WARSHIP SYDNEY’S MAST

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6630, 8 June 1928, Page 2

WARSHIP SYDNEY’S MAST

A SUGGESTED MEMORIAL. ERECTION ON A REEF. At the entrance of Sydney Harbour and just after one passes through the Heads is a reef known as the Sow and Pigs. There are few Sydneysiders who do not know it and few visitors by sea to whom it is not pointed out. Of several proposals which have this reef as the site of a memorial to the men of the Royal Australian Navy and of the mcrchantilc marine who served in the war, the latest has as its essential feature the tripod mast of H.M.A.S. Sydney. Theoretically, although actually obsolete, the hero of the Bmdcn fight will, in retirement and under the care of a maintenance crow, be assumed to be capable of putting to sea at 14 days’ notice, but actually, for defcuce puurposes, this is regarded as a doubtful possibility. In making use of the tripod mast of the ship as a national sea memorial, it is now suggested that the money involved in the cost of maintaining the Sydney on the reserved list, namely, more than £IO,OOO a year, could bo better spent on the active units of the fleet. It is suggested that as a base for the mast on the reef there should bo a massive concrete deck on which services could be held. The lofty mast, flashing out at night from its pinnacle alterating red, white and blue lights, would, it is believed, bo a fitting memorial to those who have crossed the bar.