The Navy Vol_49_Part1 1987 - Navy League of Australia

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SArriving in Hobart. October 8, 1986 (Hot** MWcurr)YDNEY (NSWI and its harbour Port Jackson have seen many (inlandinteresting ships in tin' almost 200 years since while colonist!arrived As a civilised haven in the 1800* Sydney was destinationlot surveying voyages, tea clippers, icebreakers, and the warships ot thosepowers or would be powers that v>ught to exercise influence in the Pacrfx-Ocean Visits by certain ships or groups of ships have gone into (he city scollective memory During the 1900*. among these ships, have beenthose of the US Great White Fleet, which visited Australian ports during1908. the British batilecruiser HMS Hood which arrived during the 1920sthe clandestine visits of the British Queens Queen Mary and QueenElizabeth — as they were converted into troopships in Sydney, and thenearned Australian and New Zealand troops to Europe in the days beforePearl Harbour, the arrival of earner USS Enterpnse. in 1964 [not the firstnuclear ship in the port!, the arrival ir. the mid seventies of the QueenElizabeth 2. and the vanous visits of other large naval vessels dunng trielast decade, among them USS America and HMS IllustriousCompeting with them for public attention and reaction, is one fine oldvessel that was placed in museum status long before most of today'spassenger liners and warships were designed At a time when Australiaand her people are becoming interested in the celebiattor of our BiCentenary at a time when a proportion of the population has at laststarted to query the run down of the Royal Australian Navy, the arrival ofthe vintage battleship USS Missouri virtually stopped Sydney Although27 warships and auxiliaries from hatf a dozen navies visited Sydney i" bepart of the celebrations of the RAN's 75th birthday. Sydney had eyes onlyfor Mighty Mo"The day before the old ship entered Port Jackson under thecommand of Captain J Carney. USN. she demonstrated the visual effectof a reduced broadside of her nine 16 inch guns Television camera crewson board and ir helicopters got the picture in full colour and Sydney wasagogThe following morning. Missouri entered port and something of the"magic" that the word "battleship" has had for generations ol people wasseen The foreshores of the port were thick with onlookers, the waters ofthe port a bobbing mass of small boats with those flying Australian andAmerican flags massively overpowering the whmging members of the'peace squadrons" (for which read. anti-US squadrons") The ships ofPaga Twpnty-e.ghtTHEthe RAN, and other navies, took part in the ceremonial review and on thefollowing days more than 200.000 Sydneysiders tried to look over theships Most of them headed for Mtssoun and the chaos was of massiveproportions with relatively feu people getting aboard, and many requiringmedical attentionOn the following morning. I pined Missouri as one of a group of justthree Australian "nders" to stay with the ship as far as Hobart in thesouthern state of Tasmania I left the RAN in 1968 as a Petty Ofhcer (USequivalent, POD. and since then have regularly written on things naval,including 10 years as Australian editorial contributor for Janes FightingShips, and three editions of a book on Oceanic naval forcesIn my naval time I served aboard .HI major categories of naval vessel,but had never so much as seen a battleship, let alone set foot on oneMSSOURI was on a world-girdling shake down CIU'SP and showedlittle sign of her 42 years of existence Her paint work waspristine, and there was no sign of rust painted over, as ts sometimes seen in the financially, and physically-strained. RAN I wasaccommodated in an officers' stateroom, with a recently -pined supplyofhcer The cabin's walls (screens 7 bulkheads?) did not reach fully to thedeckhead, apparently to allow air circulation in the days before airconditioning was fitted 1 did wonder at how flash would travel if the shipwas hit in this areaFor the next SO hours I wandered almost at will around Missouri Asthe big ship headed south, she fuelled from the British oiler RFA BayleafIt was interesting to notice that the tankeT earned and missile decoylaunchers, probably Corvus. on the after superstructure Missouri's bndgecrew became very concerned with Bayleaf's steering She regularlysheered towards and away from her "customer" during several hours andit was thought this might be a side effect of her bulbous bowSoon after disengaging from the tanker. Missouri worked up to 27knots in order to test some adjustments being made hy a civilian engineerteam that had joined in Hawaii Standing at what I would call the GunnerDirection Position about 50m above sea-level while travelling a flankspeed into a four metre sea and a 45 knot headwind, is a greatexperience, and one that ensures that one suffers little from sinuscongestion fi>r some hours' It was fascinating to note the damage controlNAVY January, 1987Paga Twenty-nine
,1 l inch DP mounts will be landed to make space^Space u something Missouri has much of Her WW2 complement ofaround 2,S(X) has dwindled to about 1 S(Xt Instead of massed racks ofwire bunks with not enough room for ihe occupants to roll over. Missourinow has ship bunks, two high, with bunk lights and base lockers lis nolpalatial, but it's not bad. and the "racks' are arranged lo provide anamount of privacy The crew cafetera. well aft in the hull, has tables withfour attached seals and a milkbar "gedunk" and shop are are nearbyClosed circuit TV provides movies ships news and official communicationsto all aboardUnder way Missouri is surprisingly wet This is explained by her longand narrow bow. provided to give the ship a several knot advantage overprevious US BBs The class was designed for war on the Pacific and nolIhe Atlantic It is said that in exercises m the North Atlantic in the 1950s.Missouri class BBs were unable to maintain sea speed like the RoyalNavy's HMS Vanguard Certainly, on the way south to Hobart, the ship'sloudspeakers regularly warned personnel to stay off the weather decksDuring ihe ntghi. several stanchions and a wooden ceremonial ladderwere canted away in sea conditions that barely caused the old girl to rollOverall impressions of Missouri are many and varied the thickness ofihe conning tower with bank vault type armoured doors protecting thevital controls 'B'oadway" a 200m long passage near the bottom of theship the analogue control "clock" (known in the RAN of the 50s as anAFCC — Admiralty Fire Control Clock) the friendliness and willingness todiscuss "their" ship, which I found in all ranks the plaque which marks thespoi where the surrender of Japan marked the end of WW2. all of Iheseproduced an indelible personal memory for which I am indebted toMissouri and her menEvery third week, Stateships is servicing Port Moresby and Lae.which is a continuation ot the North West and Darwin servicesTranshipment service is also available lo and trom the EasternStates and Tasmania A wide variety of container equipment isdesigned to handle dry and liquid bulk cargoes, heavy lifts up to70 tonnes, long lengths, prefabricated structures and roll-on/roll-off cargoes Stateships can transport it cheaper and saferCall head office or any agency lor detailsHEAO OFFICEPort Beach Roadadiacenl to No 2 BerthNorth QuayNorth FremantlePhono: (M| 430 0200Total: 92054MARKETING 4SALES AGENTMaritime Agencln of WA7 Collie Street. FremantlePhono: 109) 335 4211Ttlli: 92039EASTERN STATESAGENTSMelbourne — Patrick Agencies(03) 614 0333 Total: 30456Hobart — Associated ShippingAgency (002) 34 4(33 Telei58066 Burnie - Websler -ANL Ply Ltd (004) 30 2111Total: 59277.NORTH WEST AGENTSAND DARWINPort Walcott _ Won CoastShipping Agencln (091) IS 2121Telex: 991B8. 'roome — MarchTransport (091) 92 1121 Total:99354 Derby - Kable Agenclos(091) 91 1322 Tatai: 99441Wyndham — Conaust10"'., 01 1106 Total: 99056Kununurra - I N Colo(Representative! (091) 61 1555Talox: 99371. Darwin — BumsPhllp Agencies (098) 11 2901Total: 05047.PAPUA NEW GUINEAAGENTSPort Moresby - Bums Phllp(PNG) Ltd 22 9264. Fan 229231Tli 22116. Lao - Boras Phllp(PNG) Ltd 42 1315. Fan 42 3108Total 42510m/Me/hip/Western Australian Coastal Shipping CommissionMoving Freight for 74 years
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The Navy Vol_49_Part1 1987 - Navy League of Australia

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