Wreck of Centaur found by same team that found HMAS Sydney

The wreck of the AHS (Australian Hospital Ship) Centaur has been found by the same team, led by David Mearns, that located the wrecks of HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran

In today's Australian Andrew Fraser discusses the find and dusts off some interesting questions eg why did the Japanese submarine attack a well lit up hospital ship? Unlike the HMAS Sydney situation where several conspiracy theories had a good run before the wreck was found and filmed, the existence of survivors means that the facts (other than the position of the wreck) have never been disputed.

Whatever happens here (and I suspect the inconvenient questions will be swept under the carpet) the actual discovery is yet another feather in the cap for David mearns and his team.

HMAS Sydney report handed down

The Final Report into the loss of HMAS Sydney II has been handed down and is available online.

The Report consists of two volumes of evidence and conclusions and a third entitled "Frauds, Comspiracies and Speculations". The website also includes links to transcripts of evidence, some animated recreations of the Sydney- Kormoran action, and appendix and ships' plans. I've not yet read it all (I wonder how many people have) but the Summary looks to be a good overview of the major findings.

Media reporting has tended to focus on the degree of culpability of the Sydney's captain. From what I've read so far the Report, while acknowledging that it was not wise for the cruiser to approach so close to a ship whose identity was unconfirmed, stops short of saying that the captain was negligent.

It's a long time after the event, and many people who lost friends and relatives may be seeking closure rather than retribution. Perhaps they'll be able to draw their own conclusions from reading between the lines of what may not be (given the various matters which the Report dismisses as frauds, conspiracies and speculations) the last word on the topic but should be the most authoritative one.

...and now HMAS Sydney

The wreck of HMAS Sydney has been found , reports the ABC website.

News.com.au has further details:

The wreckage of HMAS Sydney, sunk off the West Australian coast during World War II, has been found, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today.

The ship's entire crew of 645 went down with the ship in the Indian Ocean and its location has been a mystery for 66 years.

The wreckage of a German ship - the merchant raider Kormoran - believed to have sunk the Sydney was found at the weekend in waters about 800km north of Perth.

Both sites are likely to be protected as war graves. Mr Rudd said Environment Minister Peter Garrett was in the process of issuing an interim protection declaration in relation to both ships.

"The environment minister will be issuing a full statement a bit later in the day, but I'm advised it provides immediate and early protection of the sites against any unauthorised intrusion," he said.

Mr Rudd said the Sydney was found yesterday, about 22km from the Kormoran.

"I'm advised that the HMAS Sydney was found some 12 nautical miles from the Kormoran, some eight nautical miles from the scene of the principal battle site and at a depth of some 2470 metres," Mr Rudd said.

Hull intact

Mr Rudd said the hull has been found largely intact. But Chairman of the Finding Sydney Foundation, Ted Graham, said there were no plans to raise the ships.

"For a start they're in very deep water, and secondly, from my point of view, and from the foundation's point of view they contain the remains of many people, and our view is firmly that they should be left alone," he said.

Mr Rudd said it was important to understand that the Sydney was the tomb of 645 Australian sailors and air force members.

"The good thing about Australians is we treat our war dead with respect and these war dead will be treated with complete respect.'

Closure

The Prime Minister said the Federal Government hoped the find would bring some closure for the families of the 645 sailors who went down with the ship.

He said the Australian Defence Force would be contacting family members.

"They will be using their own communications systems to make sure that the surviving family members of the crew of HMAS Sydney are informed of this discovery as soon as is practically possible."

Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, Vice Admiral Russ Shalders, said it was a very historic day.

Mystery

"For 66 years, this nation has wondered where the Sydney was and what occurred to her, we've uncovered the first part of that mystery ... the next part of the mystery, of course, is what happened.

"It will take some time to try to ascertain exactly what happened that day over 66 years ago."

Admiral Shalders said there had always been an HMAS Sydney in the Australian navy.

"It's an historic name and we've added to the history of that name over the weekend."

Standby for more information, interpretation and speculation.

Wreck of Kormoran found

Today the Prime Minister has announced that the wreck of the Kormoran has been found :

Mr Rudd says it is a promising outcome which could lead to the discovery of HMAS Sydney.

"Finding the Kormoran is one big step forward," he said.

"Of course that does not mean that the search has yet found the Sydney itself but it does play one significant step closer.

"All of us concerned about this great ship and those of us who are concerned about what happened to the 645 brave souls who went down with her, have all these years been wondering where she lay and what in the end actually happened."

University expertise used to help identify unknown sailor

Since my recent post about the search for HMAS Sydney, which was scheduled to begin off the WA coast a few days ago, I've heard nothing.

On Friday ABC TV (aka ABC1)'s Stateline SA edition reported that more advanced techniques are now being used to try to identify the unknown sailor (generally assumed to be from the Sydney) whose remains had been discovered on Christmas Island a couple of years ago. The original shortlist of three has not produced a result, so a further 13 names on the list of 118 possibles will now be investigated at Adelaide University's Ancient DNA lab. If no identification can be made then it isn't clear whether the quest will be continued.

All this comes at a time when the wreck of HMS Hunter, a Royal Navy destroyer lost in Norwegian waters in 1940, has been discovered, but not disturbed. The BBC and Norway Post websites have more details.

HMAS Sydney search resumes

In the next day or so, the long awaited search for HMAS Sydney will resume off the Western Australian coast.

ABC RN's PM had a good overview tonight, including interviews with key figures in th search. The transcript hasn't yet been posted online, but I'll link to it when it has.

Search for HMAS Sydney to "begin early next year"

In breaking news The Age and news.com.au report that an "official" search for HMAS Sydney will begin "early next year".

Both reports are similar, suggesting that they are drawn from the same media release. Here's an extract from the news.com.au one:

The HMAS Sydney Search Foundation today announced it would begin looking for the vessel in January or February with $4.2 million in federal funding, $500,000 from the WA Government and $250,000 from the New South Wales Government.

HMAS Sydney Search director Ted Graham said about 1500 sq nautical miles of water off WA's northern coast would be searched, reaching depths of 2500-4500m.

"The scale and complexity involved in such a search is significant, Mr Graham said.

"However, advances in technology, exhaustive archival research and the recent increase in government funding for the search, provide our best chance yet of success in finding HMAS Sydney II."

The search will be coordinated by shipwreck hunter David Mearns, who found two legendary WWII vessels, HMS Hood and the German battleship Bismarck.

I shall await developments with interest.

Free speech, Sydney etc

Today's Australian Media section has some good stories, including

# Reports of speeches given at a free speech conference dinner by Geoffrey Robertson and Irene Moss, with additional comments by Chris Merritt, the paper's legal writer.

# "Loose lips sink a few reputations", Tony Barrass"'s survey of the now discredited story, published on the front pages of the Saturday editions of The West Australian, The SMH and The Age
and featured on the Channel 7 News, claiming that the wreck of HMAS Sydney had been found.

The reporting of the "discovery" of the Sydney cuts to the heart of what we do and how we go about our business.

On Saturday, August 11, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The West Australian - with a combined Saturday readership of more than three million - made a cold statement of fact on their front pages. The SMH declared "We found HMAS Sydney", while The Age ran a picture of the ship next to the headline: "Back from the deep".

This "exclusive" story was written by the respected West Australian journalist Paul Murray, whose reputation as a fiery, clever editor of The West Australian during the 1990s gave the story weight and gravitas. With a long-standing copy-sharing agreement between the West and Fairfax stable in place, here was an old-fashioned scoop, a gimme for a page-one splash in the week's biggest circulating paper.

A team of amateur historians, the story said, led by father and son Phil and Graham Shepherd, and assisted by master diver Ian Stiles, had "almost certainly" found the HMAS Sydney, the West said. But there was nothing almost about the banner headline that screamed: FOUND.

On Saturday night and throughout Sunday, Kerry Stokes's Channel 7, now in constant cross-promotion as the biggest shareholder in West Australian Newspapers after recently increasing his shareholding to more than 17 per cent of the money-making machine, backed up the print claims by running "exclusive pictures" of the Sydney from a camera dropped to the murky depths off Dirk Hartog Island in WA's Shark Bay region, about 1000km north of Perth. Viewers were treated to clear underwater footage of the wreck and to any interested observer - and there were many that day - it seemed the long-lost ship had indeed been found.

The timing couldn't have been better for the Perth newspaper, which after years of meticulous planning and new $100-million presses, had picked August 11 as the launch date for its new Saturday lifestyle magazine.

Lucrative advertisers had come on board and they had a page-one splash of warship proportions to propel the new product into the circulation stratosphere.

Editorial heavies at the SMH and The Age were just as excited when they became aware of the story on Friday. The Age's defence correspondent Brendan Nicholson, who spent many years in the west, quickly punched out a backgrounder to complement the splash, while the SMH used a reverse white-on-black page one for added impact, boldly declaring: "We found HMAS Sydney".

The Australian understands SMH editor Alan Oakley and The Age's editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan agreed to pay $20,000 a piece into a syndicate organised by West editor Paul Armstrong to get first rights to the pictures coming out of Shark Bay. Like Jaspan, Armstrong cut his teeth in the high-octane Fleet Street environment and loves nothing better than a war story.

His office is decorated with a picture of war planes, while a poster of a cigar-munching Churchill toting a machine gun used to distract visitors and reporters. The Sydney yarn had it all.

With Seven, The Age, SMH and The West signed up, the kitty was up to $80,000. That money, once expenses were

taken out to send two news crews - one print, one TV - to remote Dirk Hartog, would be then donated to the SAS Trust, the parties were told.

It wasn't the only money Stokes had put into the expedition. A patriotic war buff known for his generosity - last year he paid $1 million for Alfred Shout's Victoria Cross won at Gallipoli and then handed it to the Australian War Memorial - Stokes threw in at least $50,000 so a remotely operated mini-submarine could be brought down from Singapore to help the searchers film the wreck.

The reaction of the find on the Saturday swung from disbelief to euphoria. Glenys McDonald, regarded by most as an expert on the Sydney, told Perth's Sunday Times she was staggered. Phil Shepherd, one of the searchers, had called her the day before and told her the wreck "couldn't be anything else". She warned him about going public before any find had been confirmed. That advice was ignored.

Relatives of the 645 sailors, most of them elderly, were interviewed on all television channels, and all said the same thing; they hoped the final chapter in the nation's worst maritime disaster was coming to an end.

West Australia's leading maritime archeologist Dr Mike McCarthy, along with Veteran's Affairs Minister Bruce Billson, spoke with cautious optimism when asked to comment. "If this turns out to be the Sydney then this will be an absolutely wonderful outcome," Billson gushed.

But it didn't take long before the gunwales began to fall off. To add to suspicions, the report mysteriously vanished from Fairfax and West websites.

On Sunday, as The Australian and other media organisations continued asking questions, more doubts bubbled to the surface. Dr McCarthy, having realised the find he was commenting on the previous day was in fact the same one he had ruled out on several occasions before as director of maritime archeology at the WA Museum, then raised serious doubts. He is a world leader in the field.

Salvage experts bought into the debate and agreed. And when locals told reporters that the search area off the remote island had been a dumping ground for trawlers and barges not worthy of repair, the story was in tatters.

Other simple facts should have blown ship's whistles: the Sydney was 170m long, yet this wreck was about 30m in length and just 8-9m wide. It was in just 130m of water. Every conflicting voice in the search for the Sydney - and there are many - agree on one thing; it lies in deep water, possibly 3000m or more.

On Monday, after splashing with one of the biggest stories in years, not one word on the subject appeared in the West or The Age.

The SMH carried two reports on page two, an interview with a nephew of a missing Sydney sailor and a piece from Britain's The Daily Telegraph on a survivor of the Kormoran, the ship that engaged the Sydney.

On Tuesday, the West was again silent, but the SMH ran a small piece suggesting the navy would work to "try to verify" claims the wreck was the Sydney. A small editorial suggested the find could actually be the Kormoran and acknowledged - in complete contradiction to its Saturday headline - that "it will be some time before the

find can be confirmed or discounted".

It wasn't until Wednesday - four days after the Saturday splash - that the Sydney got a mention in Perth's daily paper: in a meek interview with an old sea dog in Geraldton, 450km north of Perth, who was cranky about the "knockers" of the search team.

In WA, talkback radio was being inundated by people desperate for more information on the discovery. ABC Perth morning presenter Geoff Hutchison tracked down Graham Shepherd by satellite phone. Shepherd was angry that he had been called un-Australian by Mr Billson (he hadn't) but acknowledged that the find was "more than likely" not the Sydney.

To add to Shepherd's woes, the equipment brought down from Singapore - paid for by Stokes - was not properly working. Incessant winds and bumpy seas continued to hamper the search site, while morale among the 14 or so men - including the two news crews - crammed aboard the search vessel was sinking as each day passed.

Steaming towards them was the HMAS Leeuwin, the navy's hydrographic survey ship. Minister Billson had no option but to divert the ship from Darwin to investigate what he called a matter of national importance.

Mr Billson claimed he asked four times for the co-ordinates from Mr Shepherd during a personal phone call. The searchers refused, saying they were bound by confidentiality agreements they had signed with the media organisations.

The co-ordinates - long and lat south 25.46-359 east 112.36-736 - were given to Billson's office by The Australian, which obtained them from the Shire of Shark Bay. The council had sent The West Australian a complaining letter about their previous Saturday's coverage. That letter has yet to be published.

Not surprisingly, it took the navy's sophisticated sonar equipment a matter of hours to rule out the lump on the bottom of the Indian Ocean as the Sydney. The Leeuwin swept two other areas before heading back to normal duties.

By Friday, the biggest story out of the west in a decade was, just like the last sighting of the Sydney, down in the bow, on fire and limping into the sunset.

And Armstrong, having realised all hope of salvage was lost, began blasting away in Saturday's editorial.

Blaming the "foreign-owned Murdoch press" and the "increasingly irrelevant ABC" for the failure of the search, the editorial said it was a travesty to the memory of the 645 men who perished that the searchers had been besmirched and reviled. He attacked Billson for showing "sudden interest" in the hunt, wasting taxpayers' funds by sending the Leeuwin to Shark Bay and suggested that the "reaction of rival media organisations which missed the story when it broke was utterly predictable".

Story? What story? And why the outrage? Didn't the West expect the navy to investigate such a momentous claim? And why didn't anyone make one phone call to any maritime historian or expert - WA's rich nautical history makes it the home of some of the world's leading maritime archeologists - to verify the claim? As it transpired, almost everyone in Shark Bay knew it was a dud.

The Age and the SMH have yet to run a correction or an apology.

Armstrong refused to talk to The Australian, but he did in his own unique way at least have the gumption to tell his readers that the wreck was not that of the Sydney, albeit a week later in a editorial rant laden with hubris and arrogance.

But don't hold your breath waiting for two of the nation's most respected mastheads to do as much.

Last night, Fairfax spokesman Bruce Wolpe told Media: "The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have a longstanding copy provision agreement with The West Australian, and on the basis of that relationship, we accepted the story for publication. Both papers followed developments during the week leading to the confirmation that this was not the HMAS Sydney.

"When we are ready to report further to our readers on this story, we will."

Sydney finding claims questioned

I can't say that I'm surprised, but the media, led by The Australian (see here and here), have questioned claims that the wreck of HMAS Sydney has been found:

David Mearns, who has recovered more than 50 ships - including the British battleship HMS Hood, sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in World War II - said it seemed highly improbable the wreck off Dirk Hartog Island was the Sydney.

"I would love for this to be the Sydney but in my professional opinion it's not believable," he said.

Mr Mearns said German logbooks showed the November 19, 1941, battle between the German raider SS Kormoran and the Sydney took place 120 nautical miles west of the Gascoyne Coast, or 160 nautical miles southwest of the town of Carnarvon.

The wreck detected last week by amateur researcher Phil Shepherd and his mates - including master diver Ian Stiles, who filmed parts of the wreck with a grappling hook and an underwater camera - was just 20 nautical miles from Dirk Hartog and close to the coast.

The men would not elaborate on their find yesterday because of a confidentiality agreement with a media organisation, Mr Stiles's wife, Sharon, said.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the navy would examine the wreck to determine if it was the Sydney.

Even the Fairfax media has had to back off its euphoric, and what now appears to be spurious, claim at the weekend that the sighting was almost certainly the Sydney:

The navy will work with the Western Australian Maritime Museum to try to verify claims that HMAS Sydney has been located off the West Australian coast. The move came after the sighting of a wreck which could be the vessel that sank on November 19, 1941, with 645 aboard. An investigation was necessary, a Defence Force spokesman said, before any "positive identification of the wreck" could be confirmed. Divers claimed last week that the remains of the vessel, sunk by enemy fire, had been found near Dirk Hartog Island."This is wonderful news," Mike McCarthy, the curator of maritime archeology at the West Australian Museum, said.

"The navy will probably send a survey ship with sonar capability to investigate the wreck, which is justified because of the huge interest this discovery has created," Dr McCarthy, who is advising the navy, said.

A spokesman for Bruce Billson, the minister assisting the Minister for Defence, said the Government was waiting for a report from the team that claims to have found the ship before committing a ship to the search."They have a lawful obligation to file this report, and once the navy has verification [it] can commit a survey ship, which would probably be a minehunter with sonar capability," the spokesman said "Until then it would be irresponsible of them to prematurely raise the expectations of relatives who have been living with this mystery for more than 60 years and want closure."

Tonight's 7.30 Report summed up the current state of play well in words, though some of the accompanying video footage was grossly inaccurate: many of the warships depicted bore little resemblance to the Sydney. Can't the ABC researchers do better than this? All they need to do is to consult some of the knowledgeable people who were interviewed on the program.

HMAS Sydney search "almost certainly over"?

Today's Age print edition leads with a story "Back From The Deep" which claims "One of Australia's most tragic wartime mysteries has almost certainly been solved as divers claim to have found HMAS >Has it? The story appears on the paper's website and it has been mentioned on the Channel 7, SBS and ABC TV news tonight, though only Channels 7 and ABC TV showed the video footage which amateur divers claimed to have taken off the WA coast. You can see it on here.

Here's the story as it appears on the website. It is substantially the same (I've not checked it completely ) as the one in the print edition:

Paul Murray
August 11, 2007

THE 66-year search for the wreck of HMAS Sydney, on which 645 Australians lost their lives, is almost certainly over.

A group of West Australians using just a grappling hook and an underwater camera last weekend found what they are sure is the Sydney, which sank after a battle with the German raider Kormoran on November 19, 1941.

Video film of the discovery shows scenes of tangled wreckage over a vast expanse of deck, much longer than any other vessel known to have sunk in the area.

The search team believe a series of details clearly visible on their video — decking bolts, extensive radio aerials, steam tubes and signs of massive damage — all point to the Sydney.

The wreck is off Cape Inscription on the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island in about 150 metres of water.

Amateur researcher Phil Shepherd, who has been intrigued by the Sydney's fate since he saw a lifeboat from the Kormoran 61 years ago, said last night it was unlikely the wreck could be anything else.

"I've always wanted to find out where the souls of those sailors lay for all the people who have grieved over the years," Mr Shepherd said. "I've got a family member there too. This is a sacred site and a war grave — probably our most important war grave. We hope we can give the families some closure knowing where their people are and where they can place some flowers."

Mr Shepherd, who has been involved in other Sydney search groups, said despite the rudimentary nature of the vision, it threw up strong evidence supporting his contention.

"Sydney had a huge aerial system for its wireless telegraphy and we think we're seeing that on the video," he said. "There are bolts sticking out of the deck, lots of steam pipes and tangled wreckage. The bolts are important because we know the Sydney had timber decking that was tied down by the bolts.

"You would not expect that sort of damage from anything that had just sunk. It is inconsistent with it being anything else like a merchant ship.

"I knew the Sydney was flattened by the Kormoran by gunfire. She caught fire because of the wooden decking. We believe she took a torpedo and was down by the bow and yawing …

"I became more convinced when I saw all these halyards and what looked like aerial wires with insulators strewn over the debris, over railings. It looked like the mast had been shot down.

"All of this convinced me it wasn't an ordinary vessel. It didn't prove to me that it was a military vessel, but I asked myself: what else could it be if it's not the Sydney? The only other vessel it could be in that location was the Kormoran.

"If it was any other vessel than the Sydney or the Kormoran in that location, why hadn't it been reported as missing and looked at?"

Mr Shepherd said he later showed the video to another team member, diver Trevor Beaver, who had explored US naval wrecks in Truk Lagoon in the Pacific.

"He took one look at the video and he said: 'You've got it. It couldn't be anything else.' "

Mr Shepherd said about 15 years ago he noticed an anomaly on the bottom of the sea when he was fishing, but it was before the days of the global positioning system and he didn't know how to get back to it.

Early this year he was given a derivative location close to that spot by the son of a local fisherman who pulled up a copper bolt with a little bit of white timber attached to it about 12 years ago.

"From all of my research, with this new information, it became logically possible that this was the location," Mr Shepherd said.

He began working with his son Graham, master divers Ian Stiles and Trevor Beaver, Perth businessman Terry Crommelin and diving supplies agent Simon van Zeller to work out a way to investigate the site. They devised a method of getting a camera down to film the site. Last weekend the late fisherman's son agreed to take them to the spot.

"We put down a heavy grapple and we were on the spot nearly straight away and hooked up on something," Mr Shepherd said. "We put the camera down on a tether rope holding it on with U-shackles.

"When we got to the bottom we got pictures and within three minutes we spotted what looked like a spoon — which we now believe was a shovel — just laying in the sand. We were sitting there on the deck with a blanket over our heads so we could see the pictures on the screen and then this shape of what we thought was part of an aerial — now we think it's a railing — just came up out of the gloom.

"We were absolutely gobsmacked. And it just got better and better."

Ian Stiles, an oil and gas diver for 25 years, took GPS locations as the camera travelled along the deck of the wreck to the extent of available movement. He logged a length of 30 metres. The Sydney was 170 metres long.

Mr Stiles said one structure appeared to be a tripod. The Sydney had the ability to launch a Walrus aircraft which used a tripod structure.

Much as I'd like to see the Sydney's wreck located (and I've blogged about this several times ) I believe that the new claims draw a very long bow. For one thing the site identified by the purported finders is much closer to the mainland than has hitherto been thought feasible; for another it is in relatively shallow water (150m).

That said, I'll wait with considerable interest to see if these new claims are confirmed. Others, including former deputy PM Tim Fischer are also keeping their powder dry, as there have been several false alarms before, not to mention some conspiracy unusual theories about the ship's disappearance (see links to Fischer story for some of them).

On ABC TV News tonight (the story isn't yet on the ABC website) Minister of Defence Nelson, while welcoming the news, counselled caution about the ultimate outcome. Given his previous propensity to shoot from the hip this is a prudent thing to do.

Minister hints at more support for search

Last week's Channel 9 Sunday had a report by Tim Lester about the flagging search for HMAS Sydney . This week's Bulletin also has a story by Roy Ecclestone(not online, though the mag's website has some interesting archived articles on the topic) . It's a pity that the latter article is illustrated with a photo which appears to be the first Sydney (the one which sunk the Emden in WW1, not the one which disappeared following an engagement with the Kormoran in WW2

Both stories report Assistant Defence Minister Billson's hint that the RAN may be able to provide some assistance to get the ball moving again. Ecclestone seems to think that any really worthwhile assistance may not eventuate, but there seems to be, if not a strong head of steam, a considerable amount of pressure from relatives of the missing and WW2 buffs to do more.

HMAS Sydney in the news again

On tonight's Channel 9 news there was an item about the unknown sailor formerly buried on Christmas Island and who is now generally presumed to be the only person on board HMAS Sydney when it was sunk in 1941 whose remains have been recovered.

Some detailed analytical work (see here and here) has narrowed the field of possibilities to three. Even Minister Bruce Billson, if this report is any guide, is upbeat about the possibility of being able to identify the sailor.

If and when this happens, I hope that the minister will be able to persuade the government to do more to underwrite the continuing search for the Sydney. Despite a recent report claiming that a British maritime researcher has found the wrecks of both the Sydney and the Kormoran I'm taking this with at least one pinch of salt until more substantial evidence is presented.

Japanese midget submarine wreck located

Federal Environment Minister Turnbull has announced that the wreckage of M24, a "mini-submarine", as The Australian coyly describes it (the SMH and the ABC use the traditional term "midget"), has been located near Sydney.

Examination of the vessel, in about 54m of water 5km from Bungan Head, indicates it contains the remains of sub-lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban and petty officer Mamoru Ashibe - where they will remain, protected by a 500m exclusion zone, video surveillance and the threat of a $1.1 million fine.

Yesterday, navy divers took sand from the ocean floor to give to relatives of the submariners.

The M24 and two other mini-subs invaded Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942. While the others were captured, and are now bolted together outside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the M24 evaded frantic searches.

Now that the authorities have located and protected the last resting place of the two Imperial Japanese Navy submariners will they proceed to search for the 645 Australian crew members who were lost with HMAS Sydney off WA in 1941?

As I said in a post earlier this month there is still a lot of interest in their fate. In the last few days news of the discovery in the Atlantic of a 17th century shipwreck laden with treasure shows that with modern technology (and admittedly, substantial funding) this should not be an impossible task.

More on HMAS Sydney

Two recent items about the loss of the Sydney in 1941, about which I've previously commented.

The first is an article "Remembering Anzacs and not forgetting HMAS Sydney" by Jo Green , which was posted last week on Online Opinion.

The second is an item "Saying sorry for HMAS Sydney" on the SA edition of ABC TV's Stateline. For a transcript see here.

For a summary of the "official" version see the talk "HMAS Sydney - 60 years on" given by Dr Peter Stanley at the Australian War Memorial on the 60th anniversary of the sinking of the Sydney.

Dr Green's is a strongly felt piece though unfortunately the author makes some errors, for example "Ivan Wittner" should be "Ivan Wittwer". She also could have given further details of some of her sources,for example the John Samuels book (Somewhere Below: the Sydney scandal exposed) and some other sources.

The Stateline program confirmed that there is still considerable interest surrounding the sinking of the Sydney 65 years on. There are still living former crew members of the ship, and relatives of those lost. There are, I believe, also survivors (of the 300+ originally saved) of the Kormoran and relatives and friends thereof .

Despite various enquiries the story won't, unlike the Sydney itself, disappear beneath the waves. To my mind the government should fund a proper search for the wreck of the vessel, and not just leave it to the HMAS Sydney II Search Appeal whose efforts, judging by the long intervals between its news releases , is becalmed. The Federal, WA and NSW governments have already chipped but have seen next to no return on their investments, so perhaps they should push harder for more to be done; and yes, to put in more money, but with tighter strings attached.

More on loss of HMAS Sydney

Speculation about the loss of HMAS Sydney in 1941 (see my previous post for more background info) has come back into the news with a report (headlined "Shrapnel deepens cruiser mystery") in today's Australian.

The discovery of shrapnel in the skull of the body of the one sailor who has been identified as a crew member of the Sydney has raised questions about the authenticity of the "official" version of the ship's loss:

Experts at Sydney University initially identified a metal object in the skull as a bullet from a low muzzle-velocity weapon, possibly a hand gun.

Now, sources close to the forensic scientists confirm that the object is shrapnel from a German shell, a finding which appears to be at odds with the official version of the attack.

According to that version, Sydney, under captain Joseph Burnett, sailed parallel and 1km away from Kormoran at 14 knots, while checking its identity, and was fired on when the Germans could not respond with a secret signal.

Hit by six 15cm guns, 3.7cm anti-tank weapons, 20mm cannon, machinegun fire and a torpedo, Sydney is said to have tried to ram Kormoran, missed astern, and made off at six to 10 knots until it blew up late at night.

But shrapnel in the skull poses the question of how a man mortally wounded in the head could have got into the float[in which his body was found] with Sydney still moving when Kormoran last fired at her.

The tests are expected to be completed by next February. It will be interesting to see how the results will modify the "official" or some of the other versions which are floating around.

I shall keep watching developments with interest.

65 years on: another clue in the HMAS Sydney mystery?

Today the media, including The Australian , The Age and the ABC report on the exhuming of what may be the remains of a survivor (or a crew member) from HMAS Sydney which was lost in 1941 following an engagement with the German raider Kormoran.

The existence of the possible survivor's remains has been known for some time but only now have what may be his remains been re-discovered, afterthey were apparently buried in an un- or poorly marked grave on Christmas Island just before it was occupied by the Japanese in 1942.

Almost 65 years after the event many questions remained unanswered, notably how the Sydney could have been surprised by the Kormoran and why there were 317 survivors of the Kormoran but none from the Sydney. This has given rise to continuing speculation about what really happened, for example whether survivors were killed by the Germans (or possibly the Japanese even though at the time they weren't at war with Australia but may have had a submarine in the vicinity).

The official view is summarised on RAN and Australian War Memorial websites. Some alternative theories are evaluated here.

In 1999 a Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade reported on the loss of the Sydney. Here is the link to the full report. The Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations is here . It concurred with one author's opinion (prefiguring Donald Rumsfeld's on a broader range of issues) that much about the loss was "unknown and unknowable", but ended with a rousing but essentially hollow appeal to all parties:


The Committee is well aware that the level of interest in Sydney and her fate is so extensive that, regardless of the outcome of this inquiry, individuals and groups will continue to research the topic and expound on their various theories. This is to be welcomed, if it is undertaken with an openness to the information available and a willingness to listen and to take into consideration opposing views. ...The Committee strongly believes there is a need for all involved in the Sydney debate to move beyond animosity and antagonism and find common ground. No one group 'owns' Sydney, or has a monopoly on truth. The Committee hopes that in future researchers will rise above the personal acrimony and suspicion that has marred so much of the debate thus far. An exchange of differing views is a positive process, and can only lead to a better understanding of the events of November 1941. HMAS Sydney deserves no less.

Since then there have been moves to locate the Sydney's wreck, and an organisation Sydney Search Pty Ltd has been set up to do this. The Federal (($1.3 m), WA ($500,000) and NSW (($250,000) governments have provided or promised funding to assist with the search, preparations for which have gone quiet after a report in September 2005 that it would begin "within months".

Perhaps Tony Barrass the writer of today's Australian piece could shed some more light on the topic. In July this year he wrote that "searchers are deady to start" though he also implied that the usual suspect of a funding shortfall was delaying things.

Sunk but not located: more on HMAS Sydney

Today's Australian has a story about HMAS Sydney which was sunk somewhere off the Western Australian coast
in November 1941, apparently by a German raider Kormoran acting alone. Because no Australians of the Sydney's 645 complement survived, while about 320 of the Kormoran's did, some questions have been raised about the exact circumstances of the former's demise. Some have alleged that a Japanese submarine was involved (bear in mind that this was a few days before Japan entered the war) , that the Sydney survivors were machine gunned in the water and that the Australian government concealed all the evidence.

The Australian has found a 92 year old ex-Kormoran officer, Reinhardt von Malapert, living in Chile. He has offered to help locate the Sydney's resting place. A consortium including David Mearns, described by the paper as "the world's leading shipwreck hunter", and a non-profit organisation HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, is seeking additional funding to proceed with the search. They have already received $2m support from the Federal, WA and NSW governments but, according to another report (not online) on p5, need an unspecified additional amount.

Rumours about the fate of the Sydney's crew (as opposed to the ship itself) have abounded for years. While locating the wreck may not answer all the questions, it may fill in a few more pieces of the jigsaw. I therefore support the search for the Sydney's wreck. I'd even be prepared to make a modest donation to HMAS Sydney Search Inc if they contacted me.