Posted on 03/16/2008 4:25:17 PM PDT by Gomez
The group searching for HMAS Sydney has found the wreckage of the World War II Australian warship off the coast of Western Australia, the ABC has confirmed.
The breakthrough by the Finding Sydney Foundation comes less than 24 hours after it announced it had located the wreckage of the German raider Kormoran, which also sank after a battle with the Sydney in November 1941.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
*The one that sank two British ships off Coronel, and was then sunk at the Falklands.
That one wasn't lost off of Corenel - it went down off of the Falklands, on the other side of South America.
I was thinking of the later Scharnhorst which had about 3 times the number killed.
If I remember correctly, the reason the remains in the Hunley faired so well is that the hull was completely filled with mud.
36 survivors, rescued by destroyers HMS SCORPION and MATCHLESS [out of a crew of some 1,800].
“Yes, they were ... criminals were sent there.”
Indeed convicts were transported. However Australia came into existence only in 1901 (actually technically in 1931 or 1986 depending on your interpretaion)as a federation of states long after transportation had ended. Some of these states were set up in their early days as penal colonies, some as free states. So you see to say Australia was a penal colony is a gross oversimplification.
That is what I am thinking. Two more days and the Indianapolis would have not had survivors.
They weren’t close to each other when they sunk.
Yes the Hunley was filled with mud, in pretty shallow calm waters. The Whydah wreck at Cape Cod produced an intact leg bone of the youngest pirate ever, still attached to his shoe. I guess I just cant imagine remains being found in deep ocean waters.
“They weren’t close to each other when they sunk.”
They were 4 Nautical miles apart
When they both went down or when they were engaged?
I just read the article again and it says they were found ten miles apart. That is a pretty long way if there was only a surface search. We don’t really know if anyone was even looking for them.
ping
They weren't. Single ship encounter.
The Kormoran crew took to the lifeboats Midnight 19 November 1941. First raft of survivors picked up 23 November by transport Aquitania (operating under W/T silence).
First report of the action and the possible fate of the now overdue Sydney reported 1700 (Western Australian time) on 24 November 1941 by tanker Trocas which picked up another group of Kormoran survivors.
Search didn;t begin until 4 days after the action.
Air search found more boats from 0700 25 November.
5 days after. I suck at math.
Quite an interesting article; thank you very much for the ping and the update :-)
Wreck of HMAS Sydney found
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986730/posts
Sorry about that. Meant to post a link to the new thread:
(HMAS) Sydney found by joining up German’s dots (fascinating story) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990905/posts
Especially in view of the fact he was rushing off with a mere two destroyer escort for the sole purpose of getting back to Scapa Flow in time for a court marshal of a senior officer of the Glorious with whom he had a personal vendetta.
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