See main article: Arabis-class sloop. Geranium was one of 56 Arabis-class sloops built for the Royal Navy during World War I. The sloops-of-war were intended for minesweeping duties in European waters.
Geranium had a displacement of 1,250 tons. She was 267feet in length overall, had a beam of 33feet, and a maximum draught of 11feet.[1] The propulsion system consisted of a four-cylinder triple expansion engine, connected to a single propeller shaft.[1] Maximum speed was, and the ship could achieve a range of at .[1] Up to 250 tons of coal could be carried.[2]
Geranium was laid down for the Royal Navy by the Greenock & Grangemouth Dockyard Company, Greenock, Scotland, in August 1915 and launched on 8 November 1915.[3] She was delivered to the Royal Navy on 18 March 1916.[4]
Geranium joined the Mediterranean Fleet after commissioning, being based at Malta.[5]
After World War I, Geranium and two sister ships (and) were sent to Australia to clear mines deployed by the German auxiliary cruiser .[6] Despite hard work in rough seas, the ships only found one mine.[6]
Geranium and the other two ships were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy on 18 October 1919.[6] The ships' minesweeper design made them suitable for handling survey equipment,[6] and Geranium entered RAN service as the navy's first survey ship.[7] The ship was poorly designed for survey duties in tropical Australian waters: she was designed for the North Sea climate, and was required to carry a ship's company of 113, 36 more than the intended ship's company of 77.[6] In 1923, the sloop ran aground on an uncharted reef off Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.[8] The ship's company were able to refloat the ship and patch the damage, and after repairs in Sydney, the ship resumed northern survey operations.[9] In October, Geranium rescued the civilian steamship Montoro after she struck Young Reef.[9]
In early 1924, the ship ran aground again in the MacArthur River.[9] The ship was refloated and repaired.[9] Later that year, Geranium was fitted to carry a Fairey IIID seaplane: the first RAN survey vessel to carry an aircraft.[10] In May 1927, the survey ship assisted the steamship Tasman, which had hit a reef off Clarke Island.[10]
Geranium paid off in 1927.[7] The ship was broken up for scrap at Cockatoo Island Dockyard during 1932, and the stripped hulk was sunk as a target in the Tasman Sea outside Sydney Heads on 24 April 1935.[10] [11]