12 February 1969
On this day in 1969 the World War 11 destroyer HMAS Arunta was taken from Garden Island to commence her tow to a Taiwanese breakers yard by a Japanese tug. She never made it. She started to fill with water and the tow had to be abandoned. She lies north of Sydney in Australian territorial waters.
Her premature sinking may or may not have something to with the fact that shortly before the commencement of the tow, a number of former crew members, with permission from the Navy, inspected Arunta for the last time.
Some of these were members of the WWII crew who had expressed their objection to their ship being taken overseas for breaking up. Some of these sailors would have been well acquainted with how to release sea cocks to allow a slow flood to develop over 24 hours.
The Arunta Association website makes no such admission. Instead it claims, most improbably that the movement of the ship at sea caused the cleats to become ineffective and the stop cocks to open. However it finishes enigmatically with the statement. “ As a result a dignified and honourable burial at sea brought to a close the life of a proud ship.”
The Sydney Sun of Saturday 15 February published a photo of Arunta just before she disappeared into the ocean depths. The photo was under the heading “A Ship Dies” with a sub-heading “HMAS Arunta – Her crew said that she would never make it.”
