1941: WWII Auxiliary minesweeper and examination ship WARRAWEE, believed used by South Australian Sea Cadets later - Photo RAN Historical.

4792. Seen here at Williamstown awaiting conversion for auxiliary minesweeping duties during WWII, the 413grt coastal steamer S.S. WARRAWEE was built for the Gulf Steamship Company by John Reid & Co Ltd in Whiteinch, Glasgow, Scotland, in 1909. Her port of registry was Adelaide, and with a complement of 13 she she ran a day passenger serviuce from Port Adelaide to the Yorke Peninsula townships of Edithburgh and Ardrossan in the early years of the 20th Century.

 

She was tyaken over by the Naval Board on Sept 4, 1939 [the day after WWII started] for use as an examination vessel off Port Adelaide, but was later formally requisitioned into the Navy on May 12, 1941 for conversion to an auxiliary minesweeper, being commissioned on September 24 that year.

 

Naval records state that She paid off exactly four years later, on Sept. 24, 1945, and was returned to her owners on October 15, the following year. However, it seems this was not be the last of the little vessel's navy connection. Anyone who was alert during our long picture series on the grounding of the survey frigate HMAS BARCOO at Glenelg in 1948 will recall that we had a reference to a Sea Scouts training vessel WARRAWEE experiencing flooding during the same violent storm - and we can only assume it is the same WARRAWEE.

 

It was dealt with at pic NO. 4476 [the pic of HMAS BARCOO with a wonderful Adelaide dredge, which we've now identified] is here:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/5689087586/

 

Just to re-cap the relevant details from that entry:

 

....[a] short extract from some New Haven Sea Scourt reminiscences, written for their newsletter by Peter McDermott.

 

'...One memorable weekend, ' Mr McDermott writes, 'was the 14-15-16 March, 1948 [sic] when a violent SW gale of hurricane force struck Adelaide. Unknown to those on board, [Scouts training ship] WARRAWEE had considerable water in the bilges, which ran to the lee side as the wind listed the vessel inwards towards the wharf. All was well at high tide, but during low water the stanchions holding the awning deck were hitting the wharf. Thereafter some bent stanchions reminded us all of a very wild, wet and woolly weekend. Sea Scout and Sea Cub were moored on boat booms alongside on the weather side, and to add to our woes both sank. The hulls and all the floorboards were later retrieved with no damage.

 

On the way home it was evident that the weather had been exceptionally heavy, as trees and power lines were down in large numbers. The weekend is long remembered in Adelaide, as this was when HMAS BARCOO was blown ashore north of Glenelg, where the jetty was destroyed. WARRAWEE was later pumped dry, and training continued unabated..."

 

So, we think that was her. We do know that the WARRAWEE of WWII naval service was finally sold to Howard Smith's for scrapping in 1953.

 

Photo: RAN Historical. Navy Heritage Collection image NO. 03172. The venerable Melbourne tugboat JAMES PATERSON, with her distinctive twin funnels, is seen astern of WARRAWEE in this image.

 

 

 

 

 

Done