Thread: HMAS SYDNEY finally found

Originally Posted by Jamo

There was an interesting article in the paper the other day. A sailor from the Kormoran claimed that the Syndey's Captain had failed to observe correct procedures for approaching a potentially hostile vessel; and had consequently exposed his ship to attack.

Maybe they'll be able to work out what happened.

All history into the sinking of H.M.A.S. Sydney relies on the surviving crew of the Kormoran, which was scuttled by the crew.
Not surprising that the German warship is in pieces, it allegedly had 300 mines on board.

Originally Posted by Disco300Tdi

All history into the sinking of H.M.A.S. Sydney relies on the surviving crew of the Kormoran, which was scuttled by the crew.....

However, you never scuttle a viable vessel, particularly only a couple of hundred miles off enemy territory and 1000s miles from the closest friendly territory, unless the ship is sinking in any case.

Score 1 German Raider by HMAS Sydney and 1 HMA warship for SS Kormoron.

Diana

The Kormoran was an armed merchant ship - a raider where all weapons are disguised and a false identity taken on - it relies on deception and it worked on this account. It is believed that the Captain of the Sydney thought the ship was a dutch merchant ship - hence he closed and was less cautious than maybe he should have been.

Sydney did not need to close the ship as its guns outranged those of the raider so clearly Sydney was deceived.

I don't think Rudd had much to do with this - mucj of the creadit must go to the current leadership of the Navy who has supported the exploration teams and convinced Govt authorities that fundinf should be provided.

Certainly when I was in the Navy there was little organisational support from either the Navy of Govt to find the ship - though individuals were always interested.

Anyway it is great that this mystery has been solved. Though I do not think it is a mystery - Sydney closed on what it thought was a Dutch merchant ship - when close, Kormoran opened fire - Sydney opened fire giving a mortal blow and while opening the range was also given a fatal hit by torpedos near the bow - both ships opened the range with fatal wounds with the Kormoran sinking slowly so that most crew were able to abandon ship - the foreward magazines on the Sydney exploded and the ship sank immediately.

My thoughts.

Garry

Originally Posted by graceysdad

On another note I find it very intersting how all our previous prime ministers have said yes we will find the Sydney but never did , the subject was too much of a hot potatoe and little Ruddy gets in there and finds not one but both and very quickly, I am beginning to like Kevin Rudd albeit very slowly!

Kevin Rudd is just johnny on the spot, it was the "Finding Sydney Foundation" and the previous federal government that provided the bulk of the funding with support from both NSW and WA state governments.

KRudd seems like a nice guy, but we will see where this leads.

Reports are that the exploration vessel will return to gero on thursday to dump the sidescan sonar equioment and take on a UUV - unmanned underwater vehicle that is, with high res camera's. So if all goes well we should see some actual pictures around thursday next week.

I was quite impressed with the memoral in WA with the dome of sea gulls.

[QUOTE=garrycol;712780]The Kormoran was an armed merchant ship - a raider where all weapons are disguised and a false identity taken on - it relies on deception and it worked on this account. It is believed that the Captain of the Sydney thought the ship was a dutch merchant ship - hence he closed and was less cautious than maybe he should have been.

'known as a 'Q' ship. I don't know a lot about the incident but have always wondered if the magazines were not hit early on on the Sydney as to go down that quickly with a ships company of 645 and no survivors.

I doubt that the magazines were directly hit because the survivors from the Kormoran said that when the ships broke of the action, the Sydney disappeared over the horizon heavily on fire - some indicated there then may have been an explosion but this was not a consistent account.

Certainly the ship did not sink quickly until the very end when something happened (like a magazine exploding) that did make it go down before abondoning ship.

There may very have been survivors initially - and most probably were for a while - at least one did survive and his body was found in a raft at Christmas Is. Who knows what happened to them but you can use your imagination.

It is however practice to flood magazines when temperatures get too high so normally this would have been done at the appropriate time - but then maybe the damage prevented this - maybe it will become clear over time.

Garry