SUNK IN COLLISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1943, Page 2

SUNK IN COLLISION

AUSTRALIAN CORVETTE THREE MEMBERS OF CREW LOST. GALLANT EFFORTS TO SAVE SHIP.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) PERTH, June 20. The Australian corvette H.M.A.S. Wallaroo, has been sunk in collision with an Allied freighter in the dark off the coast of Western Australia. Three of the crew, were lost, and the majority of the remainder spent four hours in the water- before being picked up. No casualties were suffered on the frighter, which reached port with only minor damage. Because of the war regulations both vessels were steaming without lights. The rescued men from the Wallaroo fought gallantly all night in a vain bid to save their ship, and they finally abandoned it 10 minutes before it plunged to the bottom. Many of the men were asleep when the collision occurred. Leading Telegraphist John Mahney, a Western Australian, remained in the wireless room sending out messages with water above his knees, and when the ship’s radio failed he tried to get an emergency set working. The last to leave the ship was the captain, who had suffered serious injuries, including a broken jaw.

The Wallaroo’s lifeboat was smashed and, in seas 20ft high, the crew clung to whatever wreckage they could find. Some, of the crew of another Australian naval ship which had raced to the rescue dived overboard to bring the drowning survivors to safety.

The Wallaroo was built in New South Wales and was commissioned last July.