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| "H.M.A.S. Sea Mist" on patrol, circa 1942.. |
I recently stumbled upon a little ship that has an
amazing history; having a place in both Australian wartime and maritime history - as well as
my family’s…
I was out treading the boardwalks at the
Royal Queensland Yacht Club in Manly, doing some R&D for a project I’m
working on; and as I came to the end of the
long spit that runs to the mouth of the marina and opens out into Moreton Bay, a few bays into the last jetty, I saw a classic, low
profile “bridgedeck” timber rig in one of the larger berths. I went for a closer inspection and the name
on the stern revealed “Sea Mist” – I knew of her well…
My uncle had owned Sea Mist in the 70’s and
early 80’s, at which time it was based at Southport. My parents had some fond memories of being aboard
her. But the beautiful 65 foot cruiser, built and launched in 1939 by the famed Lars Halvorsen & Sons (“Halvorsen”) of Neutral Bay,
had an incredible history before that – and if her timber gunwales could speak,
they would tell a great story… For it
was Sea Mist that had sunk one of the Japanese Midget submarines in Sydney Harbour
on that fateful night and morning of 31 May / 1 June, 1942 …
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| "Sea Mist" tied up near Customs House, Brisbane - 1979 |
I had known a little bit about Sea Mists's involvement in the famous "Attack on Sydney Harbour", through my family, but seeing her again prompted me to dig a bit deeper - and I discovered a wealth of literature on this very historic and symbolic moment, in the arrival of the war to our shores..
The mere fact that the Sea Mist found herself in this position was quite remarkable… So scant and minimal was Australia’s naval resources at the time of World War II, the Government, realising it had to bolster its fleet, requisitioned a number of larger, privately owned pleasure vessels from their owners for service, to “prop up” its forces.
Sea Mist was hardly built for combat. It had originally been commissioned for the founder of “Meadow Lea” food products, businessman Oliver Triggs (the first person in Australia to manufacture table margarine). Sea Mist was said to be the very last boat that the revered boatbuilder Lars Halvorsen - the Norwegian immigrant and original founder of Halvorsen - had a hand in designing, before his passing in 1936.
It was commandeered by the Royal Australian Navy in 1942 - when Japan entered World War II - and was acquired for 4,000 pounds; a bargain price considering its Lloyds valuation of 5,500 pounds... There was apparently some haggling around this, but ultimately, Sea Mist became one of "Her Majesty's Australian Ships" as part of what was known as the Navy Auxillary Patrol (NAP).
HMAS Sea Mist (Q10) was subsequently re-fitted accordingly; with a .303 Vickers machine gun on the bow, windows “blocked in”, various other artillery and armour, 4 depth charges and a military paint job. With the other large pleasure-come-patrol boats, including several other Halvorsens, Sea Mist became part of what was affectionately referred to as the “Hollywood Fleet” – charged (in part) with the defence of Sydney Harbour.
To its advantage it was long, “lean” and reasonably fast - for a displacement hull – and built well. From a distance, in profile, it could be mistaken for one of the legendary 80 foot American PT boats - but it couldn't go anywhere near the 42 knots those "giant killers" could - nor did it have anywhere near the arsenal - the PT's being, pound for pound, the most heavily armed boats in US military history...
However Sea Mist was to "punch above its weight" in the attack on Sydney...
The Attack
Warning signs that an offensive by the Empire of Japan was being planned for Sydney had been existent for sometime. A submarine attack off Newcastle; reconnaissance flights over Sydney by Japanese sea planes; and New Zealand intelligence that there was an enemy unit 40 miles east of Sydney, being among these... Further, the British Admiralty had failed to report a submarine attack on a harbour in Madagascar, just hours before.
Nonetheless, there was no extra or special vigilance on Sydney Harbour on the evening of 31 May. It was a Sunday night with the typical "end of the weekend" atmosphere. It was rainy, overcast and cold. There was plenty of movement around the city, with people making their way home and there was hustle and bustle in the areas populated by sailors - there were reportedly over 80,000 US Servicemen in Australia at the time.
The floodlights were on at Garden Island and there was a hive of activity on the harbour, with vessels coming and going and ferries doing their usual runs. Indeed the harbour was full of ships - more than at any other time of the war, with over 30 naval vessels and several large commercial ships.
The sun went down at 5pm and an air of calm descended on the harbour - the calm before the storm - for just outside the heads of Sydney Harbour, three of Japan's largest ocean going I class submarines were launching three potentially lethal Ko-hyoteki-class"midget" submarines on the unsuspecting city, with a further two submarines in support and a total of 500 Imperial Japanese navy personnel in total. Their mission was to inflict as much damage as possible on major allied ships.
The three midget submarines, the M24, M21 and M27, were released from the three larger submarines - two of which had launched midget submarines into Pearl Harbour in the famous shock attack, just six months previous. Each of the midgets were 24 meters long (80 foot) with a two member crew, two torpedoes and with a 12 hour range, submerged.
The Japanese had intended to destroy several major warships moored in the harbour; among these were the three major, heavy cruisers, the USS Chicago, HMAS Canberra and the HMAS Adelaide; along with several other destroyers, minelayers, corvettes and armed merchant cruisers.
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| USS Chicago |
The M24 was not so unlucky - following a Manly ferry through the boom defences - it recorded inward crossings on an "indicator loop" at 9:48pm.
At 10.50pm an Ensign aboard the large warship, the USS Chicago, saw the M24's periscope 500 meters away. He opened fire with his .45 pistol before the submarine was illuminated by the Chicago and then subjected to a torrent of shells, both from the Chicago and other corvettes - which proceeded to pursue the intruding submarine around the harbour, much to the shock of passengers on small craft in the vicinity. The submarine submerged to escape attack. Despite the potential danger to civilian craft, remarkably, ferries were allowed to keep running; Rear Admiral Muirhead-Gould believed:
"...the more boats that were moving about at high speed, the better chance of keeping the submarines down till daylight."Avoiding its pursuers, at 12.30am, M24 re-surfaced and took aim at the USS Chicago. It fired its torpedoes. The first went astern of the Chicago, passed under the Dutch submarine K9, and slammed into the HMAS Kuttabul, a converted ferry come accommodation vessel. The torpedo ripped through the Kuttabul, exploding it in two and sending large chunks of its hull skyward in a thunderous concussion. Twenty-one (21) sailors were killed, with a further ten injured. (The ultimate retrieval of the corpses took some time and was one of the more confronting scenes of the war on the domestic front).
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| HMAS Kuttabul... sunk by the Japanese. 21 people perished. It was several days before they could all be recovered. |
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| Unexploded torpedo from the Japanese midget sub, M24 |
"Enemy submarine is present in the harbour and Kuttabul has been torpedoed."
The channel patrol boats were dispatched. "Tomaree" to the East boom gate. "Steady Hour", "Lolita" and "Yarroma" were sent to the boom. "Marlean" and "Sea Mist" were sent to the West.
M24 made its way for the heads - a crossing was later identified at 1.10am - one and a half hours after firing its torpedoes... At 3am the Chicago left the harbour and as it was leaving, it identified a periscope, almost alongside. The M21 was making a belated entry... The Chicago signalled Garden Island:
"Submarine entering the harbour."There was now a concerted effort to find this and any other midget submarine in the harbour.
For several hours there had been pandemonium - sirens were sounding, searchlights, flares and tracer fire arced overhead. There were so many navel vessels swarming across the harbour and such frequent explosions of depth charges and gunfire, it was somewhat miraculous there were no collisions or accidents...
It is reported that Sydneysiders displayed a variety of reactions to the action. Some went about their business - others hurried to the nearest air-raid shelter, while others still rushed to the nearest vantage point to see what all the commotion was about...
For the next two hours, there were intermittent sitings near Taronga Zoo and Bradley's Head, but it wasn't until 5am that M21 was discovered by "Sea Mist", in Taylor's Bay.
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| A rare photo believed to show one of the depth charges being dropped in the harbour on the morning of 1 June, 1942. |
Sea Mist confirmed the object as a submarine and dropped a critical depth charge into its frothing wake, set for 30 metres. This blew the midget submarine to the surface. Attacking again as it sunk, Sea Mist's captain, Lt Andrew dropped a second bracket of shallow-set depth charges, set at 15m, which only allowed his boat 5 seconds to clear... It didn't quite make it - lifted by the stern by its own explosion, Sea Mist's engines were disabled. In the process, however, it had floundered the Japanese sub.
While Sea Mist was out of action, the damage was done - the attack had brought the invading Japanese to peril. Not to be outdone though, "Steady Hour", the 56 foot Halvorsen, picked up where Sea Mist left off, continuing the assault and with other angry patrol boats joining it soon after, a further 17 depth charges were dropped on the wrecked sub. Crippled and laying on the bottom with its engine still running, the two Japanese crew members were dead. They had been unable to detonate the submarine's internal demolition charges...
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| HMAS Steady Hour - another Halvorsen - came to assist Sea Mist. |
Midget submarines M27 and M21 were subsequently salvaged from the harbour in the days after the raid: M27 from the anti-submarine netting and M21 from Taylor's Bay. Their four deceased crew were cremated with full military honours and their ashes returned to Japan. However the whereabouts of M24, the sub that had sunk the Kuttabul, remained one of the great wartime and maritime mysteries - until very recently...
It remains the first and only time in history that Sydney was attacked.
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| The M21 midget submarine is retrieved from Taylor's Bay |
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| M27 trapped in netting during recovery |
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| Japanese Midget Sub on 3 June, 1942. For over 60 years the final resting place of M24 was unknown. There were many theories about what might have happened to the missing submarine and many alleged discoveries. It was not until November 2006, that a group of weekend divers, the "No Frills Divers", located the still intact Japanese midget submarine M24 off Bungan Head, Newport. It was entangled in nets, fifty-four meters below on the seabed. The popular belief is that the crew never made it back to the planned rendezvous point, immediately south of Port Hacking. Initially kept secret, the discovery generated considerable media interest. The wreck was gazetted as a heritage site and war grave, in December 2006; numerous commemorative services and dives have taken place at the site, since. 
Mamoru Ashibe was one of the Japanese sailors entombed in the wreckage of the M24.
 "Sea Mist" earned one battle honour for its contribution to this historic defence: "Pacific 1942". It is reported that perhaps its skipper, Lt Andrew, did not receive the recognition and credit he deserved... The mere fact these humble yet capable boats were used in a major military engagement is more evidence of how far our country has come in the last 70 years - and, how gutsy Australia's contribution and sacrifice to WW2 was... |
Post War
The original owners of Sea Mist, the Triggs, only came to know about the family boat's role in Sydney in recent years, after mistakenly thinking Sea Mist had headed for New Guinea... Oliver Triggs' son, Ken, was quoted in 2011:
"Our family had been told that our boat would be patrolling around New Guinea so it did come as a surprise to find out about her role in Sydney... I've only just found out that our cruiser played a crucial role in the sinking of the Japanese midget submarines... a good friend told me he had found that information on the internet..."
In the late 1940's and 50's Sea Mist was used and owned by Hope Bartlett, the motor racing identity and was subsequently purchased by Radio 2GB for popular media personality, Jack Davey.
She ultimately came north to Queensland, to Southport.
My uncle, John Donnelly, sold Sea Mist in the early 1980's to a Brisbane family - where it has called home ever since. As I understand, the same family has retained ownership. My cousins and I had spotted her in the Brisbane river once or twice in the 90's, looking a bit tired... In 1999, to celebrate her 60th, she underwent a comprehensive overhaul and re-fit.
My uncle, John Donnelly, sold Sea Mist in the early 1980's to a Brisbane family - where it has called home ever since. As I understand, the same family has retained ownership. My cousins and I had spotted her in the Brisbane river once or twice in the 90's, looking a bit tired... In 1999, to celebrate her 60th, she underwent a comprehensive overhaul and re-fit.
Nowadays, she is berthed at RQYS and is in pretty pristine order. When spotted in the Bay, she still turns heads.
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| "Sea Mist" at RQYS, 2012 When I saw her and took these photos, it was clear she’s had a bit of work done over the years – a few of the aft portholes have been filled; windows look too good to be original. Of course the paintwork has had a few go-overs and the aft entrance doors, rails and cabins have all been changed. No doubt "re-caulked" a few times... But she is fundamentally the same, with"cosmetic surgery". |
She still looks outstanding and endures as a reminder not only of a chapter in our history but as an example of great design and timeless boatbuilding. Few boats get built like this anymore - the timber construction being largely a lost art and cost prohibitive in a materials and tooling sense - Sea Mist would cost a small fortune to build today... This is a hand designed, meticulously hand-crafted rig, that could theoretically be around for quite a bit longer yet...
*****
Incidentally, a few weeks after discovering Sea Mist, I was at the
Gold Coast City Marina and came upon another of my uncle’s old boats – which
also has a pedigree – albeit not quite as decorated as that of Sea Mist…
“Odyssey” is a beautiful 75 foot Millcraft
built timber and fiberglass boat – originally commissioned by the late Keith
Williams in 1971 and used widely in the promotion and early operations of his (then) fledgling "Sea
World" venture...
It sailed extensively up and down the east coast - particularly the Great Barrier Reef - spending time in Melbourne and Sydney, but has called the waters of the Gold Coast and Brisbane home for much of its life. Williams is on the record as saying it was
the nicest boat he ever owned. My uncle purchased it in the early 80’s and I believe felt similarly - and both these gentlemen have owned some very nice ones... Most recently it was owned by the Commodore of the RQYS and was for sale when I spotted her.
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| "Odyssey" on the Broadwater, Gold Coast. |
It is a testament to great Australian boatbuilding
that these grand old ladies continue to work our waterways – and in such style. Boats like these have presence and personalities and
these two have plenty…
NJC
