trotterdotpom
1st August 2005, 03:40
HMAS Brisbane: Charles F Adams Class Guided Missile Destroyer, built by Defoe Shipbuilding, Michigan, USA, 1966. Served in Vietnam and the First Gulf War. She was also involved in Darwin in post-Cyclone Tracy assistance.
Yesterday, 31.7.05, I went to see her scuttled off Mooloolooba, at Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where she will form a dive site and artificial reef.
Explosives were used in order to ensure she sank quickly and sat upright on the seabed. The explosives were detonated by Mr Peter Beatty, Premier of the State of Queensland (some folk might say he should have done it from the Brisbane's bridge!).
After a couple of large flashes and a few loud bangs she disappeared in less than a minute. A sad sight but, as one of her ex Captains said on TV, better than just ending up in some scrapyard. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any photographs as I was too busy watching threw binoculars. No doubt there will be some on the web somewhere.
The upside of it all is, I think I was on TV when they were filming the observers. The downside is, I was supposed to be at work!
When they showed the sinking on the TV news, I noticed that she was flying the Australian Red Ensign, instead of the RAN's White Ensign. Would that be because she was no longer a commissioned naval vessel?
I had a slight connection with the ship. In about 1981, I was working on MV 'Brisbane Trader", an ANL ro-ro ship carrying cars to Western Australia from Melbourne. We were in Fremantle and received word that the police were coming aboard and nobody was to leave the ship.
It turned out that a girl had been sexually assaulted the previous night and a taxi driver had brought the perpetrator back to 'Brisbane Trader'. We were to be in a line-up. The Seamen's Union delegates carried on a bit because they thought it was only the crew who were to be in the line-up, but it transpired that the police weren't interested in the 'Class Struggle' and we were all checked out. Fortunately, the young lady didn't recognise any of us, but it must have been an upsetting experience for her. When the taxi driver's turn came, he said it wasn't this ship, 'it's the navy ship down the wharf,' - yes, HMAS Brisbane. I don't know the outcome of that, but at least the honour of the MN was saved.
John T.
Yesterday, 31.7.05, I went to see her scuttled off Mooloolooba, at Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where she will form a dive site and artificial reef.
Explosives were used in order to ensure she sank quickly and sat upright on the seabed. The explosives were detonated by Mr Peter Beatty, Premier of the State of Queensland (some folk might say he should have done it from the Brisbane's bridge!).
After a couple of large flashes and a few loud bangs she disappeared in less than a minute. A sad sight but, as one of her ex Captains said on TV, better than just ending up in some scrapyard. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any photographs as I was too busy watching threw binoculars. No doubt there will be some on the web somewhere.
The upside of it all is, I think I was on TV when they were filming the observers. The downside is, I was supposed to be at work!
When they showed the sinking on the TV news, I noticed that she was flying the Australian Red Ensign, instead of the RAN's White Ensign. Would that be because she was no longer a commissioned naval vessel?
I had a slight connection with the ship. In about 1981, I was working on MV 'Brisbane Trader", an ANL ro-ro ship carrying cars to Western Australia from Melbourne. We were in Fremantle and received word that the police were coming aboard and nobody was to leave the ship.
It turned out that a girl had been sexually assaulted the previous night and a taxi driver had brought the perpetrator back to 'Brisbane Trader'. We were to be in a line-up. The Seamen's Union delegates carried on a bit because they thought it was only the crew who were to be in the line-up, but it transpired that the police weren't interested in the 'Class Struggle' and we were all checked out. Fortunately, the young lady didn't recognise any of us, but it must have been an upsetting experience for her. When the taxi driver's turn came, he said it wasn't this ship, 'it's the navy ship down the wharf,' - yes, HMAS Brisbane. I don't know the outcome of that, but at least the honour of the MN was saved.
John T.