where she went to the aid of a Greek Liner 'Laconia'. She was not the first rescue ship there, but her excellently equipped hospital was instrumental in saving many lives.

Finally a Greek businessman John S. Latsis bought her in 1964, and finally she was scrapped in 1969 for 1 million pounds.

In total, Stratheden did 55 round trips of Britain and Australia.