AUS-NSW-Hunter-Valley-L Archives

From: "Ian Wright" <>
Subject: [HV] Sinking of "Iron Chieftain" & others
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:49:27 +1100

Hello Rosemary,
I sailed with BHP Shipping from Cadet to
Master,many years after the war. My old boss, the Marine Superintendent, the
late Captain P.J.E.Brady, was 2nd officer of the "Iron Chieftain" when she
was torpedoed at about 10.30 pm on the night of June 3rd,1942. From some of
his memoirs:-
"I was awakened about 10.30 pm by a loud explosion and severe concussion,
the vessel heeling slightly to starboard. Arriving on deck I saw a cloud of
smoke rising on the port side aft about abreast of the funnel (this class of
vessel had the engines at the stern) and a strong smell of powder, which
confirmed my suspicion that the ship had been torpedoed."
The ship sank in about 5 minutes. "The bow of the ship sank shortly after,
swamping the boat as it went down, but we bailed the boat out and pulled
(rowed) around the wreckage for about one hour and picked up 5
survivors....As we commenced to pull towards the land, one fairly large
submarine surfaced about 50 yards from us. We all kept low in the boat in
case he fired on us, but after inspecting us he sheered away again. To keep
the men warm we decided to keep the oars out and as we could not see any of
our rafts, I made a course for land."
He was the officer in charge of the ship's starboard lifeboat which landed
near Norah Head at daylight on the 5th with 25 persons, the Master & 11
others perished. The land had actually been reached the previous evening but
"rather than risk a landing on an unknown beach in the dark I decided to
wait until daylight."
The Master of the "Iron Chieftain" was Captain L. Haddelsey. The Japanese
submarine was the I-24 under the command of Commander Hiroshi Hanabusa,
which had been involved in the midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour on
the 1st of June,1942 and also was the submarine which shelled Sydney on the
night of June 8th.Previously she had been one of 5 submarines which launched
midget submarines at Pearl Harbour.
>From a BHP publication:-"On passage from Whyalla to Newcastle, "Iron Knight"
was the leading ship in the starboard column of convoy OC68
(Melbourne-Newcastle). This comprised 10 ships, (named),accompanied by the
naval escorts HMAS Townsville & HMAS Mildura. When sailing about 15 miles
North East of Montague Island, "Iron Knight" was struck under the bridge by
a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-21.Fully laden with iron ore, the
ship sank in approximately 2 minutes with the loss of 36 lives, including
the Master, Captain D.Ross."
"On the 4th of June, the day following the sinking of "Iron Chieftain",
Scott Fell's "Iron Crown", on passage from Whyalla to Port Kembla with BHP
iron ore, was torpedoed by the I-27 off Cape Howe (Victoria) and sank with
the loss of 38 lives; only 5 crew members surviving."
The BHP's "Iron King" was sailing in the opposite direction & witnessed the
sinking of the "Crown".
I hope this helps,
Regards, Ian Wright

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• [HV] Sinking of "Iron Chieftain" & others by "Ian Wright" <>