HMAS CONDAMINE   – Collision with HMS Cossack

(From Peter Harrison)

 

We were just going back on patrol after re-fuelling at the tanker further south and had picked up the mail for the other ships of the task element.   CONDAMINE was going south in the opposite direction from us and as we had her mail our skipper, the senior officer, told them to come up on a parallel course for a jackstay transfer.   In our skipper’s view it was poor seamanship and they misjudged the turning circle, her bow going straight in to our starboard side, cutting right in to one of the after messdecks.

 

Extract from a letter received by Bill Womack from an oppo in CONDAMINE

“You will recall that I mentioned earlier about getting some shoring timber, which came in useful at a later stage. This was the occasion when we met HMS COSSACK who had some mail for us. In going alongside for a heaving line transfer, the wind caught us and we bumped COSSACK, damaging our bow. COSSACK threatened to open up on us if we tried it again and consequently, we got the mail some time later from a tanker. Anyway, as a result of the damage to our bow, my ignorance of damage control came to the fore and with the assistance of Stoker John McHugh, I proceeded up into the cordage locker to plug up the hole. We used a bale of rags and wooden pad that I had fabricated to plug the hole and I told the Stoker to go down to the ship’s office and bring a couple of lengths of the shoring timber. The Executive Officer, who was crowding the available space and who would have done a better job than the bale of rags, said and I quote;” What are you going to do with those?” To which I replied: “I am going to cut them up and shore the bale and pad into place.” “You can’t do that” he said and to my reply of “Why not?” he informed me that he had had them cleaned up for Captain’s rounds on the following Saturday. That was when I spoke a series of four letter words that I had picked up along the way. The shoring was cut up and did the job until we returned to Kure when repairs were carried out by the dockyard.”