The Naval Historical Society – 20 years on – Part 3

Author

Lind, L.J.

Subjects

History - general

Tags

Naval Historical Society

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

December 1990 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Alan Payne was an indefatigable historian and writer. He was rarely content to accept official histories or eyewitness accounts without corroboration from other sources. His research correspondence was voluminous as I was to discover when he died. In preparing the manuscript for ‘HMAS CANBERRA’ he wrote no less than 436 letters. This meticulous dedication to fact may be attributed to his family upbringing. His father was Britain’s Chief Ship Constructor and his brother was a noted historian and author. Robert Payne was the biographer of Lawrence of Arabia.

Kuttabul Wheel House

Late in this year the Society became the owners of the Navy’s last relic of HMAS KUTTABUL. The forward wheelhouse of the old accommodation ship survived the torpedoing in 1942 and was landed to become the Naval Police Office at Church Steps landing on the eastern side of Garden Island. With the closing of Church Steps for the building of the West Dock Wharf the aging wheelhouse became redundant and was to be burnt.

I made a bid for the relic on behalf of the Naval Historical Society. The bid was accepted on the condition that the wheelhouse be removed from Garden Island. This problem was overcome by obtaining the services of a crane barge and temporarily storing the relic at the south end of Snapper Island.

In the late 1970s with the erection of the new HMAS KUTTABUL Barracks the Captain of the establishment asked would the Society consider the mounting of the wheelhouse at Kuttabul. The Society agreed and the wheelhouse was restored at the Small Craft Facility at Ryde and in 1980 it was mounted inside the main gates of the barracks.

The Naval Historical Review had gone from strength to strength in 1974 and the March, 1975 issue contained 60 pages. Our contributors were as diverse as the contributions which appeared in its pages. One who remains firmly in my memory was Captain Trevor Wilson Ross, OBE, RAN who despite his 80 plus years contributed a number of excellent articles. One, ‘A Naval Encounter’, was his autobiography covering a period of service from 1912 to 1950. Later in the year I had the pleasure of spending a pleasant few hours with Captain Ross in his Kensington, U.K. apartment. His next door neighbour was the Duchess of Bedford.

HMAS Sydney

The Royal Australian Navy’s first aircraft carrier was put up for disposal that year and the Society in common with many Australians viewed her possible departure to the Far East for breaking up with regret. I believe I mirrored the thoughts of the majority of members when I wrote to the media expressing my views. These letters received considerable prominence in all capital city newspapers and I was interviewed by one of the television channels. Two things happened at this very time which almost led to the preservation of the carrier in Australia.

First, the sale of the carrier to South Korea for breaking up fell through. Secondly, I received a telephone call from a retired mining millionaire who offered to underwrite the preservation of HMAS SYDNEY. Discussions were held with this potential benefactor and his solicitor at the former’s waterfront home at Vaucluse. The outcome of these discussions was an offer to finance the project up to $1 million subject to the Society obtaining a suitable site for the permanent docking of the aircraft carrier.

This proposition was accepted by the Committee subject to our being able to meet the benefactor’s requirement. The offer soon became known to the media and headlines appeared in the press. Oddly enough, the publicity brought forward a suggestion that the old Gas Works site at Manly may be made available for HMAS SYDNEY.

I was invited to a meeting with the Manly City Council at which the project was discussed at length. The impression I gained was the Council viewed favourably a project which could become an added tourist attraction to the resort.

A second outcome of the press publicity was a hounding of the benefactor who at this stage wished to remain anonymous. However, his solicitor made a number of statements confirming his client’s offer.

The Society appointed a sub-committee to prepare plans for the ship’s preservation and rough drawings of the site with the ship in place were prepared. An offer was also received from a large concrete engineering firm to bed the carrier in concrete.