An underwater search for a merchant ship sunk off the Victorian coast during World War II has been successful with the SS Iron Crown located by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) vessel, Investigator.
Led by Emily Jateff from the Australian National Maritime Museum, the search found the freighter about 100 kilometres off the Victorian coast, south of the border with NSW.
The SS Iron Crown (pictured), a 100-metre-long ore freighter, was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 4 June 1942 while travelling through Bass Strait with a cargo of manganese ore.
The heavily loaded freighter was hit by a torpedo from the submarine and sank within 60 seconds.
A maritime archaeologist with Heritage Victoria, Peter Harvey said it was one of Victoria’s worst shipwrecks in terms of loss of life.
“The Iron Crown is historically significant as one of only four World War II shipwrecks in Victorian waters and is the only ship to have been torpedoed by a submarine in Victorian waters,” Mr Harvey said.
“There were 43 crew from the Australian Merchant Navy on board the ship and 38 lost their lives in the attack.”
He said locating the wreck after 77 years of not knowing its final resting place would bring closure for relatives and family of those that were lost at sea, as well as for Australia’s maritime community.
Ms Jateff said Iron Crown was located using multi-beam sonar equipment and a special drop camera.
“The wreck of Iron Crown appears to be relatively intact and the ship is sitting upright on the seafloor in about 700 metres of water,” Ms Jateff said.
“We have mapped the site and surrounding seafloor using sonar but have also taken a lot of close up vision of the ship structure using the drop camera. This will allow us to create a composite image of the whole site to assist in follow-up surveys for its conservation and management.”
She said imagery from the camera survey clearly showed the intact bow of the ship, with railings, anchor chains and both anchors still in position, as well as other structures on the deck.
All historic shipwrecks (shipwrecks greater than 75 years old) in Australian waters and any relics or artefacts from those wrecks are protected under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976.
