Garden Island

14th July 1990, Garden Island, Sydney, Australia.

The exercises to date had been far from mundane considering our new Skipper, Capt. James T.Franklin, had experienced a few teething problems with maneuvering. The Canterbury had just come out of an extended refit in Auckland, New Zealand and the initial sea trials were going well. Until, that is, on a routine sailing from Garden Island in Australia's port, Sydney.

The wind was up around 50 knots blowing straight up the channel through the Sydney Heads. We had two tugboats to guide us from the dock into the main channel. As we maneuvered from the shelter of HMAS Jervis Bay we were broad sided by a gust estimated to be around 65 knots. Needless to say, the tugboats were having a bit of a struggle keeping us under control.

I was stationed in the air-conditioned MCR (Machinery Control Room) adjacent to the engine room. We received bells from the bridge as per any usual sailing from port, Ahead Slow, Revolutions - 54, All Stop, Ahead Slow, etc. The engineering crew had been getting used to all the odds and ends of our new ship over the previous two months and was very comfortable indeed with the way she responded to tender commands of the throttles. With an excellent crew working in the Boiler Room, nobody had any doubt that the machinery spaces were in tiptop order.

All of a sudden the Full Astern bells were ordered, Chief of the Watch opened the throttles as fast as mechanically possible. No questions were asked and nothing was said by anybody in the MCR. The boiler room must have been frantic. Opening all fuel valves at the same time manually. The Boiler Room on Leander class frigates have not yet been automated to the degree of the engine room yet, and all the staff would have been going hammer and tongs at the sprayers and valves to keep up with the steam demand from the two 15000 shaft horsepower, 7 stage steam turbines. Revolutions reached 154 RPM when the Full Ahead bells rang.
"Fuck this!" exclaimed the Chief.
All the throttles were instantly thrown forward to fully close the astern valves and, in turn, open the ahead valves. The boiler Room at this time has to close all the fuel valves, and shut off the sprayers manually so as not to destroy the boilers with too much pressure, and then open them all again to keep up with the turbines.

The shafts had reached 192 RPM when there was a sudden jolt felt throughout the entire ship. Able Marine Mechanic Tom Oates was standing in the engine room at the time taking hourly readings from the port main engine. He swears on God almighty that the port main engine jumped 10 inches of its mountings. There was the most horrible screeching sound as the port propeller made contact with solid rock not 20 meters from the Garden Island Bay wall. Witnesses from HMAS Jervis Bay say the stern of the ship must have raised 6 feet out of the water. Four of the five blades on the port propeller were damaged beyond repair. The bodies of sailors knocked off their feet from the impact were scattered all over the ship.

The All Stop was ordered instantly, but not in time to save the port main engine from dislodging from its mounts. Tom ran to the MCR and reported what he had seen from the engine room. Chief Riddell called the bridge on the hotline and received a standby order from the officer of the watch. Our nerves were all rattled by the sounds coming from the engine room and Riddell called the MEO (Marine Engineering Officer) to the MCR.

The MEO quickly assessed the situation and rendered the port main engine out of action until major repairs could be made to the propeller, shaft, and possibly the internal blades of the engine itself. The ship proceeded at best speed, 15 knots, on the starboard shaft to Newcastle on Australia's east coast, where we spent two weeks replacing the port propeller and inspecting the engine for any pitting on the blades from the sudden jolting and possible saturated steam contamination when the port boiler blew its safety valves during the collision.

After all was declared safe and repaired we headed off to Jarvis Bay in the South of Australia to continue sea trials and commence Operation Awkward.