- Author
- A.N. Other
- Subjects
- Biographies and personal histories, WWII operations, History - WW2
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- December 2012 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
By Jo Morrice
Commander A.I. Chapman RAN (Rtd) died recently at the age of 96. This is the story of a remarkable and redoubtable man who was affectionately known to family and friends as ‘Chappie’.
Arthur Irwin Chapman was born in Adelaide in 1916 to Marie Chapman (nee Hosier), an American from Virginia, and Dr Arthur Irwin Chapman, a prominent Adelaide dental surgeon. To avoid confusion, Chappie was known as Irwin. In 1922, when he was barely six years old, Chappie and his sister were taken to Virginia to visit their mother’s family. They travelled across the Pacific in the passenger cargo liner Makura before returning to Australia via the Atlantic on the liners Mauretania and then Narakunda. The long sea voyages had a major impact on Chappie’s life. As his son Mike has observed, the seafaring bug was well and truly sown at an early age.
Educated at St Peters College in Adelaide, Chappie was a frequent visitor to Port Adelaide where he photographed ships, including the many square rigged ships that carried bagged wheat from South Australia to the UK. This led to him applying to join the Merchant Navy at the age of 16. Impatient to be accepted, Chappie went to stay with an aunt at the South Australian wheat town of Moonta, near the port of Walleroo. Here he ran away to sea! This is how Chappie tells the story:
Having failed to gain entry into the RAN as a Midshipman in 1930 due to the great depression cutbacks, the Navy suggested entering the merchant service, if possible in 1932 with a view to late entry into the Navy, which is what eventually happened. In 1932 I was 16 and gaining entry into the merchant service was just as difficult as the Navy although an application was still in being. In desperation I stowed away in Archibald Russell, (a four masted barque) at Walleroo on the day she sailed, in the paint locker forward, but was discovered the next day and put on board a fishing boat and landed in Port Victoria. Oddly enough my merchant service application came good in June the same year and my seafaring career commenced.
With salt in his veins, Chappie accepted a position with the AUSN Shipping Co in 1932, initially doing coastal runs. After a short time he was transferred to the parent Company, the Eastern and Australia Line (E&A), running from Australia to Japan via New Guinea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and the China Coast. His first ship was the SS Tanda. He spent about three years as a Cadet on this run with one year (1936) as a midshipman in the RANR onboard the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra and the destroyer HMAS Vendetta. Chappie’s capacity for intelligence gathering on runs to the Far East is worth noting. It is said that he carried a small camera up his sleeve and by fraternizing with his counterparts in the Japanese merchant navy he was able to gain valuable intelligence including the dimensions of a Japanese dry-dock.
On completion of his RANR sea time Chappie was promoted to Sub Lieutenant and also gained his Second Mates Foreign Going Certificate. He then served on the passenger cargo liner SS Nankin as Third Officer, gaining his First Mates Foreign Going Certificate in 1939. As a Merchant Navy deck officer Chappie had become a competent seaman and navigator, which of course stood him in good stead for his subsequent career in the RAN.
The outset of WW II saw Chappie assume the role of Naval Intelligence Officer and Assistant Navigator in HMS Arawa, a passenger liner that had been requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Together with HMA Ships Kanimbla and Moreton Bay, Arawa was assigned to the China Station and although flying the British white ensign, she was crewed largely by Australian reservists. The ship operated in the North and South Atlantic in the early stages of the war and in 1941 she narrowly missed intercepting the German raider Kormoran.
From Arawa Chappie joined HMAS Whyalla on commissioning in late 1941. She was one of sixty Australian minesweepers, commonly known as corvettes, built during WW II in Australian shipyards. Chappie served in Whyalla for about twelve months during which time the ship performed escort and patrol duties on the Australian East coast and was in Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 May 1942 when the Japanese midget submarine attack took place.
A highlight of Chappie’s Naval career was being appointed in command of the Dutch mine warfare vessel Abraham Crijnssen. This ship succeeded in escaping the Japanese advance in the Dutch East Indies and was subsequently transferred to the RAN. She was commissioned in September 1942 under the command of Lieutenant Chapman. Chappie later recalled that he marched on board the Crijnssen with a white ensign under one arm and two framed pictures under the other – one of HM King George VI and the other of the actress Rita Hayworth (in a very fetching black negligee). He said that the latter had been in the wardroom of his previous ship and was his property. Moreover in the interest of international goodwill it was agreed that HM Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands would remain in the Crijnssen’s wardroom and so King George was installed in the Captain’s cabin. It was further agreed that Miss Hayworth was worthy of wardroom status and consequently she was installed on the bulkhead opposite Queen Wilhelmina.
Under Chappie’s command, the Abraham Crijnssen performed vital escort duties for convoys on passage along the eastern Australian coast. Marsden Hordern, who was one of the ship’s officers, has described Chappie as a remarkable and redoubtable man with a keen sense of humour.
Before being handed back to the Royal Netherlands Navy in May 1943, the Crijnssen suffered the embarrassment of being damaged by her own depth charges. Pursuit of a possible submarine contact may well have resulted in a sunken submarine, although there was little proof of a successful attack. Instead the stricken attacker was forced to limp home for repairs. Some thirty years after this incident, Chappie wrote that the ship suffered not only extensive structural damage but that every bit of crockery had been smashed. Moreover Queen Wilhelmina crashed to the deck, King George was hanging crazily on one screw but Miss Hayworth was completely secure!
It is of interest to note that some seventy years after Chappie relinquished command, the Abraham Crijnssen is still alive and well berthed alongside at the Dutch Naval Museum as a display vessel in Den Helder, in the Netherlands. The fate of Miss Hayworth’s portrait is not known. In the post-war years it was a much sought after trophy and was passed from wardroom to wardroom in the Far East Fleet.
Following the novel experience of serving in a Dutch vessel Chappie was given a second command. This time it was HMAS Inverell, a sister ship to Whyalla, whose primary role at the time was escorting ships between Darwin and Thursday Island. The ship survived occasional attacks by Japanese aircraft before being based in Fremantle in a training role. Later she returned to the Darwin area and at the end of the war, Inverell was based in Morotai where she was involved in the transfer of Dutch East Indies territories from Japanese to Allied control. Under Chappie’s command, lasting almost three years, the ship had earned two battle honours, namely Darwin and the Pacific.
During the war, Chappie had met his first wife Jessie at Garden Island where she worked as a clerk in the secret codebooks section. At the time, Jessie’s father, a Royal Naval Lieutenant Commander, was a guest of the Emperor of Japan in Osaka having been captured by the Japanese in the battle for Hong Kong.
An appointment to the River class frigate HMAS Barcoo as First Lieutenant, or second-in-command, immediately followed Chappie’s long haul in Inverell. After the war Barcoo became a survey ship and here Chappie learnt the craft of hydrography while the ship was engaged on survey duties in Australian and New Guinea waters for more than two years. He qualified as a Fourth Class Surveyor.
On leaving Barcoo Chappie was appointed to the Permanent Naval Forces and promoted to Acting Lieutenant Commander. Thereafter he served in Kanimbla as Executive Officer and was granted a certificate as Master by the Board of Trade. Amongst other roles Kanimbla operated in support of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan.
In 1950 Chappie was put in charge of the War Criminals Compound on Manus Island (Los Negros). One of his charges was Lt. General Takuma Nishimura, former GOC of the 1st Imperial Guards Division, who was the most senior of twelve Japanese inmates on death row at the Lombrum Point Compound. Apparently Nishimura regarded the Prison Commandant as a kind man (Snaring the Other Tiger by Ian Ward), the condemned general having had many conversations in broken English with the relatively junior officer who had been given responsibility for his custody.
Chappie’s reward for what must have been a taxing, if not unique, task of looking after Japanese war criminals was being posted ashore for two years in Sydney followed by yet another ship command. This time he was given command of HMAS Macquarie, a sister ship to Barcoo, in 1952. The appointment coincided with Chappie’s good friend J P Stevenson being posted in command of Barcoo. Macquarie was part of the Task Force assigned to the Monte Bello atom bomb operation. The ship was also involved in surveillance of the Japanese pearl shell fleet off the NW coast of Australia.
After a series of small ship postings Chappie joined the flagship HMAS Australia towards the end of 1953. He progressed from being First Lieutenant to Acting Commander and then in command when the ship paid off in late 1954. One of Australia’s last roles was acting as Royal Escort for the first visit to Australia by HM Queen Elizabeth.
In 1955/56 Chappie worked in Navy Office in Victoria as Director of Logistic Planning, which entailed being the naval member of the Joint Administrative Planning Committee as well as the SEATO Logistic Plans Committee. He was then given another posting to Manus Island, this time as Executive Officer, Deputy NOIC NEA and SO (O). The NOIC was Captain M.J. Clark, whose daughter Rosemary (known as Judy) Chappie subsequently married.
Two years at HMAS Tarangau on Manus Island saw Chappie taking long leave before being appointed as Executive Officer of two shore establishments in succession in Sydney. He was discharged to shore in January 1963 in the rank of Honorary Commander and was paid £1,053/3/7d in lieu of 6 months furlough. Thus ended a career of almost thirty years of distinguished service in the RAN before, during and after World War II.
Following his discharge from the Navy Chappie worked for some years in the insurance industry. He and Judy then retired to the country. Meanwhile receipt of a War Service Loan enabled the couple to purchase their own home. For ten years they lived on five acres in Diamond Fields Road, Mittagong. Here Judy had her studio and Chappie had his two donkeys and other assorted animals. He loved animals and insects and the country style of living. Many slugs and ants owe a debt of gratitude to Chappie for being allowed a longer life than they otherwise may have enjoyed!
Because of Judy’s pottery, painting and ceramic work, they had frequent visitors, and Chappie became known as the tea lady. He was a caring husband to Judy in more ways than one.
To many, Chappie was a quiet and reserved man. Described by Judy as ‘forever at the ready’, he was also meticulous and this was much in evidence in the research and reconstruction work that he did after the two collisions at sea in which HMAS Melbourne was involved. His work, in manuscript form and which was a treatise of analysis and opinion, was published by the Commonwealth Government and accepted by the Navy as a book of reference. Joanne Stevenson used it to good effect in her book No Case to Answer as did Tom Frame in his book about Voyager.
An amusing incident at a Navy League Ball was mentioned at Chappie’s memorial service, which was held in St Stephens Anglican Church, Mittagong on 28 August 2012. Admiral and Mrs. Showers were present at the ball and dress was formal. Thus Chappie was wearing a fully starched dress shirt. When being greeted by Mrs. Showers Chappie leant forward in the customary manner to shake the lady’s hand. Alas, one of his studs popped out and lodged in Mrs. Showers’ bosom. There were straight faces all round.
Irwin Chapman undoubtedly led a full life. At an early age he had an ambition to join the RAN. Being initially unsuccessful he attempted to stow away in a square-rigged sailing ship and was later accepted into the Merchant Navy. As a commissioned officer in the RANR and RAN he acquitted himself with distinction and enjoyed a variety of postings, including three ship commands, one being a Dutch vessel. He saw operational service in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. For his war service he was awarded the 1939-45, Atlantic and Pacific Stars, in addition to three other defence and service medals. During the course of his long career, the young boy with salt in his veins had become a war veteran, a skilled seaman, navigator, intelligence officer and hydrographic surveyor. He also had the unique experience of being responsible for Japanese war criminals who had been condemned to death.
Note. The author is grateful for the valuable assistance given to him in compiling this story by Commander Chapman’s son Michael and also Chappie’s wife Judy.