HMAS Berrima

HMAS Berrima was an Armed Merchant Cruiser which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War I.

The P&O passenger liner SS Berrima was built by Caird & Company, Greenock, and launched on 13 September 1913. In 1914 she was requisitioned for naval use, refitted and armed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard and commissioned into the RAN as the auxiliary cruiser HMAS Berrima on 17 August 1914.

Berrima left Sydney on 19 August 1914 carrying men of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, consisting of a battalion of 1,000 infantry and a small battalion of 500 Naval Reservists and time-expired Royal Navy seamen, for operations against the German New Guinea colonies. Troops were landed at Herbertshöhe and Rabaul on 11 and 12 September respectively, and on the New Guinea mainland on 24 September. The ship was retroactively awarded the battle honour "Rabaul 1914" in March 2010 to recognise these landings. Berrima subsequently returned to Sydney and, despite plans to employ her as an armed merchant cruiser, was paid off on 20 October 1914 and converted to a troop transport.

In her new role, HMATT (His Majesty's Australian Troop Transport) Berrima sailed for the Middle East in December 1914 as part of the second troop convoy, carrying Australian and New Zealand troops and towing the submarine HMAS AE2. Berrima continued to work under the liner requisition scheme until 18 February 1917, when she struck a mine in the English Channel off Portland and was beached and later repaired.

Berrima was returned to commercial service 24 March 1920, and was sold to Japanese shipbreakers in September 1939.

Champion Australian rules footballer Bob Quinn was given the middle name "Berrima" in honour of the Berrima.