Since 1999 naval historian Captain Peter Hore (ret) has been researching one of Australia’s most intriguing mysteries, the disappearance of the HMAS Sydney.

He will be talking about his research in a public lecture at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra on Friday evening, 27 July. The lecture has attracted major attention and is now fully booked.

The loss of HMAS Sydney, with its crew of 645 men, remains Australia’s worst naval loss. The ship went missing on 19 November 1941 following a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran off the coast of Western Australia.

For 12 days the government maintained wartime secrecy and delayed announcing the loss, fuelling public speculation of a cover up.

The German ship was also lost but most of its crew were rescued. The Kormoran’s commanding officer Theodor Detmers recorded his account of the battle in an encoded message destined for Berlin. But it was intercepted by Australian military intelligence and a copy of the message is now held in the National Archives and can be seen online.

The disappearance of HMAS Sydney has remained a source of great public interest and the search for the wreck continues.

In the course of Captain Hore’s research in Australia, Britain, Chile and Germany, he has made important, new discoveries about the German accounts of the battle between HMAS Sydney and the Kormoran. He has read and deciphered Commander Detmers’ hidden account – which was secreted in a dictionary.

Captain Peter Hore retired from the Royal Navy in 2000, having served worldwide as a supply officer, mainly in frigates and destroyers, including exchange service in the United States Navy and two tours of duty in NATO’s Standing Naval Force Atlantic.

His last appointment in uniform was as Head of Defence Studies, when he was responsible for researching defence doctrine and operational concepts and for facilitating the exchange of views between the defence-academic community and the UK Ministry of Defence’s central and naval staffs.

Peter Hore is the editor or author of several articles and books including: Sea Power Ashore: 200 Years of Extraordinary Royal Navy Operations (2001); HMAS Sydney II: The Cruiser and the Controversy (2001); and Habit of Victory (2005) which tells the story of the Royal Navy from 1545 to 1945 from the archives of the National Maritime Museum.