Posted on 10/03/2009 8:19:37 PM PDT by naturalman1975
DEFENCE officials have delayed scuttling ex-warship HMAS Canberra until 1pm today.
There will be a five minute warning flare and then a one minute flare before the underwater charges are detonated, creating an artificial reef off the Bellarine coast.
The vessel, which was to be sunk at 9am, will become a world-class diving destination when it settles on the ocean floor and is declared safe.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
The Chinese would have paid a lot for the scrap metal.
Yes, well, we once sold them an aircraft carrier for scrapping - and they used it to train and study aircraft carrier construction. Personally, I’d never send anything there again.
It probably came back as 4,712,539 9/16” wrenches.
ARDENT, TORRENS, PERTH, CANBERRA...
I’m running out of ships served on that are still in service.
Balloons on the pennant-that’s a good idea. I remember when we got underway to bring USS San Bernardino back to States to decomm. The ship had been oversea for nine years. Our homeward-bound pennant went all the way to the fantail and of course it was dragging. Still have my piece somewhere.
I was at Todd Seattle precomm unit on my first ship when the Aussies were still getting their FFGs there. Crazy guys. I’m surprised to see this ship decommed. I thought I saw the RAN was doing some heavy duty upgrades to their FFGs. Apparently not to all of them.
Canberra and Adelaide have been decommissioned. HMAS Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, and Darwin remain in service and are undergoing extensive refit.
That explains it-thanks.
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