The Noongah
On August 25th 1969, the Australian Coastal ship MV Noongah, callsign VMNT foundered off Smokey Cape, New South Wales.
The Noongah left Newcastle with a cargo of steel for Townsville in Queensland. She struck bad weather near Kempsey on the northern New South Wales coast . The vessel developed a list and sank. It was believed the number one hold flooded, and the cargo had possibly shifted.
The Radio Officer, Steve Piedmont, was on his first trip to sea.
He did not survive.
MV Noongah
At 0352 on 25 August, Piedmont sent an Urgency message (XXX) on 500 kHz which advised that the ship had a 15-degree starboard list, increasing, and unable to be corrected.
Some 42 minutes later, at 0437, he sent a distress call on 500 kHz, which concluded with the information that the crew were abandoning ship.
Three minutes later, at 0440, the ship went down by the head - survivors report a massive wave engulfing the bridge area (the radio room was aft of the bridge).
Unfortunately, most of the crew, including Radio Officer Piedmont, did not have a chance to save themselves - Piedmont was reported as still sending (a repeat of) the distress message as the ship foundered.
For reasons which could not be established, the starboard lifeboat was jammed, and unable to be launched. Two survivors escaped by life raft, and three others were found clinging to a plank.
24 hours later a rescue team sighted a life raft containing three or four men three miles out to sea off Hat Head, north of Port Macquarie.
Sadly, their location could not be pinpointed and, despite communications between land rescue forces along the coast, the life raft and the men disappeared in poor weather.
At that time the wind was blowing at 70 knots, with the seas at 30 feet.
Clearly, the ship floundered in extraordinary circumstances.
The search for survivors was one of the greatest in Australia's history, involving five destroyers, three minesweepers, seven aircraft, two helicopters and a number of other vessels.
The cause of the Noongah's foundering was never established.
Vale Steve Piedmont.
Sources: NSW Parliament Hansard, "The Australian Naval Architect"
Image: www.clydesight.co.uk