CRUISER’S LAST DAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1929, Page 2

CRUISER’S LAST DAYS

CAREER QF THE SYDNEY. Shipbreakers are now at work on the cruiser Sydney, which destroyed the German raider Einden off Cocos Island on November 9, 1914. Knowing the decision of the Australian Government to scrap the cruiser, orders were received at Garden Island to remove her to Cockatoo Dockyard. The scrapping of the Sydney forms part of a programme of work arranged by the Navy Department at the instigation of the Federal Government, with a view to maintaining a continuity of operations at Cockatoo. The whole of the dismantling will he done at Cockatoo, and the scrap metal will be sold locally. The hulk of the vessel, about 3000 tons, also will be cut up and sold by tender. “Early in 1927,” said the Prime Minister of Australia, Air Bruce, recently, “the Government determined that the Sydney should he retained for the present: but in making the announcement I stated that I was not fat the time able to indicate the use to which she would be put. The sentiment that surrounds the vessel because of the distinguished part she played in the Great War, was, of course, the chief factor which animated the decision to retain her temporarily. It was realised that a ship of the construction of the Sydney could not be permanently preseived, and that she would eventually have to be scrapped* '

“The cost of keeping the Sydney about is £3OOO a year, and this is not justified either by the public interest displayed in the ship since she was put out Oi commission or by her potential capacity for naval service. In deciding upon the scrapping of the ship, the Government lias been influenced not only by these considerations, but also by the fact that there is a shortage of work at Cockatoo. In arranging for the dockyard to undertake the scrapping of the Sydney, the Government is assured that the scrapped material will be saleable at a profit, and that continuity of work at the dockyard will be provided.”