French Navy visit 1923

Shortly after 8 o'clock in the morning on 5 January 1923, the French battle cruisers JULES MICHELET and VICTOR HUGO arrived in Sydney Harbour and fired a salute of 21 guns. The cruisers passed HMAS MELBOURNE at Bradleys Head before anchoring in Neutral Bay. Contre-Amiral (Rear Admiral) F L Gilly was in command of the visiting French squadron. In command of VICTOR HUGO was Captain Lequerre and in command of JULES MICHELET was Captain Favereau.

At 10 o'clock, Commodore A P Addison of the Royal Australian Navy paid an official visit to the flagship, JULES MICHELET, which was followed by more visits from Commodore Edwards of Garden Island Naval Establishment and the officers from Victoria Barracks. A luncheon in honour of the French squadron was then hosted at Parliament House in Macquarie Street, with the NSW Governor, Sir Walter Davidson, and the NSW Premier, Sir George Fuller, in attendance.

In the lead up to the Sydney visit, the squadron also visited ports in Fremantle and Melbourne. As their time in Sydney drew to a close, the two vessels parted ways and VICTOR HUGO continued on to South Australia, while JULES MICHELET recommenced their round-the-world goodwill tour on to New Zealand. At the time, they were the two largest French warships to sail in Australian waters.