USS Tiru and HMAS Vendetta
by
Pat Burnett and Sam Sakker. Footnote by Tom De Voil On the night
of Thursday 3 November, 1966 the US Submarine Tiru, on
passage north off the east coast of Australia, ran aground at a
speed of about 12 knots on the southern edge of Frederick Reef,
in the Outer Barrier Reef, about 300 nautical miles east of
Mackay. At the time I had recently assumed command of the Daring
class destroyer HMAS Vendetta, which was then carrying
out a maintenance period at Garden Island Dockyard in Sydney. On
Friday 4 November we were ordered to prepare for sea and to
embark several high-ranking USN officers, a clearance diving
team and a Caribbean type motor cutter. Then we were to proceed
at 24 knots early on the Saturday morning to stand by the scene
of the grounding. This prompted the ship’s company wag to
comment that we were now the USS Vendetta (usually sails
Saturday).
Clearance diving team
We
had an uneventful passage to Frederick Reef in good weather
conditions and arrived there the next day to find Tiru
firmly aground in a calm sea, but with an appreciable southerly
swell breaking over the reef, which is barely covered at low
water. We hove-to off the reef and lost no time in sending the
clearance diving team over by boat to carry out an underwater
survey of the submarine. The swell and the coral rendered
boatwork and diving operations rather tricky, but the team did a
fine job. They were able to report that, although Tiru
had struck the reef at about 12 knots, she had ridden up over
the edge of it and had suffered surprisingly little damage, her
pressure hull still being intact. We held a conference on board
Vendetta with the diving officer, submarine officers and
the specialist salvage experts we had embarked. After much
discussion it was decided to attempt to pass a tow and try to
refloat the submarine at the approaching high water. This was
accordingly done. I found manoeuvring stern-to close to the edge
of the reef quite difficult in the swell conditions, but
eventually the ship was in the desired position and we succeeded
in passing the towing hawser to Tiru by boat. Once the
tow was secured and all was ready, we gradually took up the
strain at dead slow speed ahead and then increased the pressure
on the tow by slow degrees as far as we considered it safe to do
so. However, the submarine remained firmly aground and we were
unable to budge her. After a prolonged effort we were obliged to
abandon the attempt.
USS Taussig
Frederick Reef was steep-to and the adjacent area too deep for
anchoring, so after the tow was recovered we steamed at
economical speed in the vicinity overnight. We hove-to off the
reef again on the Monday morning to check the situation with
Tiru and render what services we could to her ship’s
company. Later in the forenoon we were relieved on station by
the destroyer escort USS Taussig, which was ordered to
stand by until another rescue attempt could be made. After
further discussion it was decided to send for a salvage tug from
Brisbane to attempt to refloat the submarine at a higher high
tide, which was shortly due. We transferred our USN personnel to
Taussig and were then released to return to Sydney to
resume our maintenance period after an unusual experience. The
operation attracted some publicity at the time and I had several
radio telephone conversations with an American NBC correspondent
who was covering it. We had also embarked an RAN public
relations photographer who took some graphic pictures of Tiru
aground on the reef. We subsequently learnt that after
docking and minor repairs Tiru had been able to continue
her passage. I understand that the USN later conducted an
enquiry into the grounding and held a court martial, but we did
not hear any details of their proceedings.
