I don't know about you, but I love watching documentaries about shipwrecks and undersea archaeological discoveries. I've learned so much, and it's made the possibility of a true expedition on behalf of Strong even more exciting. Having a degree in anthropology and archaeology may have something to do with it as well, but as a kid the science of  discovery and the human stories behind the wrecks always fascinated me. That being said, we have many great shipwreck hunters here in the US that are familiar to us because of programs and documentaries on History Channel, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Of course everyone knows Dr. Robert Ballard  because of his discovery of Titanic, a tragic and historic wreck known the world over. Most people in the US however, have never heard of another American shipwreck hunter (a New Jersey native) living abroad in England, one David  L. Mearns.  Because most of David's work involves ships from the United Kingdom and Australia, his documentaries are shot and shown by companies that do not normally broadcast in the US, even though we do get some BBC programming here. There are some on-line sources such as YouTube however, that make it possible to view the documentary of one of David's most historic and tragic finds, the HMAS Sydney (see the link below).
   
David's book, "The Search for the Sydney: Australia's Greatest Maritime Mystery Solved", goes into detail on the history of WWII in the southern hemisphere, the involvement of Germany in that area of the world at the time, the history of Sydney herself while also giving the reader tantalizing and copious details of the actual expedition with amazing photographs. The book is one of the most beautiful publications I've ever seen (and no David, I'm not trying to suck up, it's true) which includes a full architectural diagram of the ship on the back of the folding dust cover, and a full color poster of the ship as an insert in the middle. It's big, colorful and heavy - and unfortunately not available in the US. However, there is a web site from Australia called Booktopia (www.booktopia.com.au) where it can be found, and they ship internationally. The current price for the book is $42.25 AU, but in US dollars that translates to just under $40.00, so the conversion rate is a wash. Add in about $20.00 for shipping and you still get a bargain considering the quality of this book. I was lucky enough to get a copy signed by David at a book signing he did in Sydney, just too bad I couldn't have been there in person. This blog contains information and excerpts from the book, as well as photographs credited to David and the Blue Water Recoveries, LTD web site.

The HMAS Sydney (II) was the pride of the Royal Australian Navy. She slid out of her slip on September 22, 1934 from the shipyard of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson at Wallsend-on-Tyne in England. She began life as the HMS Phaeton, but while under construction was purchased by the RAN and renamed as the second incarnation of the Sydney, the first Sydney after having a distinguished career of her own during WWI was decommissioned in 1928. Sydney II was completed by September 24, 1935 and went to work under her first captain, J.U.P. Fitzgerald, RN.  

Years passed and WWII came to Australia as well as Europe, Japan and the Pacific theater. Japan is a little over 3,000 miles north of Australia and thus a threat to their northern and eastern shores from the very beginning. The Germans however, came south to harrass them on their western shores and in the Indian Ocean. This led to the battle that ended the life and service of Sydney II and the German freighter turned battleship Kormoran. They met head on off the western coast of Australia on November 19th of 1941, each ship bombarding the other until they were both crippled and sunk just miles apart. Not one of the 645 men survived on Sydney, while Kormoran only lost 74 of 395 men. The Australian people were demanding to know how this happened:
 "The shock of Sydney's loss was enormous and felt deeply all across the nation. Australians believed that they had lost the bravest of men fighting on the Australian Navy's best and most famous ship. Sadness and anger was quickly
replaced by disbelief and intense questioning. How was it possible that Kormoran, this seemingly inferior converted freighter, was able to defeat and sink the glorious Sydney?"
 After many years of effort, the citizens of Australia raised $5,000,000 toward the search effort, and David Mearns went to work in 2008.

 I'm going to be brief here, because I really want people to check out the book and watch the documentary on line to learn  how David works and applies his skills to finding some of the hardest to find wrecks. Sydney was deemed impossible to locate by most people, even the Australian government. David says, "I can remember very well the first time I heard about the story of the HMAS Sydney and the great mystery surrounding her final resting place. It was late January and I was in London attending a conference on the protection of underwater cultural heritage, which is another way to describe ancient shipwrecks and their cargoes." Later in the meeting he had a chance to discuss it further with a maritime archaeologist from Australia, Graeme Henderson, and learn more. Because David specialized in deep water wrecks, the archaeologist was keen to interest him in the project. "It was clear from the way Graeme spoke about Sydney and her men, that this was no ordinary shipwreck story and that the memory of Sydney held a very special place in the hearts and minds of Australians." He decided then, that it would be his mission some day to locate the ship, and give the people of Australia the closure they badly needed. 
  
In early 2008, David was able to begin searching for both the Kormoran and Sydney along the western coast of Australia. His plan was to first find Kormoran, and adjust his calculations to locate Sydney which should have been within a few nautical miles of the search box for Kormoran when they both sunk. His strategy worked, and on March 17th of 2008, just hours after announcing that they had located the wreck of Kormoran, his team located the wreck of the HMAS Sydney!  They had schedule 45 days to complete the search, and achieved success about halfway through, ahead of schedule.  The people of Australia could begin their healing process, and David could add one more successful expedition to his list of hard to find wrecks.

Learning about David's work is important to me, because I've learned much about his interest in the human story, ethical practices and his methodical approach to finding these wrecks.  He's not in this for the glory of discovery primarily - the human history is important to him, helping people find closure and telling a good story, something heartwarming to ease the pain of the tragedies in the past. This is what I hope to accomplish for Strong, so by viewing this documentary you can see what we hope to accomplish for our families as well.   If the opportunity arises to film Strong, David will apply the same principles that make him successful every time. 

Tammi

P.S. The documentary is no longer available on YouTube due to copyright issues. Hard copies can be obtained on Ebay's Australian site, but they are not region 1 as required for the US. You need a multi-region DVD or Blue Ray player to view them, or a way to convert them to region 1. (4/3/2016)

Hi all,

I’ve been contacted by another Strong family member!  Who the family is, I can’t say just yet.  I’ll announce that once I’ve had a chance to communicate further with them and determine their interest in the project, but he was a much esteemed officer on Strong who was among the casualties. 

 It never ceases to amaze me how many people have found me via the web site, and how I’ve managed to recruit others to help with my research.  This is how I came to welcome this family mentioned above.  Just recently a man sharing the last name of this Strong officer found the web site. His name is Norman P., and evidently he’s been interested in Fletcher Class destroyers since childhood, often building models of the ships.  He contacted me from the form on the site, and we’ve struck up a nice email based relationship.   Norman took it upon himself to search Ancestry.com with the intention of locating some member of this family, and he succeeded.  After leaving a post for the family, he emailed me.  When I got up the next morning I had an email from Norman telling me what he’d done – and a response from the family in question!  He struck gold, and I’m thrilled to be adding a new family member (or more) to my growing list of contacts.  I hope to use the next blog to introduce this officer, his family and a bit about his story.   I so appreciate Norman and his efforts on my behalf, and for the Strong.

Right now I’d like to offer a little information on an event that some of you might be interested in attending.  Over the year, there are several of these events called Bull Sessions held in various parts of the country.  The old sailors get together and share stories, support each other and generally have a great time.  If possible, I hope to make it sometime just to sit and learn as much as possible from these guys.  Another person who has been helpful in my research, a retired officer named Morgan L. sent me an email recently about a Bull Session in Texas that’s coming up.  Be informed also that the National Museum of the Pacific War is also located here, so if you have research of your own to do this would be the place.  A link to this museum is on my Navy Links and Research page:

“Tin Can Sailors (Nat'l Association of Destroyer Sailors) is having a Texas Bull Session in Fredericksburg on Oct 26, 2013 at the Sunday House (motel).     Plans are still forming.

When firmed up, I'll send a copy of the flyer/registration certificate. Please know that Destroyer Association members are invited to these Bull Sessions.    These are fun opportunities to meet destroyer sailors from other ships.    The USS Strong is cordially invited. The big attraction for Fredericksburg is the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War -- LOTS of military history.   Attendees can surely visit the museum

in the afternoon and get back to the Bull Session for dinner (speaker, to be confirmed?)

These are fun "bull sessions" and chances to swap sea stories ("lies" in the civilian world, none of that was possible civilians think?! 

Thought you may want to know/spread the opportunity for Texas Strong Assoc'n members???     More as we learn it.”

Anyone interested can visit the Tin Can Sailors web site (link is on my Links page), and if you’d like to join their organization you can receive the publication listing all of the bull sessions around the country.  Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.   Also, I welcome any information you have to share about your Strong family member. 

I hope to be able to introduce you to this fine officer and his family soon. 

Tammi

It was 70 years ago that the fate of 324 men assigned to the USS Strong DD 467 changed forever.  These 324 men, give or take a few who were aboard, but who didn't make it onto the crew roster (Mr. Merriman, we salute you),  cruised into the Kula Gulf of the Solomon Islands on the evening of July 4th as part of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 21, Task Group 36.1 which consisted of 4 destroyers -Nicholas, O'Bannon, Chevalier and Strong- and 3 light cruisers carrying troops -Helena, Honolulu, and St. Louis.  There were other destroyer escorts and screeners, but this was the core of our group sent in there to bomb Bairoko Harbor and sites on Kolombangara Island to draw the Japanese away from the Rice Anchorage area so allied troops could be off-loaded.  
 
At the same time our guys were bombing their targets, 4 Japanese destroyers were moving into the gulf  - the Nagatsuki, Satsuki, Yunagi and Niizuki (the ship credited for sinking Strong).  Two of the ships broke formation
and steered toward the coast of Kolombangara Island.  Having detected allied ships in the area, three of the four ships fired off an array of 14 Long Lance torpedos from over 11 nautical miles away, turned tail and headed back
north and out of the Kula Gulf.  In the meantime just after midnight on July 5th, Strong had just completed its bombing run on Bairoko Harbor and had turned back north, parallel to the coast of New Georgia and the landing site at Rice Anchorage.  Men on the bridge watched in horror as the wake of a torpedo became evident, and with seconds to act there was no time to take evasive action – and fate took over.  The families of 46 men were to begin a grieving process while the families of the other survivors were to begin the process of helping their fathers, brothers, and husbands heal from what was probably the most terrifying event of their lives.  Many would never fully recover and deal with trauma and the effects of what was then called “shell shock” or “battle fatigue”, what we now diagnose as PTSD.   And because I have befriended a few of these families over the years, I wanted to include their reflections in this blog.  After putting out a request, three family members responded with the stories they were told as children, of two of the men who served as officers on Strong, O. Milton Hackett, Ensign USNR, Torpedo Officer and the captain of this well loved and respected ship, Joseph Harold Wellings, LCDR, USN, Commanding Officer.

First, Wendy Hackett Jalbert, daughter of Milt Hackett:

 “Our dad, O M Hackett, was a US Naval officer aboard the Strong from the start of the war through its sinking.  The night it went down he rescued many others from the oily waters to floats/boats/nets.  After being in the water about 12 hours, he decided they should swim to shore to get help.  Many of the men were unable to do this due to injury.  After about three days those that made it to shore ran into some natives who brought them to the US Marines.  While on the island they lived on coconut milk and eggs from the chickens that ran loose on the island.  By the time Dad arrived safely back in the US his family had been informed he was missing and believed he was dead.  After a brief furlough in Washington state, he was reassigned to another destroyer being commissioned in Boston.  It was on this ship that he met our mother who was the lead singer with the USO troop.  He traveled again to the Pacific and was present at Iwo Jima among many other famous battles.  His was the fourth ship to travel into Tokyo harbor at the Japanese surrender, and he watched the ceremony from the deck.

 Our parents are still living in the Washington DC area.  Dad attends as many of the Strong reunions when possible.”

 In seeing Wendy’s account, I am awed by the fact that something wonderful came from Milt’s experiences following the sinking.  He met the woman he eventually married and raised a family with while readying to once again go to sea.  And, he had the privilege of being present at the end, and seeing that the sacrifices made by his former shipmates were not in vain.

The daughter of Captain J.H. (Gus) Wellings, Anne, also has recollections of the story her father told her as a young girl:

 “As to the sinking of the Strong:  I remember my father saying that he
was covered with oil on a floater net with his or one of his firemen. It was pitch dark and they were waiting and waiting when there was a ship directly in front of them.  The fireman signaled with his light and someone screamed down "turn the----thing off or we'll have the Japanese navy on top of us!"   He, daddy, had to be carried up the rope ladder on the shoulders of the fireman. (Wellings was rescued by the USS Gwin hours after the sinking)  No strength.  I gathered too that some Admiral (friend of my father's) said to whomever "we have to send a ship in to try and find Gus-- one more time before it gets light."  When Daddy woke up he was on an island in a tented hospital and the wife of one of his best friend's who became a Red Cross nurse was at this side !!!  (Her name was Meda Edwards, this information from a letter written home on July 16th to his wife Dolly)

 

I also remember the days of rehabilitation he went thru at the Boston Navy  hospital.  And then he went back out again and mother and I saw the ships leaving from Old Point Comfort in Virginia.  A lovely long line of them going out heading south for the canal.  My mother said I should remember that and you see, I have !”

Gus Wellings ended up back in the Pacific, and the commander of DESRON 2 on the USS Morris in New Guinea.  So we see that many of these men elected to return to duty to “finish what we started”.  Their attention to duty, dedication to the cause, to home and family is what reaches out to us after their days of service are long gone.  The ones who survived came home to rebuild this country into something worth continuing to fight for.  We are so blessed to have a military strong enough to continue this mission, and the supportive families and friends here at home to keep things on track.  

There is much more to these stories, more accounts than I can mention, but I have it all on paper.  Anyone interested in a copy of the Strong documents including action reports, survivor accounts, copies of newspaper clippings and
such, send me a message or an email.  The action report for the incident is on the Memories of Strong page in JPEG form, feel free to download the document. 
 
On July 5th, don’t forget to take a few moments to reflect, cry if you need to, or smile because there was something to celebrate about the day – just remember.  That’s all they ask.  That we remember.
 
Tammi