Extract from Corvette Magazine

   

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H.W. “Blue” Donsworth ex HMAS Colac

 

Sinking of MV Limerick 26 April 1943 by Jap Submarine I 177 SE of Ballina

 

2013 represents the 100th year of the formation of our Royal Australian Navy and it also brings back memories of 70 years past when 40 ships, give or take a few, were sank by Japanese submarines off the Eastern coast of Australia mainly in NSW waters.  

 

One of these ships was a 10,000 ton merchant ship MV Limerick who was in a convoy of five which departed Sydney for Brisbane at 0600 on Saturday 24 April 1943, escorted by two corvettes; HMAS Colac and HMAS Ballarat, plus the French destroyer “Le Triumphante” and Dutch destroyer “Trump” which left the convoy at Newcastle.

 

Apart from Limerick having some trouble keeping her station in convoy, all was well until 0105 on Monday 26 April. With the convoy approximately 10 miles east of Lennox Head, the Limerick was torpedoed port side in the engine room. According to Colac lookouts, the torpedo passed under the Colac which was inshore or port side escort. After the initial explosion the Limerick, which was in ballast with a load of timber, listed heavily to port, causing some of the crew to abandon ship whilst others stayed to try and douse the fire burning below decks.  The Colac dropped patterns of depth charges to no result, began the difficult task of picking up survivors in rapidly deteriorating sea conditions, eventually going alongside Limerick to try and make a tow to Byron Bay to no avail.

 

The Limerick sank stern first at approx. 0630 whilst the Colac continued to search for survivors. Of a crew of 73 we picked up 71, apparently two engineers were killed in the explosion. We gave the survivors a bit of TLC, a hot brew feed, and some clothes and arrived in Brisbane on Tuesday 27 April 1943.

 

Harry William “Blue” Donsworth was an 18 year old communications rating on HMAS Colac and had come off watch in the radio room when the Limerick was hit, he had just climbed into his hammock when the torpedo exploded.  

 

The Colac was only about 300 yards abeam of Limerick and the thump of the explosion fused our mess deck night lights. However, the ringing of action stations soon brought us back to reality, night lights or not. Our ASDIC picked up a sub echo just astern of us and as mentioned, we dropped some charges with negative results. We found out through “Scuttle Butt” later (not ours) that the sub was Jap I-177 which also sunk the hospital ship “Centaur” with great loss of lives off Stradbroke Island.  The I-177 was destroyed by US aircraft in the battle of the Philippines in 1944 when General MacArthur returned.

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Why the recollection you may ask?  In January this year a Ballina trawler snagged his nets on an unknown object 16 miles due east of Ballina. A government research vessel was at the time working between Iluka/Yamba and Fraser Island, which with its sophisticated equipment made up a 3D image of the wreck, which was the mainly forgotten Limerick.

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HMAS Colac served most of her sea time in the New Guinea, Solomon and Pacific Ocean waters area doing what Corvettes do; convoying ships, ferrying troops, bombardments of Jap positions etc. In May 1945, when she was doing a bombardment against Jap Marines in Choiser Bay in the Solomon’s she was struck by Jap artillery putting a hole in and flooding the engines room. The reciprocating engines ran for two hours completely submerged which allowed the Colac to make Bougainville Straits where she remained for 24 hours under the watchful eyes of a Catalina flying boat. Towed to Treasury Island by an Australian army work boat, a US Navy salvage tug pumped the Colac out and patched the hole. HMAS Swan towed Colac back to Sydney complete with crew still aboard.

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