- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- Letter to the Editor
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Terka
- Publication
- July 1992 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Re the article on HMAS TERKA in the March 1992 edition of the Bulletin, readers may be interested in the following note.
During the late 60s and early 70s, one of the instructors in my local Sea Cadet unit T.S. TAMAR, was Mr Noel Barton, who as a very young sailor was posted to TERKA as a seaman gunner RANR.
Noel told us that on TERKA’s last trip to Madang, the ship was tied up and only the duty watch left aboard while the rest of the ship’s company all went ashore to watch a Bing Crosby film at the open air cinema.
On conclusion of the film they returned to where the ship was berthed to find that the ship had sunk. The crew was elated to be given a fortnight’s survivors leave back in Australia and a new replacement kit.
Noel’s thoughts were that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Mind you, he said, at the time they were none too keen to tell all their admirers of how their ship was lost.
A J Lee