The Shipwreck Hunter by David L. Mearns

Author:David L. Mearns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books

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HMAS Sydney (II) and HSK Kormoran

SOLVING AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST MARITIME MYSTERY

HMAS SYDNEY (II)

HMAS Sydney (II)

SUNK 19 NOVEMBER 1941

645 died

0 survived

HSK Kormoran

SUNK I9 NOVEMBER I94I

81 died

318 survived

The common perception about shipwreck searches is that they are akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. And to a certain extent that is true. The oceans can be an infinitely large place to be looking for a relatively small object if you don’t have a decent starting point. As a minimum you have to be reasonably confident that whatever you are looking for is within a defined area. Uncertainty is what determines the size of the haystack. If the essential facts about a lost ship, like the time and approximate position it sank, are either unknown or unknowable, then the haystack is going to be infinitely large. In the case of Australia’s most famous and controversial naval loss HMAS Sydney, even the experts conceded that the location was impossible to predict with any certainty.

The Sydney was the one ship everyone in Australia hoped would be found one day — preferably in their lifetimes. Ever since the groundbreaking discovery of the Titanic in 1985 had highlighted the possibility of locating long-lost shipwrecks in the deepest of waters, the prospect of finding the Sydney, and finally solving the many mysteries surrounding her loss, had become a national debate – and, dare I say, obsession – conducted in books, academic papers, television documentaries, newspaper articles and ultimately an unparalleled parliamentary inquiry, but most importantly by relatives of the 645 men whose lives were seemingly lost without trace that tragic day in November 1941. For a nation increasingly proud of its ANZAC heritage, it became imperative to find the Sydney in order to commemorate the lives of her crew and to ensure their service and sacrifice was remembered.

Why the Sydney? Of all Australia’s wartime shipwrecks still undiscovered – a list including HMAS Parramatta, HMAS Yarra, HMAS Canberra, HMAS Nestor and Australia’s first ever submarine AE1 – what made the Sydney so special that the Commonwealth and state governments would risk over $5 million of taxpayers’ money on a high-tech gamble to find a wreck that many considered to be unfindable?

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