Captain Lt Cdr Besant
Crew  Cyril Lefroy Baker, 1268
Crew  Ernest Fleming BLAKE, 7876
Crew  John James BRAY, 1604
Crew  Gordon Clarence CORBOULD, 7297
Crew  James Alexander FETTES, 7290
Crew  Arthur H FISHER, 8191
Crew  Richard B HOLT, 8266
Crew  Jack JARMAN, 1138
Crew  John Joseph MALONEY, 7299
Crew  John MESSENGER, 7291
Crew  John REARDON, 7474
Crew  Robert SMAIL, 1068
Crew  James Benjamin THOMAS, 8111
Crew  William A WADDILOVE, 7300
Crew  Percy L WILSON, 7182
Crew  Charles F WRIGHT, 7395

Ship History
The AE1 was commissioned at Portsmouth, England on February 28, 1914 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Thomas F Besant, RN. Both the AE1 and her sister ship, HMAS AE2, reached Sydney on May 24, 1914 operated by a mixed crew of Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy personnel.

World War I
At the outbreak of the First World War, the AE1 joined Australian naval forces assigned to capture German colonies throughout the Pacific. The AE1, alongside the AE2, took part in operations leading to the occupation of German New Guinea, including the surrender of Rabaul on September 13, 1914.

Sinking History
On September 14, 1914, the AE1 and HMAS Parramatta departed Blanche Bay to patrol off Cape Gazelle. AE1 did not return. Last seen at approximately 3:30pm. Parramatta, Yarra, Encounter and Warrego all searched for AE1, but found nothing.

Shipwreck
The submarine has never been located.

The Maritime Museum of Western Australia, sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, launched an unsuccessful attempt to locate the submarine in November 2003. The search area was concentrated to the south-east of the Duke of York Islands.

In February 2007, a new effort to locate the submarine was mounted by the RAN, when the survey ships Benalla and Shepparton attempted to locate the submarine off East New Britain, based on data compiled over the previous 30 years. ] Benalla located an object of the appropriate dimensions using sonar on 1 March, that was reported prematurely as "Missing WWI sub may have been found" in the The Sydney Morning Herald. Later identification conducted by HMAS Yarra confirmed though that this object is a rock with the same approximate dimensions.

References
AE1 Entombed: But Not Forgotten by John Foster
The Sydney Morning Herald "Missing WWI sub may have been found" March 1, 2007

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009