Corrective action from both ships was required to avoid a collision. She has been innocent, never once bowed to the natural or human force, in spite of the heavy storm and the talked about jinx. [94], A Joint RAN-USN board of inquiry was established to investigate the incident, and was in session over June and July 1969. The remainder of the deployment proceeded without incident as Melbourne visited Nagasaki, Kure, Kobe and Yokohama before returning home via Guam and Papua New Guinea. She departed Sydney to pick up the RANs new Skyhawks and Trackers in the USA on 20 September 1967. [100] The second commission found that Stevens was medically unfit for command and that some of the findings of the first Royal Commission were therefore based on incorrect assumptions. [166] The towing gear broke a day later, requiring a second tug to secure the carrier while repairs were made to De Ping. [169] Another anchor and the starboard side ship's bell are on display at the RAN Heritage Centre at Garden Island. [84] It was initially assumed by Melbourne's bridge crew that Voyager was conducting a series of tight turns to lose speed before swinging behind Melbourne, but Voyager did not alter course again. Video footage of HMAS Melbourne (II) arriving in Singapore after her collision with USS Frank E Evans in 1969. [2], Melbourne was paid off from RAN service in 1982. On completion of these exercises she made port visits to both Wellington and Auckland before returning home to Sydney. You can also find information on crew members to the rank of Petty Officer by checking punishment returns for 1912 to 1959, series A7111. A veteran from the HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager collision on February 10, 1964 that killed 82 people believes changes to floodlighting on the aircraft carrier caused Australia's worst peacetime . [30] Melbourne underwent another refit from late 1978 until August 1979. [23][62] The ship visited Gibraltar, Naples, Malta, Port Said, Aden, and Colombo, before arriving in Fremantle on 24 April 1956. [121] Melbourne deployed her boats, life rafts, and lifebuoys, before carefully manoeuvring alongside the stern section of Evans, where both ships' crews used mooring lines to lash the ships together. Melbourne went on to visit ports in Ceylon, India, Singapore, the Philippines where she took part in the years SEATO exercise PONY EXPRESS; Hong Kong where she had to put to sea to avoid Typhoon Alice; and Papua New Guinea before returning home in June. Special Forum to pay respects to the 82 men who lost the lives in the collision on 10th February 1964 when HMAS Voyager was sunk by the Aircraft Carrier HMAS Melbourne. Note: This video is hosted on YouTube and has no audio. Seventy four of Evans crew lost their lives, and Melbourne sustained extensive damage to her bow section. list price. [140] A Tracker from Melbourne located the disabled Dutch vessel Impala Princess in the Gulf of Aden on 25 May and directed a French destroyer to assist. [4], A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee held after World War II recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. [121] Melbourne hit Evans amidships at 3:15am, cutting the destroyer in two. [85] Both ships' measures were too late to avoid a collision; Melbourne hit Voyager at 8:56pm. NSW. [30][137], On 5 December 1976, a fire deliberately lit at HMASAlbatross by a member of the Fleet Air Arm damaged or destroyed all but one of Australia's S-2 Trackers. [146] The carrier was in Sydney from mid-April until mid-August, during which the 25th anniversary of Melbourne's service in the RAN was celebrated on 15 August with a cocktail party aboard the carrier, popularly referred to as 'The Night of the Admirals'. [107] Utilising the carrier was suggested again by RAN officials in March 1966, when the United States Seventh Fleet was having difficulties maintaining anti-submarine patrols around Yankee Station, but Melbourne could only remain on station for a single, ten-day period, a third of the time that US carriers were operational for on rotating deployments. [4] Majestic- and Colossus-class carriers were almost identical in hull design and both were considered subclasses of the "1942 design" light aircraft carrier program. [79] After Strategic Reserve duties were completed, the carrier visited Japan, Guam, and Manus Island before returning to Sydney in late July. [83] At 8:52pm, Voyager was ordered to resume the plane guard station. RIMPAC activities occupied the ship for most of September before she went on to visit Yokosuka, Japan, in early October, and Manila where she participated in the SEATO exercise SEA SCORPION. [132] Components were failing due to wear and age, but the companies responsible for manufacturing the parts had gone out of business during the previous twenty years, sometimes immediately after World War II ended. 231 Hmas Melbourne Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE Collections Project #ShowUs Creative Insights EDITORIAL VIDEO BBC Motion Gallery NBC News Archives MUSIC BLOG BROWSE PRICING ENTERPRISE VisualGPS INSIGHTS BOARDS BASKET SIGN IN Images Images Creative Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO Ledgers often include individual crew lists for each vessel. [155] She was towed to the mooring dolphins near Bradley's Head, where she remained until 1985. She performed sea trials in Jervis Bay from 17 February until 5 May, then sailed for Subic Bay, Philippines, to participate in SEATO Exercise Sea Spirit. She participated in Exercise JUC 63 in August, visited New Zealand in September, and took part in Exercise SWORDHILT in the Coral Sea in October. References to many ledgers appear at item level on RecordSearch. She participated in the inaugural ANZUK naval exercise GENESIS at the end of March and departed Singapore for Australia on 3 April. Back row, left to right: LEUTs Peter Wyatt and David Hilliard, LCDRs Peter Seed and George Jude, LEUTs Barry Thompson, Alan Cordell, Edward Wilson and Geoffrey Gratwick. [132] The carrier's engineers often resorted to making replacements from scratch. [127] It was learned during the inquiry that Evans' commanding officer was asleep in his quarters at the time of the incident, and charge of the vessel was held by Lieutenants Ronald Ramsey and James Hopson; the former had failed the qualification exam to stand watch, while the latter was at sea for the first time. She joined Sydneys escort group for the final time early in June, and visited Malaysia later in the month before returning home. [77] The carrier's annual refit began in Sydney on 1 October. Front row, left to right: LEUTs Ronald McIver, Stanley Carmichael, Keith Potts, Neil Ralph and Bernard Brennan. She participated in the SEATO exercise SEA HAWK in the South China Sea that month at the conclusion of which she visited Hong Kong before proceeding to Singapore conducting Exercise TRANSITEX with other ANZUK units en route. [23] During this deployment, a fire ignited inside the ship's main switchboard. [28] The refit took seven months to complete, and cost A$2million. [114] Despite these warnings, a near-miss occurred in the early hours of 31 May when Larson turned towards the carrier after being ordered to the plane guard station. [4] Following the end of World War II, the Admiralty ordered the suspension of many British shipbuilding projects, including the fitting out of Majestic and her five sister ships. The forward section of Evans sank quickly while her stern section was secured to Melbournes starboard side enabling that part of the ship to be searched for survivors. [120] It is uncertain which ship began to manoeuvre first, but each ship's bridge crew claimed that they were informed of the other ship's turn after they commenced their own. [42][43] Both aircraft types entered RAN service in 1968, with the Trackers operated by 816 Squadron RAN and 851 Squadron RAN, and the Skyhawks by 805 Squadron RAN and 724 Squadron RAN. She then sailed for Brisbane and the Hervey Bay area to conduct flying training. [19], The main modifications centred around the need to operate jet aircraft, which were larger and heavier than those propeller-driven aircraft that the carrier was originally designed for. [18] These included an angled flight deck, steam catapult and a mirror landing aid, making Melbourne the third aircraft carrier (following HMSArk Royal and USSForrestal) to be constructed with these features, instead of having them added later. Between 1956 and 1959, the RAN considered acquiring a larger carrier to replace Melbourne, as the Fleet Air Arm was becoming obsolete and the RAN did not believe the ship could be modified to operate newer, heavier aircraft. [87] Voyager's forward boiler exploded, briefly setting fire to the bow of the carrier before it was extinguished by seawater. [51][139] En route, Melbourne lost a Sea King in the Indian Ocean on 9 May, with the aircrew recovered by Brisbane. She went on to visit Hong Kong in April before proceeding to Osaka, Japan, where members of the crew and the ships band contributed to Australian National Day on 8 May during Expo 70. Both the carrier and destroyer were 'darkened' with only navigational/operational lighting in use. The PLAN subsequently arranged for the ship's flight deck and all the equipment associated with flying operations to be removed so that they could be studied in depth. The observer, Lieutenant Edward Kennell, RAN, apparently did not eject but was briefly seen in the water next to the wreckage of the Sea Venom before he disappeared. [38] The fixed-wing aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm were marked for replacement by 27 Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters. [93] During this deployment, the carrier visited Subic Bay, where the RAN performed flight deck trials with S-2 Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and A-4 Skyhawk attack fighters. She arrived back in Fremantle on 22 June. On 18 March Melbourne deployed for a five month deployment that saw her circumnavigate Australia and return to South East Asian waters where she participated in the international Exercises TRADEWIND and ASTRA. [39], From March 1965 until mid-1967, Melbourne underwent a regular pattern of deployments to Southeast Asia, exercises, and flag-showing visits to nations in the Asia-Pacific region. [72][73] After filming concluded, the carrier participated in a demonstration exercise off the coast of Sydney before embarking on a Far East Strategic Reserve deployment from March until May. These larger and more dynamic jet aircraft led to commensurate advancements in the designs of the carriers from which they operated, most significantly the introduction of angled flight decks, mirror deck landing systems and steam powered catapults. In June 1981, crew on the Australian Navy's HMAS Melbourne were flying in an anti-submarine patrol plane, a Grumman S-2G Tracker 851, when they helped rescue 99 refugees from their broken-down vessel in the South China Sea, 250 nautical miles east of Vietnam. In the early hours of 3 June 1969, in a manoeuvre almost identical to the near-miss with Larson a few days earlier, the destroyer USS Frank E Evans crossed Melbournes bows while attempting to move in the planeguard position, and was cut in two. She returned to Singapore in an attempt to clear the contamination before the upcoming SEATO exercise, SEA DEMON. By the time she returned to sea for SEA DEMON, all nine of her Gannets were flying once again, however a defect in her B1 boiler once again forced her to return to Singapore and ended her involvement in phase one of the exercise. Pls b advised that HMAS Melbourne arrived at Port Huangpu, intact n safely afloat, proud n majestic. South China Sea early morning 3 June 1969 aftermath scene of the HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E Evans collision. Melbourne departed Pearl Harbor on 25 November and arrived back in Sydney, via Suva, on 10 December. These incidents, along with several minor collisions, shipboard accidents and aircraft losses, led to the belief that Melbourne was jinxed. Melbourne undergoing trials at Barrow-in-Furness, England 1956. [109] Consideration was also given to using Melbourne as a floating helicopter base, but only ten Wessex helicopters could be provided, and modifications were required for them to operate as troop carriers. [66] On return to Australia in mid-November, the carrier visited Melbourne for the 1956 Olympics, where 200 of Melbourne's complement were provided to work as signallers, event marshals, carpenters, and medical workers. [27][126] Melbourne was out of service for most of 1971 while she underwent refits, which concluded in early August. Captain Willis hands over command of the Australian Flagship HMAS Melbourne to Captain McDonald, 24 May 1972. The text of the telex message has been altered for readability. I am also proud to record that Voyagers officers and men displayed the same high standards of individual behaviour. [23] In May 1967, it was proposed that while Melbourne was out of service, A-4 Skyhawk pilots and maintenance personnel could be attached to a United States Marine Corps Skyhawk squadron in South Vietnam. Building trust in the public record policy, Getting started with information management, Royal Australian Navy ship and crew records, the approximate service period of the individual, remarks about punishments or qualifications, any incidents occurring on board during tours of duty, the design, construction and maintenance of vessels, ships' logs from 1855 onwards, in a number of series, records on design, construction and maintenance (including. [132] The ship's catapult was replaced with parts from the decommissioned HMCS Bonaventure in 1970. of 2 Download Low Res Image Order a copy Download Low Res Image Order a copy Description Crew members aboard HMAS Vampire. [23][64] The role of flagship was transferred from Sydney to Melbourne three days later. Search and rescue operations began immediately in the aftermath of the collision. On 28 April during flying operations in the Sulu Sea, one of Melbournes Sea Venoms crashed over the side when an arrestor wire failed on landing, and the aircraft did not regain enough airspeed to once again get airborne. [126][133] During this year, the carrier also visited Japan to participate in Expo '70, and was hit by Manly ferry South Steyne while alongside at Garden Island, causing minor damage to both vessels. The Flagship band was part of the RAN massed bands that gave an extremely polished display in the main stadium as a prelude to the official opening ceremony. The Royal Australian Navy does not lack quality in its men. Logs include information on: Most records about crew and ships are available for public access. 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