Ships
- HMAS Vendetta (D69) In temporary command from 31 March 1943
David Logan was born in Glasgow on 14 February 1911. He joined the Royal Australian Navy as a cadet on 2 February 1927, was rated midshipman on 1 May 1930, and then advanced through the junior ranks: acting sub-lieutenant on 1 September 1932, sub-lieutenant on 16 April 1933, and lieutenant on 16 October 1935. On 18 October 1937 he transferred to the Emergency List, still a lieutenant. That was the status in which he held his wartime commands.
From 29 May to 19 July 1941 he commanded the sloop HMAS Warrego. The appointment ran seven weeks. His next seagoing command came in 1943, on the bridge of a destroyer working the Queensland and New Guinea routes.
HMAS Vendetta was an Admiralty V and W class destroyer, launched by Fairfield at Govan in 1917 and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1933. She began the Second World War under Glen Loftus Cant, who had recommissioned her in September 1938, and went overseas with the old Australian destroyer flotilla. After the Mediterranean campaign she spent much of 1942 refitting, and late that year she returned to service recast as an escort with a heavier anti-aircraft armament. By early 1943 she was escorting ships between Queensland and New Guinea. C. J. Stephenson had her when that work was under way.
On 31 March 1943 Lieutenant Logan took temporary command of Vendetta. The same day convoy TN 64 left Townsville with the transports Duntroon and Wanaka, sailing at first with no escort. Vendetta joined near Cairns on 1 April and brought the convoy into Port Moresby on 3 April. Through April she made four escort voyages to Port Moresby and Milne Bay. Japanese submarines sank merchant ships on the eastern seaboard during those weeks. Vendetta completed her own passages clear of contact.
In May 1943 the destroyer shifted to the coastal convoy run between Brisbane and Townsville. The temporary command ended on 18 May 1943, when John Plunkett-Cole assumed command of Vendetta.
Logan was promoted lieutenant commander on the Emergency List on 16 October 1943. On 2 April 1944 he took command of HMAS Latrobe, a Bathurst-class minesweeper, and remained in her until 24 December 1944. On 25 December he assumed command of HMAS Lithgow, another ship of the same class, and commanded her until 21 March 1945. He retired on 14 February 1971.