AUSTRALIAN LOSS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 36, 22 November 1940, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN LOSS

SINKING OF MINESWEEPER. -PORT PHILIP BAY COLLISION. CREW OF 24 BELIEVED LOST. (United Press Association—Copyright.) (Received This Day, 2 a.m.) CANBERRA, November 21, The Minister for the Navy (Mr.W. M. Hughes) announced in the House of Representatives this afternoon that tliq minesweeper Goorangai (223 tons) collided with a merchant vessel in Port Philip Bay last night. The minesweeper sank immediately. The crew comprised three officers and 21 petty officers and men. All are feared lost.

Mr Hughes added that within 2-J minutes of the. collision the merchant ship lowered boats and carried out an intensive search for possible survivors. Lifeboats from Queenscliff, in addition to military launches, was quickly on the scene, and assisted. The foreshores of the bay were lit by searchlights and combed in ( case some members of the crew had managed to swim ashore, but there was no trace of any survivors. The next-of-kin of the victims had been informed by telegram, qnd an ,

official inquiry would be carried out as soon as possible. The, whole 24 were members 'of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, LieutCommander Gordon Boyle being in command of the minesweeper. The majority of her crew were probably below and would have little chance of escape, while those on the bridge were bielieved to have been sucked down when she sank.

Passengers on the merchant ship, which was little damaged, heard calls for help. Three men were seen struggling in the water, but they disappeared before lifeboats could reach them. All was over within three minutes. Both vessels were running blacked out at the time; of the collosion, which occurred close to the Rip, the treacherous entrance to Port Phillip. The minesweeper heeled right over, and the merchant ship appeared to steam completely . oyer her.„The Navy Office announced that although the Goorangi was sunk in the fairway, she would not interfere with inward and outward traffic: Mariners had been notified of her position. The Goorangai, which was formerly a coastal trawler, was built at Newcastle in 1919. She was moving to shelter from- the fierce southerly then prevailing, and was struck almost amidships, and practically torn in two. -She 'went down stern first in a heavy ’sea and dense darkness. >'

The- light-keeper at Point Lonsdale saw distress rockets in the angry sky, and heard the sharp blasts of a whistle. Queenscliff lifeboatmen then hurriedly put to sea, but they lost 30 valuable minutes when they were stranded on a sandbank. All they saw when they arrived on the scene was six feet of. the after mast and three feet of. the fore mast above the broken waves, the Gborangai having sunk in 30 feet of water. It is considered that, some bodies were carried away by the fierce currents of the rip. /

The Goorangai recently took part in minesweeping operations after the loss of the City of Rayville in Bass Strait.