Search for HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
Encyclopedia
HMAS Sydney (1934)
HMAS Sydney , named for the Australian city of Sydney, was one of three Modified Leander class light cruisers operated by the Royal Australian Navy...
and the German merchant raider
Merchant raider
Merchant raiders are ships which disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels, whilst actually being armed and intending to attack enemy commerce. Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I, and again early in World War II...
Kormoran
German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran was a Kriegsmarine merchant raider of World War II. Originally the merchant vessel Steiermark, the ship was acquired by the Kriegsmarine following the outbreak of war for conversion into a raider...
, that sank each other during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, ended successfully in March 2008. On 19 November 1941, the two ships fought a battle
Battle between HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran
The battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran was a single ship action between the Australian light cruiser , with Captain Joseph Burnett commanding, and the German auxiliary cruiser , under Fregattenkapitän Theodor Detmers...
in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, off Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. On 16 March 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
announced that the Kormoran
German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
The German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran was a Kriegsmarine merchant raider of World War II. Originally the merchant vessel Steiermark, the ship was acquired by the Kriegsmarine following the outbreak of war for conversion into a raider...
, an auxiliary cruiser operated by the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
, had been found. According to media reports, it is 240 kilometres (129.6 nmi) west of Shark Bay
Shark Bay
Shark Bay is a World Heritage listed bay in Western Australia. The term may also refer to:* the locality of Shark Bay, now known as Denham* Shark Bay Marine Park* Shark Bay , a shark exhibit at Sea World, Gold Coast, Australia* Shire of Shark Bay...
, at a depth of 2560 metres (8,399 ft). The following day Rudd announced that the wreck of the Sydney
HMAS Sydney (1934)
HMAS Sydney , named for the Australian city of Sydney, was one of three Modified Leander class light cruisers operated by the Royal Australian Navy...
, a light cruiser
Light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small- or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck...
belonging to the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
, had been found, 22 kilometres (11.9 nmi) south-east of the Kormoran. Sydney is reported to be at a depth of 2468 metres (8,097.1 ft).
As a result of the battle, Sydney was lost with all 645 hands. Most of the crew from Kormoran were rescued and became prisoners of war. The battle, sinkings and location of the wrecks were controversial.
The major obstacle in locating the two ships was the scarcity of details about the location of the battle. As a result, hypotheses about the wrecks' locations varied from deep water many kilometres off Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres long and between 3 and 15 kilometres wide and is Western Australia's largest and most western island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres and is...
, to sites nearer to Carnarvon, Western Australia
Carnarvon, Western Australia
Carnarvon is a coastal town situated approximately 900 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia. It lies at the mouth of the Gascoyne River on the Indian Ocean. The popular Shark Bay world heritage area lies to the south of the town and the Ningaloo Reef lies to the north...
, and as far south as the western side of the Houtman Abrolhos Islands
Houtman Abrolhos
The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia...
.
Wartime
The search for the two ships began on 24 November 1941 after HMAS Sydney failed to respond to radio messages. Royal Australian Air ForceRoyal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
aircraft patrolled off the West Australian coast and all high powered radio stations in Australia were instructed to continuously broadcast to Sydney. After the British tanker Trocas rescued survivors from Kormoran at approximately 24°33′S 111°48′E, 120 miles (193.1 km) west-north-west of Carnarvon
Carnarvon, Western Australia
Carnarvon is a coastal town situated approximately 900 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia. It lies at the mouth of the Gascoyne River on the Indian Ocean. The popular Shark Bay world heritage area lies to the south of the town and the Ningaloo Reef lies to the north...
on 24 November, six merchant ships
Merchant vessel
A merchant vessel is a ship that transports cargo or passengers. The closely related term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire...
in the area were instructed to search for survivors and four auxiliary Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
vessels were dispatched from Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
. While 315 survivors from Kormoran were rescued by 30 November, the only confirmed trace of Sydney found by the searchers was a single empty life raft recovered by HMAS Heros
HMAS Heros
HMAS Heros was a tugboat which was operated by the Royal Navy , Royal Australian Navy and the Australian shipping firm J. Fenwick and Co. She was built for the RN in 1919, was sold to J. Fenwick and Co...
.
Post-war
In 1981 the Western Australian Museum and the Royal Australian Navy joined to examine a large magnetic anomaly off the Zuytdorp Cliffs that was consistent with the magnetic signature expected from the wreck of HMAS Sydney. In November 1991 at the 50th anniversary of the ship's loss, and subsequent to the location of Titanic and Bismarck by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Museum, assisted by Assoc. Prof. Kim Kirsner of UWA, conducted a seminar designed to see if HMAS Sydney could be located. While the search box for its adversary HSK Kormoran was reduced to a size similar to that used in the previous successful searches, the oceanographers, scientists and search and rescue specialists at the seminar could not reduce the box for HMAS Sydney below a 7000 square kilometer zone. While the position the German sailors and their commander had given for the battle was confirmed by the oceanographic evidence, doubt existed re the whereabouts of HMAS "Sydney". in 1941 some felt it had tried to get to the nearest dry dock in Surabaya, while others felt it had tried to make the coast and was possibly headed towards the nearest port with facilities, Geraldton. Some German accounts stated Sydney had sunk while they rowed towards its burning hulk after they abandoned their own ship, others that it had disappeared on a SE course into the night. As a result of pressure from the newly-formed HMAS Sydney Foundation trust, led by Ed Punchard and including many senior politicians, in 1997, a joint standing committeeStanding Committee
In the United States Congress, standing committees are permanent legislative panels established by the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate rules. . Because they have legislative jurisdiction, standing committees consider bills and issues and recommend measures for...
held a parliamentary inquiry
Parliamentary inquiry
A parliamentary inquiry is a question directed to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly to obtain information on a matter of parliamentary law or the rules of the organization bearing on the business at hand...
into the circumstances surrounding the sinking of Sydney. The inquiry was the largest in Australia’s history, receiving submissions from hundreds of parties. The committee then made a number of findings and recommendations, concluding:
- No documents had been maliciously destroyed
- The Kormorans torpedoes were an important factor in the battle
- It was common practice at the time to close on unknown ships to prevent their crews scuttlingScuttlingScuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
them - There was a total lack of evidence of JapaneseEmpire of JapanThe Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
involvement - Attempts should be made to identify the unknown sailor on Christmas IslandChristmas IslandThe Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
- The newly-formed HMAS Sydney Foundation Trust should coordinate a search for the wrecks centering on the position identified by the WA Museum's seminar in 1991
- A new memorialMemorialA memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
in FremantleFremantle, Western AustraliaFremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
, that the Royal Australian NavyRoyal Australian NavyThe Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
set up a naval history research grant scheme in the name of Sydney and its crew, and services of commemoration in Fremantle, SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and at the wreck site.
In 2001, as a result of the Parliamentary Inquiry, the Royal Australian Navy's Seapower Centre (SPC) conducted a seminar at the WA Museum, designed to examine the feasibility of a search of the 1991 position. Due to dissension amongst the researchers present, claims that the battle had taken place near the Abrolhos Islands (see MacDonald and Whittakker following) and a continuing lack of 'hard' evidence and wreckage relating to HMAS Sydney, the SPC found against conducting a search. Nonetheless, after the Foundation Trust folded the non-profit organisation HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd planned an attempt to locate the wrecks and after receiving advice from successful deep-water wreck hunter David Mearns that he could find the wrecks embarked on an active campaign to begin searching, receiving a government grant in August 2005. It had a memorandum of understanding with shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
hunter David Mearns
David Mearns
David Louis Mearns, born circa 1958, is a United States-born marine scientist and deep water search and recovery expert, long resident in the United Kingdom. He is famous for locating the wrecks of several ships lost during World War II...
, who believed that he could find the wrecks using the latest sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
technology and recently revealed details recorded by the commander of Kormoran, Theodor Detmers
Theodor Detmers
Theodor Detmers was the commanding officer of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...
. On 14 August 2005, the then Prime Minister of Australia
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, announced that the Australian government would grant A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
1.3 million to HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd. Another was provided by the West Australian State Government
Government of Western Australia
The formation of the Government of Western Australia is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1890, although it has been amended many times since then...
, and $250,000 by the New South Wales State Government
Government of New South Wales
The form of the Government of New South Wales is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...
. The organisation planned to secure an additional $8 million in private funding before attempting a thorough search. The search was planned to be conducted in deep water off Shark Bay. A rival group announced plans to search in shallower waters closer to the coast.
While the WA Museum's research, and other works (notably Barbara Winters, HMAS Sydney Fact, Fantasy and Fraud, Tom Frame's HMAS Sydney, Loss and Controversy & Wes Olson's, Bitter Victory) supported the German battle position, in late 2005, University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
Press published Seeking the Sydney: A Quest for the Truth by Glenys McDonald. The main innovation of the book was McDonald's extensive oral history
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
interviews with residents of the coastal area nearest to the battle. Much of it had been tabled at the 2001 SPC seminar. According to McDonald, many residents of Port Gregory, about 80 kilometres (43.2 nmi) north of Geraldton
Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
, reported seeing signs and sounds of a naval battle, at about the time that Sydney and Kormoran engaged each other, suggesting that the sinkings may have occurred much further south than the accounts of either Detmers or the Australian government (a theory that subsequently proved to be incorrect when the wrecks were located).
Independent researcher Warren Whittaker, writing in The Weekend Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
in July 2006, reiterated his belief that HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd was looking in the wrong area. Whittaker believed that hindcasting, based on the known movements of flotsam
Flotsam and jetsam
In maritime law, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict describe specific kinds of wreck.The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage....
and lifeboats from Kormoran, suggested wrongly that Detmers' account of the last known location of his ship is incorrect and that both ships would be located just west of Abrolhos Islands
Houtman Abrolhos
The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia...
. This also reflected the evidence he presented at the 2001 Seminar based on his and Lindsay Knight's experimental wreck-locating KDLS System.
In March 2007, HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd reported that Whittaker's proposed site had been surveyed by a Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
-based company, Geo Subsea Pty Ltd, on a pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
basis, and no trace of Kormoran or Sydney had been found. Geo Subsea used a hull-mounted multibeam echo sounder
Echo sounding
Echo sounding is the technique of using sound pulses directed from the surface or from a submarine vertically down to measure the distance to the bottom by means of sound waves. This information is then typically used for navigation purposes or in order to obtain depths for charting purposes...
(MBES) system, capable of scanning the seabed for three km on either side of the search vessel MV Geosounder, at depths of up to 5000 metres (16,404.2 ft). David Mearns was quoted as saying that the site "was ideal for searching with Geosounder’s MBES because the average depth is only 850 metres (2,788.7 ft) and the seabed is relatively flat and featureless with a gentle slope of only 1.4 to 2 degrees. If a ship the size of Kormoran (157 metres long and 9,400 GRT), which was the biggest auxiliary cruiser used by the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
in WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, had exploded and sunk on the site it would clearly show up in the MBES images for all to see."
In June 2007, British maritime researcher Timothy Akers, a former employee of David Mearns, claimed to have located the wreck of the Sydney along with other wrecks from a Japanese Battle Group in the vicinity, using high quality satellite imagery he purchased. However, this claim was disputed by the WA Museum and Ted Graham, the chairman of the Perth-based volunteer company HMAS Sydney Search, who dismissed the possibility the wreck could be located using satellite imagery.
On 11 August 2007 a group of amateur wreck hunters claimed that they had located the wreck of HMAS Sydney off Cape Inscription on the northern end of Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres long and between 3 and 15 kilometres wide and is Western Australia's largest and most western island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres and is...
by using a grappling hook and underwater video camera. A survey conducted by HMAS Leeuwin on 17 August found that the wreck off Dirk Hartog Island is only approximately 30 metres (98.4 ft) long and 5 metres (16.4 ft) high, and therefore not matching Sydneys length of over 170 metres (557.7 ft). In light of this, the possibility of the discovery being that of the Sydney was ruled out. The reasons why the search for HMAS Sydney had taken so long are examined in a WA Museum Report.
Discovery of the wrecks
American shipwreck hunter David MearnsDavid Mearns
David Louis Mearns, born circa 1958, is a United States-born marine scientist and deep water search and recovery expert, long resident in the United Kingdom. He is famous for locating the wrecks of several ships lost during World War II...
first learned of the battle and mutual destruction of Sydney and Kormoran during a conference in 1996, and decided to start studying the battle with a view to finding the ships in 2001. Mearns had previously been involved in the discovery of the cargo ship Lucona
Lucona
Lucona was an old ship sunk in the Indian Ocean in 1977 by a bomb planted by Austrian businessman Udo Proksch, as part of an insurance fraud. Proksch, the owner of the cargo, also then owner of famous Viennese confectioners Demel, claimed US$20 million from his insurance company, saying that the...
(the key evidence in the arrest of Udo Proksch
Udo Proksch
Udo Proksch was an Austrian businessman and industrialist. In 1991, he was convicted of the murder of six people as part of a major insurance fraud. Proksch died in prison....
for murder and insurance fraud), the bulk carrier Derbyshire
MV Derbyshire
The MV Derbyshire was an ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as the last in the series of the Bridge-class sextet. She was registered at Liverpool and owned by Bibby Line....
(the largest British ship to be lost at sea), and the battleship , as well locating the wreckage from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
.
With the assistance of Olson, McDonald, other historians, and the Western Australian Museum, Mearns researched the battle by focusing on primary source documents, during which he discovered or rediscovered several archive files and Kormoran diaries believed lost. This research led Mearns to believe that the German accounts were truthful. After two failed attempts to attract the attention and support of the RAN for a search, Mearns was informed in January 2004 that based on his research, the navy was reconsidering its stance on the success of a search. At this point, Mearns and his company entered a partnership with HMAS Sydney Search Pty. Ltd., a not-for-profit company set up to support and help fund a search for Sydney. A Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up between the two companies in late 2004. In mid-September 2004, the German government announced its approval for Mearns to film Kormoran if she was found.
On 14 August 2005, the Australian government announced a A$1.3 million funding grant to the Finding Sydney Foundation (a charitable foundation set up in 2003 by the directors of HMAS Sydney Search to fund the search), which was quickly followed by a A$500,000 contribution from the Western Australian government, and a A$250,000 grant from the government of New South Wales. Several small donations were made by companies and the public, but plans to search for the ships during late 2007 or early 2008 were under threat until the Australian government approved another A$2.9 million in funds, which it did in October 2007.
Mearns plan was to determine a 'search box' for Kormoran by plotting the possible starting points of the two rafts from the raider through a reverse drift analysis. Previous drift analyses had focused on one of the lifeboats that had made landfall, as the officer in charge had maintained a log of the boat's progress; these analyses provided a wide spread of results because the log was incomplete, eddy currents which would have affected the course and speed were rarely accounted for, the boat would have additionally been affected by oar- and sail-power in addition to ocean currents, and most researchers were focused on deriving a specific point from the analysis instead of a general area. This search box (which was calculated to be 52 by in size) would then be inspected over the course of several days with a deep-water, towed side-scan sonar
Side-scan sonar
Side-scan sonar is a category of sonar system that is used to efficiently create an image of large areas of the sea floor...
. Mearns chose to focus on finding Kormoran first, as locating the German ship would significantly narrow down the search area for Sydney, and improve the chances of finding the Australian cruiser in this area. After locating one or both vessels, the search ship would return to port and replace the sonar with a remotely operated vehicle
Remotely operated vehicle
A remotely operated vehicle is a tethered underwater vehicle. They are common in deepwater industries such as offshore hydrocarbon extraction. An ROV may sometimes be called a remotely operated underwater vehicle to distinguish it from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the air. ROVs...
(ROV) to photograph and video the wrecks.
The survey vessel SV Geosounder was chartered from the subsea
Subsea
Subsea is a general term frequently used to refer to equipment, technology, and methods employed in marine biology, undersea geology, offshore oil and gas developments, underwater mining, and offshore wind power industries.- Oil and gas :...
exploration company DOF Subsea
DOF Subsea
DOF Subsea is an international subsea operating company. The company operates in all major offshore petroleum markets with 23 offshore vessels, 25 Remotely operated vehicles, 1 Autonomous underwater vehicle and 11 diving spreads. The company has been operating since the 1980s and has since 2005...
Australia; in addition to being the best of several vessels considered, Geosounder was the only capable ship available for hire during the search. There was only enough funding to hire and operate Geosounder for 45 days. Geosounder was scheduled to depart early on 29 February, but a series of problems and last-minute modifications delayed this until after 1600, and the ship had to return to port that evening because of a fuel leak. Repairs were made, and the ship reached the south-east corner of Mearns' search box just before midnight on 4 March. The early days of the search were hampered by recurring problems with the side-scan sonar and the occurrence of Tropical Cyclone Ophelia. Despite this, Kormoran was located during the afternoon of 12 March 2008: the wreck site was 2560 metres (8,399 ft) below sea level, and consisted of two large pieces 1300 metres (4,265.1 ft) apart, with an oval-shaped debris field between them, centred at 26°05′46"S 111°04′33"E. The raider's discovery was publicly announced by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
on the morning of 17 March.
Using the newly-discovered wreck and the accounts of the Germans describing Sydney’s heading, speed, and last sighting after the battle, a 20 by search box for the cruiser was calculated. The dramatic change in size compared to the search box for Kormoran was because the German raider's location was recounted by survivors only as a broad latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
and longitude
Longitude
Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
, while much more information was available concerning the Australian cruiser's position relative to the raider. Sydney was located on 17 March just after 1100, only hours after Kormoran’s discovery was publicly announced. News that the cruiser had been found was made public the next day in another official announcement by Prime Minister Rudd. Sydney’s wreck was located at 26°14′31"S 111°12′48"E at 2468 metres (8,097.1 ft) below sea level: the bow of the cruiser had broken off as the ship sank, and was located at the opposite end of a debris field stretching less than 500 metres (1,640.4 ft) north-west from the hull. The two wrecks were 11.4 nautical miles (21.1 km) apart, with Sydney south-east of Kormoran. On discovery, both wrecks were placed under the protection of the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976
The Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 is an Australian Act of Parliament designed to legally protect historic shipwrecks and any relics or artifacts from those wrecks...
, which penalises anyone disturbing a protected shipwreck with a fine of up to A$10,000 or a maximum five years imprisonment.
Geosounder returned to Geraldton on 20 March, but major delays during the installation and testing of the ROV delayed departure until 29 March, with the survey ship sailing through the path of Cyclone Pancho. Sydney was the first to be inspected, with electrical problems with the ROV setting the start of filming back to 3 April. Six ROV dives were made over a five-day period, during which the main hull and debris field were inspected, filmed, and documented. The inspection of Sydney found that the bow had torn free, causing the ship to lose buoyancy and sink, with the main hull section hitting the seabed stern first. The damage found by the search team corresponded with the descriptions given by the crew of Kormoran after the battle. After the conclusion of ROV operations near Sydney, Geosounder travelled to the wreck of Kormoran. The ship had been split into two large pieces by the explosion of the mine deck, which also destroyed the raider's superstructure and scattered debris across a wide area. A possible battle site was located during the sonar search, but observation with the ROV revealed that what was thought to be debris from the ships was actually outcrops of pillow lava
Pillow lava
Pillow lavas are lavas that contain characteristic pillow-shaped structures that are attributed to the extrusion of the lava under water, or subaqueous extrusion. Pillow lavas in volcanic rock are characterized by thick sequences of discontinuous pillow-shaped masses, commonly up to one metre in...
.
The search was declared complete just before midnight on 7 April, with Geosounder returning to Geraldton. In November 2009, the Finding Sydney Foundation donated more than 1,400 photographs and 50 hours of video of the wrecks to the Australian War Memorial
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
.
External links
- HMAS Sydney II Search Appeal – The HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd (Sydney Search) website.
- TV Documentary: The Hunt for HMAS Sydney
- Ship found after 66 years