HMAS Perth I, as she looked during World War II, when she was sunk by the Japanese in the Sunda Strait.

It’s popular lore that an Irishman loves his Guinness, his Colleen and the occasional fight, and it was that last minor foible that led young Nick Hudson into the Navy in the 1920s.

Nick was over from the Emerald Isle and living in London at the time and as his son Laurie, of Melbourne, explained: “He was caught in a blue and he thought it prudent to move on.

“I think it was Newcastle he went to and there he joined the Royal Navy and saw service on the China Station and in Queenstown on the South Africa Station.”

It was a long way around, but his RN service led Nick Hudson to his death in HMAS Perth at Sunda Strait in the East Indies in 1942.

“In 1928 or ’29 Dad immigrated to Australia in the old Canberra liner,” Mr Hudson told Navy News.

“He had been a Petty Officer Gunner in the RN and after he joined the RAN before the war, he ended up as a Gunnery Instructor at HMAS Flinders Naval depot.”

In World War II, Nick was posted to HMAS Perth in whom he served as a CPO Gunner.

Perth I started life as HMS Amphion, the last of three Modified Leander-class cruisers launched at Portsmouth in January 1934 and commissioned in 1936.

In just two-and-ahalf years with the RN, she steamed more than 58,000nm.

She underwent a long refit before being handed over to the RAN as HMAS Perth, tying up at the Garden Island cruiser wharf on March 31, 1940, after calls on the way at Tahiti and Fiji.

In 1940, her duties included convoy escort in Australian waters and between Colombo and Aden with the Royal Indian Navy, then she sailed through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, arriving at Alexandria on Christmas Eve.

Sailing on New Year’s Day 1941, her duties with the British battle fleet included patrols covering North Africa, Greece, Crete and Malta and escorting troop convoys.

Perth came under attack in a massive air raid on Grand Harbour in Malta in January, a 1000lb bomb falling between her and the wharf.

The huge explosion lifted the 7000 ton ship two feet out of the water, occasioning minor damage.

Perth and the British fleet were under almost continuous air and sea attack during May and on the 29th she was returning to Alexandria from Sphakia on Crete with evacuated troops when she was attacked by a lone German aircraft.

She avoided all but one late-releasing bomb which killed four sailors and seven soldiers and two marines.

It was the only direct hit Perth suffered during her seven months, and more than 250 bombing attacks, in the Mediterranean.

She returned to Australia in August for a three-month refit and left Sydney for the last time on January 31, 1942 steaming to Batavia in the then-Dutch East Indies.

“Perth called at Melbourne on her way to Indonesia and when we thought she was due to leave, our family went down to see Dad off, but she had already slipped when we arrived,” Mr Hudson, only seven at the time, said.

War against Japan was declared on February 8.

Perth joined the combined American-British-Dutch-Australian fleet to search for the Japanese invasion fleet heading for Indonesia and contact was made on February 27.

In the Battle of the Java Sea, the Allies lost HM Ships Jupiter and Encounter and the Dutch cruisers De Ruyter and Java.

In the early part of the action, Perth came under intense fire from two Japanese cruisers, but managed hits on the IJN Haguro. Perth and the USS Houston broke off the action at about 10.30pm and steamed for the port of Batavia, Tanjung Priok, from where they attempted to escape through the Sunda Strait.

Unfortunately, Allied intelligence was wrong and on February 28, the pair steamed at high speed into the path of the invasion force and its protective screen of at least 12 Japanese warships.

Both Allied cruisers were low on ammunition and fuel.

“The Quartermaster, Ray Parkin, saw what happened,” Mr Hudson said.

“Afterwards we listened to Tokyo Rose on the wireless … but his name was never mentioned as a prisoner.”

CPO Nick Hudson was only 41.

The Battle of Sunda Strait had begun at around 11pm and although both Allies scored hits on the enemy, the overwhelming force of the Japanese saw Perth go down in Banten Bay at 12.25am on the morning of March 1.

Houston lasted a mere 20 minutes longer.

The Japanese fired more than 90 torpedoes at the two, along with hundreds of tons of high-explosive shell. Of her Ship’s Company of 682, only 229 Perth men returned after the war.

Many who survived the battle lost their lives in the appalling conditions of Changi Prisoner of War camp and the Burma Railway. Nick Hudson was survived by his wife Dot.

She never remarried and died in 2002, a loving widow for 60 years.

His son Laurie studied pure mathematics and applied mathematics and served in Australian Customs until 1987, then in private industry, thoughhe has always kept a keen interest in the RAN.

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