 During this time the RAN also continued to carry out operations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans . By 1915 there were up to 74 German ships which had taken refuge in ports in the Netherlands East Indies . The presence of these ships close to Australia and the sea lanes that connected the nation to the United Kingdom and the Middle East was a cause of concern to the Navy and so in the middle of 1915 the cruiser HMAS Psyche and the sloop Fantome were sent to the Bay of Bengal to conduct patrol operations . Later in the year , in October , a force of three destroyers , a yacht and the cruiser Encounter were sent into the <unk> Strait to search for a German munitions base that had been reported in the area . Nothing was found , although the patrol served to interrupt German efforts to carry out subversive activities in a number of British possessions . 
