HMAS Encounter ( 1902 ) HMAS " Encounter " was a second - class protected cruiser of the " Challenger " class operated by the Royal Navy ( RN ) and Royal Australian Navy ( RAN ) . She was built by HM Dockyard Devonport and completed at the end of 1905 . " Encounter " spent the first six years of her career operating with the RN ' s Australia Squadron , before being transferred to the newly formed RAN . During World War I , the cruiser became the first ship of the RAN to fire in anger when she bombarded Toma Ridge . " Encounter " operated in the New Guinea , Fiji - Samoa , and Malaya areas until 1916 , when she returned to Australian waters . The ship spent the rest of the war patrolling and escorting convoys around Australia and into the Indian Ocean . In 1919 , " Encounter " was sent to evacuate the Administrator of the Northern Territory and his family following the Darwin Rebellion . " Encounter " was paid off into reserve in 1920 , but saw further use as a depot ship until being completely decommissioned in 1929 . In 1932 , the cruiser was scuttled off Sydney . Design and construction . " Challenger " class vessels had a standard displacement of 5 , 880 tons , a length of overall and between perpendiculars , a beam of , and a draught of . The cruisers were propelled by a Keyham 4 - cylinder triple expansion steam engine , which provided 12 , 500 horsepower to two propeller shafts , allowing her to reach speeds just over . Her economical cruising speed was , which allowed the ship to travel before exhausing her 1 , 314 tons of coal . In British service , the ship ' s company stood at 450 , but while operated by the RAN , this was reduced to 29 officers and 269 sailors . As completed , the ship ' s armament consisted of eleven BL 6 - inch Mk VII naval gun s , nine QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun s , six 3 - pounder guns , three machine guns , and two 18 - inch ( 450 - mm ) torpedo tubes mounted broadside . By the 1920s , the 6 - inch and 12 - pounder guns had been reduced to three and four respectively , although a 12 - pounder field gun was added to the ship ' s arsenal . A single QF 3 pounder Hotchkiss gun replaced the six 3 - pounders , while the original three machine guns were supplanded by four Maxim gun s and two Lewis gun s . " Encounter " was laid down for the RN by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth on 28 January 1901 . The ship was launched on 18 June 1902 , commissioned into the RN on 21 November 1905 , and completed on 16 December 1905 . Operational history . From April 1906 to June 1912 , " Encounter " served as part of the RN Australia Squadron . On 1 July 1912 , the ship was commissioned into the RAN on loan , for use until was completed . Assigned to the Pacific Station during 1914 – 15 , " Encounter " was part of the force which occupied German New Guinea . In the course of these operations she captured the steamer " Zambezi " on 12 August and , on 14 September , bombarded Toma Ridge to support the Australian Military and Naval Expeditionary Force ; this action made her the first RAN ship to fire in anger . She covered the landing at Madang on 24 December . While patrolling the Fiji - Samoa area she captured the German sailing vessel " Elfriede " on 25 April 1915 . The cruiser operated in the Malay archipelago during 1915 , but was recalled to Australian waters on 11 February 1916 , as all other RAN ships had been deployed elsewhere . In July 1916 , during a visit by to an unnamed island off the coast of Western Australia , two bronze cannons were discovered by " Encounter " officers Commander C . W . Stevens and Surgeon Lieutenant W . Roberts . The latter described : Since these guns were erroneously thought to be carronades , the place was named " Carronade Island " . On 12 January 1917 , " Encounter " was ordered to New Zealand , where she met a convoy of Australian and New Zealand troopships . The cruiser remained with the convoy until a rendezvous point in the Indian Ocean , where responsibility was handed over to ships of the East Indies Station . In August , the cruiser assisted in the search for the missing merchantman SS " Metung " ; it was not known until 1918 that she had been a victim of the German raider " Wolf " . From December 1917 until April 1918 , " Encounter " underwent refit in Sydney , then returned to Western Australia . The ship travelled between Fremantle and Sydney several times before the end of the war . The cruiser ' s wartime activities were later recognised with the battle honour " Rabaul 1914 " . In early 1919 , " Encounter " was sent to Darwin to protect Administrator John Gilruth , following the Darwin Rebellion . Gilruth and his family boarded her on 20 February 1919 and were taken to Melbourne . Decommissioning and fate . " Encounter " paid off into reserve on 30 September 1920 . She was assigned to the naval base at Garden Island as a depot ship in May 1923 , and was renamed HMAS " Penguin " . The ship was decommissioned on 15 August 1929 . She was scuttled on 14 September 1932 off Sydney . " Encounter " lies at a depth of around and is dived regularly . References .