The Royal Australian Navy’s first submarines - HMAS AE1 and HMAS AE2 were E class VESSELS built by Vickers Ltd at the Naval Construction Works, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England. Launched from these yards on the 22nd May 1913, both submarines were commissioned at Portsmouth on 28th February 1914. With AE1 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Thomas Fleming Besant, RN, and AE2 under Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker, RN - the vessels manned by a composite crew of 35 British and Australian sailors. The two sister submarines joined the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force assigned to capture the German colonies of New Guinea. Both took part in the capture and eventual surrender of Rabaul on 13th September 1914 - with AE2 also being involved in the general surrender of the New Guinea territories on 22nd September 1914. On the 14th September 1914 AE1 departed Rabaul to patrol off Cape Gazelle accompanied by HMAS Parramatta. Last communication with AE1 was at 2:30pm and at 3:20pm the submarine was sighted by HMAS Parramatta to the south west of Duke of York Island - apparently on her way back into harbour. By 8pm that evening the AE1 had not returned, and so HMAS Parramatta, HMAS Yarra, HMAS Encounter and HMAS Warrego launched a search. After 3 days the search was called off, without even the tell-tale shimmer of escaping oil on the water ever being found. AE1 had completely vanished. The first vessel of the fledging Australian Fleet to be lost, and the first allied submarine loss of WWI, the loss of AE1 was a dreadful blow for the Australian Navy - depriving it of 35 brave men - which at the time was half its submarine force It wasn’t until some 100 years later that the remains of AE1 were finally discovered more than 300 metres below the surface by the survey ship Fugro Equator in December 2017 off the coast of Duke of York Islands and the mystery of its disappearance was somewhat solved. Using high-resolution imagery of the well-preserved wreckage the tragedy seemed to be the result of a critical ventilation value in the hull being left partially open prior to diving - allowing water to flood the engine. At a certain depth, this would have resulted in the forward pressure hull to implode killing the unfortunate crew instantly. On the 21st December 2017 the Australian government formally announced that the exact location of the wreck would not be publicly disclosed and that it would be treated as a war grave. After its service in the Pacific came to an end AW2 was moved to the Mediterranean, where it arrived in Suez, Egypt on 28th January 1915 – joining a Royal Navy squadron based on the Island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea. From here AE2 operated patrols in support of the impending Dardanelles campaign. It was during this mission that the AE2 became the first Allied submarine to successfully pierce the seemingly impenetrable Dardanelles Strait and enter the Sea of Marmara – with orders to “run amok” inside Turkish territory. After 5 days of operation from 25th April the news of the AE2’s successes were spreading to the soldiers ashore and improved moral, as well as encourage other Allied vessels to enter the Dardanelles. On the 30th April 1915 AE2’s encounter with the torpedo boat Sultanhisar saw her suffer damage that forced her to surface and surrender. Scuttled by its crew to keep the submarine out of enemy hands, all were captured and spent the next 3.5 years in a Turkish prison camp – four dying in captivity and the rest being released following the Armistice in 1918. The achievements of the AE2 showed others that the task at hand was possible – and in the months that followed Turkish shipping lines and communications were so badly disrupted, enemy supplies and reinforcements were forced to take other land routes. The sister submarines AE1 and AE2 were the total Australian Royal Naval operational losses in WWI and memorial sites were erected to remember the sacrifice and courage made by those who served on board including a stained-glass window added to the Naval chapel at Garden Island in Sydney in 1933. The Bradford Mint is proud to honour the courage and commitment of those who selflessly served and sacrificed aboard Australia’s sister submarines, with this exquisitely crafted Silver Commemorative Two-Coin Set dedicated to HMAS AE1 and AE2.