The collision of the Australian Daring Class Destroyer HMAS Voyager and the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne on the 10th February 1964 is considered as Australia's worst peacetime naval disaster. HMAS Voyager weighing 3,658 tonnes was operating as 'Plane Guard' for the Royal Australian Navy's flagship, Aircraft Carrier HMAS Melbourne, in excersies (night flying ops) when it tragically crossed the bows of HMAS Melbourne, weighing 20,322 tonnes, at 8:56pm just off Point Perpendicular, Jervis Bay. Traveling at approximately 22 knots, it took HMAS Melbourne about three seconds to cut through HMAS Voyager, slicing her in half near the bridge and sending 82 officers and men to their deaths.
After rescuing 232 survivors, the damaged Melbourne slowly returned to Sydney to undergo extensive repairs. HMAS Voyager now lies approximately 30 kilometres out from Point Perpendicular and approximately 600 fathoms down. There is a memorial to HMAS Voyager at Voyager Park in Huskisson at Jervis Bay.
HMAS Voyager (D-04), the second RAN vessel of that name, was a Daring-class destroyer laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Limited at Cockatoo Island, Sydney, New South Wales on 10th October 1949. She was launched 1st May 1952 by Mrs. R. G. Menzies, wife of the Prime Minister and commissioned on 12th February 1957.
On 4th June 1969 the U.S. destroyer Frank E. Evans collided with the Melbourne in the South China Sea. 74 of the 273 crew were killed. The American ship was sliced in two and the bow section sank within two minutes. Melbourne secured the after section to her starboard side and the remaining 199 sailors and officers were dragged to safety. The stern section was later cast off as HMAS Melbourne left the area for Singapore where repairs were made before the carrier sailed home.
The stern end of the broken Evans, still afloat, was then lashed to the starboard side of USS Everett F. Larson, another destroyer. A seagoing tug was lashed to the port side of the Larson to keep it upright. HMAS Melbourne was holed above the waterline, her flight deck distorted and catapult made unserviceable. USS Tawasa ATF-92 towed what was left of the Frank E. Evans to Subic on the west coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines after the collision. When everything that was salvagable was taken from her, the remants of USS Frank E. Evans were sunk in target practice in Subic Bay on 10th October 1969 by USS John R Craig.
HMAS Melbourne (R21) was a Majestic class light aircraft carrier of the Royal Australian Navy. Operating from 1955 until 1982, she was the third and final conventional aircraft carrier to serve in the RAN. Melbourne was the only British Commonwealth naval vessel to sink (by collision) two friendly warships in peacetime. The ship was laid down for the Royal Navy as the lead ship of the Majestic class in April 1943, and was launched as HMS Majestic (R77) in February 1945. At the end of World War II, work on the ship was suspended until she was purchased by the RAN in 1947.
At the time of purchase, it was decided to incorporate new aircraft carrier technologies into the design, making Melbourne the third ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck. Delays in construction and integrating the enhancements meant that the carrier was not commissioned until 1955. Melbourne never fired a shot in anger during her career, having only peripheral, non-combat roles in the Indonesia Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War. The carrier was the second ship to bear the name HMAS Melbourne. The first, launched in 1912, was a Chatham class light cruiser. It was broken up in 1929.
HMAS Melbourne was repaired and returned to duty, but these incidents, along with several minor collisions, shipboard accidents and aircraft losses, led to the reputation that Melbourne was jinxed. She was finally decommissioned from Australian service in June 1982. A proposal to convert her for use as a floating casino failed, and a 1984 sale was cancelled, before she was sold in February 1985 for scrap to China United Shipbuilding Company for $1.4 million. It is believed to have been broken up at the northern Chinese port of Dalian, but apparently not before close study by People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
A US private sector intelligence agency believes the Chinese navy may have used Australia's old aircraft carrier Melbourne to help develop its own carrier and boost that country's military capability. Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting), based in Austin, Texas, said PLAN had acquired three different types of carrier to study for development of their own capability. One of them was HMAS Melbourne, the others are two older Russian carriers, Kiev, and her sister ship Minsk. It was also used to train PLAN aviators in carrier flight operations. Stratfor said that for Beijing, the 15,700 tonne Melbourne represented a basic, small-scale straight deck carrier, roughly comparable in size to Thailand's Chakri Naruebet and even to the US Wasp and Tarawa class amphibious assault ships.
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