Getting wrecked in the west

By Vic Jeffery

HMAS Derwent sinks to a watery grave west of Rottnest Island in December 1995.

HMAS Swan was scuttled for use a dive wreck off Busselton in Western Australia in December 1997.

HMAS Junee was towed and scuttled west of Rottnest Island in 1968.

There are quite a number of warships, which lie off the West Australian coast, victims of war, scuttling and accidents.

At least 20 vessels rest in the silent depths, the positions of some known, others unknown, the famous World War Two cruiser HMAS Sydney (II) being the most significant, and intriguing.

Just how did a ship of this size vanish with her crew of 645 men after sealing the fate of the German armed merchant raider HSK Kormoran in a fierce engagement off the WA coast on November 19, 1941?

The intrigue is compounded by the fact that the wreck of the Kormoran has never been located either. Strangely enough, there is no record of an oil slick or the enormous debris field which must have existed from the 9500 tonne Kormoran blowing-up.

Few people are aware that two former Royal Netherlands Navy coastal submarines, the 583-ton K.VIII and the 660-tonne K.XI ended their days in WA waters.

Laid-up in reserve at the Sourabaya naval dockyard in Java, K.VIII was re-commissioned on January 6, 1942 for coastal defence and training when the Japanese swept south.

K.VIII made several war patrols between Bawean and the north coast of Java before being ordered to Australia on March 3. K.VIII was declared unfit for operational use and de-commissioned on May 8, 1942 in Fremantle.

After further stripping in 1943 the hull was towed south into Cockburn Sound where it was to be beached in Jervoise Bay and broken-up.

However, the hulk foundered 100 metres offshore and it was abandoned, remaining there until 1957 when it was declared a navigational hazard with the increased shipping visiting the new Kwinana oil refinery.

The second Netherlands submarine, K.XI, arrived in Fremantle on March 22, 1945 after spending most of the war as an asdic training submarine for the British and Indian navies.

Paying-off in Fremantle on April 10, 1945 was handed over to the RAN for transfer to the Commonwealth Disposal Committee on June 21. K.XI was partially stripped in the Swan River HMAS Leeuwin II.

Towed down river back into bustling Fremantle Harbour, K.XI had been slipped for further stripping. Moored outboard of another vessel at North Quay it sank overnight after valve was left open.

The Harbour Master was keen to rid the harbour of the submarine and six weeks of toil saw it raised and further stripped before being towed out to the “Ships Graveyard” site west of Rottnest Island and scuttled September, 1946.

Other naval vessels which have ended their days along the West Coast are:

• ADROIT (patrol boat): Adroit played a valuable role in fisheries patrols and in seamanship, navigation and technical training of many RANR personnel before being decommissioned on March 28, 1992. Hulked, it was sunk as target off the WA coast on August 8, 1994 by A-4 Skyhawks of the RNZAF.
  
  ALACRITY (naval tug & patrol vessel): Alacrity served as an unarmed patrol vessel/ inspection vessel with a secondary role as a minesweeper operating off Fremantle.
  
  In 1931 it was stripped and moored in Jervoise bay awaiting scrapping. A fierce gale in Cockburn Sound saw it break its mooring and be swept ashore where it remained until it finally broke-up in the late 1970s.
  
  
• DERWENT (destroyer escort): After a 30-year career, HMAS Derwent paid-off at HMAS Stirling on August 8, 1994 to be used as the platform for the joint DSTO-RAN Ship Survivability Enhancement programme.
  
  Previous prospects of the ships becoming a dive wreck faded when the 10 week programme saw the battered and burnt Derwent, still afloat, reduced to a leaking hulk riddled with dangerous jagged metal from the onboard explosions it had absorbed.
  
  Derwent was towed out to a position west of Rottnest Island and scuttled with charges set by AUSTCDTFOUR on December 21, 1995.
• GLADMOR (auxiliary patrol boat): The 14 metre jarrah-hulled vessel was armed with a machine gun and two depth charges located on her stern. On the fateful day of October 17, 1943 Gladmor developed fuel problems soon after leaving Fremantle and proceeded to the sheltered waters on the eastern northern section of Garden Island.
  
  A petrol explosion saw the engine room engulfed in flames and the crew abandon ship. Gladmor burnt for hours before finally slipping beneath the waves.
  
  
• JUNEE (corvette): Commissioned on April 11, 1944 Junee saw war service in New Guinea waters before paying-off into reserve at Melbourne on January 21, 1946.
  
  Junee was paidoff on July 18, 1957 and sold for conversion to a fishing mother ship.
  
  Her conversion was halted when the owner died suddenly and the ship could be seen in the early 1960s tied-up at the old Palm Beach naval jetty before it was sold for scrapping.
  
  Junee was towed out and scuttled west of Rottnest Island on September 7, 1968.
• OFL.1207 (oil fuel lighter): Based at HMAS Stirling this 1946-vintage OFL was sunk a target in the WA Exercise Area after the arrival of its replacement, the new water and oil fuel lighter Wyulda earlier that year, 1984.
• PERTH (guided-missile destroyer): A Vietnam-veteran, Perth was decommissioned on October 15, 1999 in Sydney after a distinguished 34 year career and gifted to the City of Albany a dive wreck.
  
  Perth was scuttled on November 24, 2001 near Seal Rock.
• SC-751 (submarine chaser): This US Navy wooden-hulled submarine chaser on June 22, 1943 was wrecked off the WA northern coastline in a fierce storm in position 21 degrees 56 south, 113 degrees 53 east with the loss of one officer who was never found. Declared a constructive total loss, it was blownup by army engineers.
• SDB.1325 (seaward defence boat): Entering service on November 3, 1943 as Harbour Defence Motor Launch 1325, it sank around sunset on April 14, 1992 at HMAS Stirling without warning, settling in 10 metres of water in the small ship compound.
  
  
• SIESTA (auxiliary patrol boat): A wartime loss with little detail available, this Naval Auxiliary Patrol vessel was destroyed by a petrol fire in Fremantle in October, 1943.
• SWAN (destroyer escort): Paidoff at HMAS Stirling on September 13, 1996 after a 26-year career in the RAN. WA-based since December 13, 1985 Swan was gifted to the WA State Government as a dive wreck.
  
  Swan was scuttled in Geographe Bay on December 14, 1997.
• TORRENS (destroyer escort): The last steam-powered naval vessel based in WA, Torrens was decommissioned after a 27 year career at HMAS Stirling on September 11, 1998.
  
  Nine months later in June 1999, Torrens was sunk as a target with a Mk.48 torpedo fired by the submarine HMAS Farncomb off the WA coast.
• URIBES (Army stores vessel): Uribes was in service by 1940 with the Australian Army as stores carrier running between Fremantle and Rottnest Island.
  
  On her last trip her engine cut out and the anchors could not hold the ship. Drifting she struck an outcrop of rock and was holed, quickly sinking.
  
  The vessel was declared a total loss on May 19, 1942.
  
  
• WALLAROO (corvette): HMAS Wallaroo was lost only 60 nautical miles west of Fremantle in a fateful midnight collision with the American merchant ship Henry Gilbert Costin on June 11, 1943. Ten minutes after the “abandon ship” pipe had been made the gutsy little ship slowly capsized to starboard and sank.
  
  
• Z-FORCE CRAFT (Wellman one-man submarines & ‘Sleeping Beauty’ submersible canoes): A number of these craft were dumped in deep water west of Rottnest Island.
  

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