Kookaburra2011
Introducing 'ROTTEN TO THE CORE' - an impartial look at Australian dockyard re-fits in the 1980s. Part I: HMAS DERWENT's half-life modernisation.
2483. The photograph here is taken in 1970. On July 6, 1981, HMAS DERWENT [above] entered the Williamstown Naval Dockyard for her half-life refit and modernisation, and was not to emerge until December 16, 1985 - 4 years and 6 months later.
In the same era, the modernisation of her sister ship, HMAS PARRAMATTA [III] - May 17, 1977 to August 26, 1981 - had taken four years and two months. The modernisation and half-life refit of HMAS STUART [II] - Jan. 30 1979 to July 29, 1983 - was the same as Derwent, again four years and six months.*
[Source: The Table, 'Summary of Major Refits' published in the Dockyard's 1986 publication 'Welcome to Historic Williamstown Naval Dockyard: Home of the Australian Frigate'
to mark the RAN's 75th Anniversary.
In the decade that preceded this moment for HMAS DERWENT, the men who reffectively ran the Williamstown Naval Dockyard - the Federated Ships Painters and Dockers Union - had been involved in power struggles and criminal operations that have been estimated to have left up to 60 men dead: murdered, like the union secretary John Francis 'Pat' Shannon, shot dead in the front bar of the Druids Hotel, South Melbourne, on Oct 17, 1973; disappeared, like his associate Alfred 'The Ferret' Nelson; possibly suicided, like the subsequent death of Union Secretary, Jack 'Putty-Nose' Nicholls, found shot dead in his car along the Hume Highway ; or just sent off to jail, like Union one-time president and gunman Billy 'The Texan' Longley, convicted of directing Pat Shannon's murder.
The unions elections had come to be accompanied by gunfights around the docks and in the nearby streets of Williamstown. For some details, see the 'See 'Comment' notes under pic 1308, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4423184549/
The Ships Painters and Dockers Union were about to face a Royal Commission that would find them involved in almost many forms of criminal - like the 'Bottom Of The Habour' tax schemes which stripped companies of their assets and left everyone out of pocket except the union and corporate crooks employing them.
The union would eventually be de-registered in 1993, but former members would continue distinguish themselves on Melbourne's crime scene. Crime gang patriarch Lewis Moran, and
gangland associate Graham 'The Munster' Kinniburgh, both shot dead during Melbourne's TV-celebrated gangland wars in the early years of the present decade, were both former members of the Federated Ships Painters abnd Dockers Union.
It's disturbing to realise that for years, a national defence service like the Royal Australian Navy, in fact the Australian Government and indirectly all Austrralian taxpayers, had been held hostage to such corrupted organisations. Tens of millions of dollars had been lost. The cruiser HMAS HOBART was sacrificed in 1955 when the Navy could not get its work done through the Australian dockyards, and was retired unfinished. The aircraft carrier HMAS SYDNEY [III] had suffered sabotage at Garden Island by having its radar cables slashed during a final refit before leaving for Korea* [Source, Colin Jones's book 'Wings and the Navy 1947-1953' Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1997] p74]. The destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [II], having taken an extraordinary 9 1/2 years to built, appeared to have had its bridge to engineroom telegraph signals reversed so that it lurched forward instead of reverse when first leaving its brth and crashed into the caisson gates at Williamstown in 1958, endangering both itself and the frigate HMAS QUICKMATCH in the dock below it.
As shown in recent entries [pic NO. 2472, www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4770468307/ ], the modernisation and half-life refits of HMASs DERWENT , STUART [II] and PARRAMATTA [III] in the late 1970s-1980s at the Williamstown Naval Dockyard took longer than John Brown's took to build the world's largest warship, HMS HOOD in 1916-1918; longer than it took Mitsubishi to build the Japanese super battleship HIJMS YAMATO; longer than it took Blohm and Voss to build the BISMARCK; almost as long as the 5 years and 5 months it took Northrop Grumman to build the 113,600 short tons American Nimitz Class super carrier, USS RONALD REAGAN.
The 9 1/2 years it took Williamstown to build the Daring Class destroyer HMAS VENDETTA was more than twice the time taken to build most of these great warships.
The survey vessel HMAS COOK emerged from Williamstown in 1980 with such engineroom defects that she spent her almost her entire first two years in service in other dockyards getting repairs done.
There are many other examples. Mercifully, the dockyard was privatised, sold to Tenix in 1987 [and later to the present owners BAE Systems Ltd], and the large Anzac frigate project of 10 ships proceeded well. The delays and engine defects of the two newly completed New Zealand Protector Class patrol vessels, however, are a worry.
CONTINUED WITH NEXT ENTRY
The photo above shows HMAS DERWENT in the 1970s, before her half-life modernisation. It is produced from the HMAS CERBERUS Museum Archives, courtesy of the Curator Warrant Officer Martin Grogan, RANR. The photograph also appears in John Bastock's limited edition book 'Australia's Ships of War' Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1975]p341.
Introducing 'ROTTEN TO THE CORE' - an impartial look at Australian dockyard re-fits in the 1980s. Part I: HMAS DERWENT's half-life modernisation.
2483. The photograph here is taken in 1970. On July 6, 1981, HMAS DERWENT [above] entered the Williamstown Naval Dockyard for her half-life refit and modernisation, and was not to emerge until December 16, 1985 - 4 years and 6 months later.
In the same era, the modernisation of her sister ship, HMAS PARRAMATTA [III] - May 17, 1977 to August 26, 1981 - had taken four years and two months. The modernisation and half-life refit of HMAS STUART [II] - Jan. 30 1979 to July 29, 1983 - was the same as Derwent, again four years and six months.*
[Source: The Table, 'Summary of Major Refits' published in the Dockyard's 1986 publication 'Welcome to Historic Williamstown Naval Dockyard: Home of the Australian Frigate'
to mark the RAN's 75th Anniversary.
In the decade that preceded this moment for HMAS DERWENT, the men who reffectively ran the Williamstown Naval Dockyard - the Federated Ships Painters and Dockers Union - had been involved in power struggles and criminal operations that have been estimated to have left up to 60 men dead: murdered, like the union secretary John Francis 'Pat' Shannon, shot dead in the front bar of the Druids Hotel, South Melbourne, on Oct 17, 1973; disappeared, like his associate Alfred 'The Ferret' Nelson; possibly suicided, like the subsequent death of Union Secretary, Jack 'Putty-Nose' Nicholls, found shot dead in his car along the Hume Highway ; or just sent off to jail, like Union one-time president and gunman Billy 'The Texan' Longley, convicted of directing Pat Shannon's murder.
The unions elections had come to be accompanied by gunfights around the docks and in the nearby streets of Williamstown. For some details, see the 'See 'Comment' notes under pic 1308, here:
www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4423184549/
The Ships Painters and Dockers Union were about to face a Royal Commission that would find them involved in almost many forms of criminal - like the 'Bottom Of The Habour' tax schemes which stripped companies of their assets and left everyone out of pocket except the union and corporate crooks employing them.
The union would eventually be de-registered in 1993, but former members would continue distinguish themselves on Melbourne's crime scene. Crime gang patriarch Lewis Moran, and
gangland associate Graham 'The Munster' Kinniburgh, both shot dead during Melbourne's TV-celebrated gangland wars in the early years of the present decade, were both former members of the Federated Ships Painters abnd Dockers Union.
It's disturbing to realise that for years, a national defence service like the Royal Australian Navy, in fact the Australian Government and indirectly all Austrralian taxpayers, had been held hostage to such corrupted organisations. Tens of millions of dollars had been lost. The cruiser HMAS HOBART was sacrificed in 1955 when the Navy could not get its work done through the Australian dockyards, and was retired unfinished. The aircraft carrier HMAS SYDNEY [III] had suffered sabotage at Garden Island by having its radar cables slashed during a final refit before leaving for Korea* [Source, Colin Jones's book 'Wings and the Navy 1947-1953' Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1997] p74]. The destroyer HMAS VENDETTA [II], having taken an extraordinary 9 1/2 years to built, appeared to have had its bridge to engineroom telegraph signals reversed so that it lurched forward instead of reverse when first leaving its brth and crashed into the caisson gates at Williamstown in 1958, endangering both itself and the frigate HMAS QUICKMATCH in the dock below it.
As shown in recent entries [pic NO. 2472, www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/4770468307/ ], the modernisation and half-life refits of HMASs DERWENT , STUART [II] and PARRAMATTA [III] in the late 1970s-1980s at the Williamstown Naval Dockyard took longer than John Brown's took to build the world's largest warship, HMS HOOD in 1916-1918; longer than it took Mitsubishi to build the Japanese super battleship HIJMS YAMATO; longer than it took Blohm and Voss to build the BISMARCK; almost as long as the 5 years and 5 months it took Northrop Grumman to build the 113,600 short tons American Nimitz Class super carrier, USS RONALD REAGAN.
The 9 1/2 years it took Williamstown to build the Daring Class destroyer HMAS VENDETTA was more than twice the time taken to build most of these great warships.
The survey vessel HMAS COOK emerged from Williamstown in 1980 with such engineroom defects that she spent her almost her entire first two years in service in other dockyards getting repairs done.
There are many other examples. Mercifully, the dockyard was privatised, sold to Tenix in 1987 [and later to the present owners BAE Systems Ltd], and the large Anzac frigate project of 10 ships proceeded well. The delays and engine defects of the two newly completed New Zealand Protector Class patrol vessels, however, are a worry.
CONTINUED WITH NEXT ENTRY
The photo above shows HMAS DERWENT in the 1970s, before her half-life modernisation. It is produced from the HMAS CERBERUS Museum Archives, courtesy of the Curator Warrant Officer Martin Grogan, RANR. The photograph also appears in John Bastock's limited edition book 'Australia's Ships of War' Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1975]p341.