AUSTRALIAN COAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 January 1941, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN COAST

1 ■+■ — ! MINESWIOTN'G OITRTION'S f WAP. NOW AT HAND. I ’ RECENT LOSSES OF SHIPS i — Recent mining of ships off the Aus1 trulian coast has once more directed . attention to the tremendous task cont ! fronting the minesweepers of the Roy- ,, al Australian Navy, which have many t i Itundreds of miles of shipping lanes to :■ keep clear and safe ! The work of this naval branch was , discussed rew-ntiy by a naval officer .- in a Cemmonwealth Department of Infermatmn broadcast. This review Ims been released in New Zealand by t v ;e Ai'istrulian Trade Commissioner . i?<lt' C E CritehleyL "For some munths .if er the beginning of the tvar.” said the officer, "the men of the Ausiralnm Navy felt rather like wnlch- : ers .: - a grate. Great things were .. :;omg oil overseas And for the most _!r..r‘.. in the war's early stages, they ■ were stories of -the sea and of the .1 ehievements of the British Naw. We here seemed to be very far s away from it all Then one day i was brought home to us that Au<*«\ili.> . was really in this war at sea. There t came news of Australian naval successes in distant waters. But still it ; was all a long way from home. The i Australian navy men whose job it . was to "look after their own shores felt i - nut of it; stfli felt like watchers at. a j ■ game. "Australia was so far removed from I ; the theatres of war that to many people the precautions that had been ; taken around her coasts to safeguard • shipping seemed though quite interi csting and mildly thrilling at first now somewhat boring, and scarcely - necessary ; Ami then one day a few weeks ; .igo came a bolt from the blue ef our ■ Australian seas In Bass Strait, that i comparatively narrow stretch of water separating the island Sta'ie of Tas- ■ mama from the mainland, an overseas i British cargo vessel struck a mine. It - was a large and powerful mine and ■ ‘.he ship went down quickly, with the i loss of one life. : "I.A'ss than 24 hours later, and in that same Bass Strait area, .another ship had sunk from the same cause. I This, time it was the American motor vessel City of Rayville. And again one life w.c; lost. The war at sea had come to Australia, and our seamen here no longer felt that they were onlookers.

LESSONS OF LAST WAR. "Fortunately, the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board, which is to Australia what the Admiralty is tv Britain, had leached the lesson of the last, war. Then. :is now the enemvlaid mines eft the Australian coast Then, as now. they claimed a victim. But when in July. 1917. the British steamer Cumberland sank as a result of an explosion off the coast of New South Wales, it was not realised until some time afterwards that a mine had caused the exjilosivn. As the result of the report of a navi 1 diver from the Japanese warship Chikma. which had gone to the Cumberland's assistance, it was for some time believed that the explosion was internal, and was the result of sabotage. When later examination disproved this theory, some trawlers were hastily commissioned as minesweepers, and the area where the Cumberland had struck was swept Mmes were discovered. It was later proved that they had been laid there by the German raider Wolf. But owing to the though' that the explosion had been internal it was some weeks before the minefield which had caused the damage was discovered This time, however. things were different. The provision of flotillas of minesweepers to sweet) Australian coastal areas was one of the first precautions taken ny ’he N.>v;d Board on the outbreak ■ f war The Aitsindhm Navy possessed • the nucleus of a minesweeping fleet before the outbreak of hostilities. Sumc sloops. especiiill> equipped for minesweeping, were in I i-'.’mmis/ii'n as part of the permanent ! naval forces. Othcra were being built. Immediately h'v"ilities opened, o’sh- ! er Vessels were t.-tken up from t:-.o j merchant emwl.nl and fishing fleet- I ..nd converted fur nav.il use ■ •.verpers Crews mainly recruited! :r--m the Royal Ausiralian Naval Re-b'-gan intensive training. CHANNELS CLEARED. fhe result w.is that within a few - I the discovers i-f mmes off .la- i'.j.isl, the sU'vepvls we tv ‘»n the ini) And before the first thrill of oval public excitement had died town lii-.- Nava! Board was able to mi, ■ that cleared channels had j n-en swept through the mined areas ..-h! ;t was safe for jummal traffic u-'<-<1 S.< eiiicieu’ had been the raining - ' the K-o.u Au-’.r.than N.iv.il le- -rv." cre’.<.-< of .he -uo-p-n th..: . .•ev .s-i'- ■c.-p up r»)ines I , ' ' ■ ' d<- ’ I'- a 'tn it I

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