![July 18, 1958: Newly completed, destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [II] rams the drydock caisson at Williamstown Naval Dockyard - The Age. | by Kookaburra2011](http://live.staticflickr.com/4020/4526829561_ce4096b912.jpg)
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July 18, 1958: Newly completed, destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [II] rams the drydock caisson at Williamstown Naval Dockyard - The Age.
1535. Perhaps like the Regia Marina [preceding Entry] the RAN has had more than its share of mishaps. On July 18, 1958 a dramatic incident occurred at Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne, when the newly completed Daring Class destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [I] was about to reverse away from the pier beside the Alfred Graving Dock for trials. Instead, she inexplicably shot forward!
When VENDETTA crashed into the caisson of the dry dock, the first alarm was that the gates would collapse, instantly flooding over the frigate HMAS QUICKMATCH which was down in the dock below her. QUICKMATCH was at risk too of having the new 2,800 to 3,600 ton destroyer come crashing down in the flood on top of her.
In this photo, quick-thinking dockyard workmen have equalized the pressures on the damaged caisson by a controlled filling of the drydock - the gate, mercifully, having held until this process was completed.
Earlier, with alarm bells sounding, the men of HMAS QUICKMATCH had been forced to abandon ship. While we presume an official inquiry was held into the incident, as VENDETTA was not yet a commissioned ship, we're not sure. If an inquiry was held, it's findings are unknown to us. According to one report that we have received from a Dockyard source present at the time, the signals in VENDETTA's engineroom telegraph had been wired in reverse - which of course raised the question whether of this was careless or accidental work, or sabotage, of which there had been occasional incidences of in Australian dockyards against naval ships over many years.
VENDETTA went on to have an otherwise largely untroubled career, but had taken more than nine years to build, an incredible amount of time, although we have never seen that discussed or explained either, outside this Photostream.
Photo: The Age, from the archives of the HMAS CERBERUS Museum, Flinders Naval Training Establishment, Victoria, courtesy of the Curator, Warrant Officer Martin Grogan RANR.
July 18, 1958: Newly completed, destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [II] rams the drydock caisson at Williamstown Naval Dockyard - The Age.
1535. Perhaps like the Regia Marina [preceding Entry] the RAN has had more than its share of mishaps. On July 18, 1958 a dramatic incident occurred at Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne, when the newly completed Daring Class destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [I] was about to reverse away from the pier beside the Alfred Graving Dock for trials. Instead, she inexplicably shot forward!
When VENDETTA crashed into the caisson of the dry dock, the first alarm was that the gates would collapse, instantly flooding over the frigate HMAS QUICKMATCH which was down in the dock below her. QUICKMATCH was at risk too of having the new 2,800 to 3,600 ton destroyer come crashing down in the flood on top of her.
In this photo, quick-thinking dockyard workmen have equalized the pressures on the damaged caisson by a controlled filling of the drydock - the gate, mercifully, having held until this process was completed.
Earlier, with alarm bells sounding, the men of HMAS QUICKMATCH had been forced to abandon ship. While we presume an official inquiry was held into the incident, as VENDETTA was not yet a commissioned ship, we're not sure. If an inquiry was held, it's findings are unknown to us. According to one report that we have received from a Dockyard source present at the time, the signals in VENDETTA's engineroom telegraph had been wired in reverse - which of course raised the question whether of this was careless or accidental work, or sabotage, of which there had been occasional incidences of in Australian dockyards against naval ships over many years.
VENDETTA went on to have an otherwise largely untroubled career, but had taken more than nine years to build, an incredible amount of time, although we have never seen that discussed or explained either, outside this Photostream.
Photo: The Age, from the archives of the HMAS CERBERUS Museum, Flinders Naval Training Establishment, Victoria, courtesy of the Curator, Warrant Officer Martin Grogan RANR.