Refueling at sea can be a precarious and arduous task and requiresexpert seamanship from both skippers for such a manouevre.

During working up exercises in the English Channel the Melbourne wasdamaged by a freak wave. However, the ships programme was unaffected bythe damage. Rubbish (Gash Chute) was crushed, the bulk head and doors ofa motorboat workshop buckled. The hulls of two motorboats were damaged.And more than 240 feet of an electrical circuit was spoiled. Members of thecrew suffered no injuries.

Perhaps one could look back on the career of the Melbourne, wasthis prelude to events that occurred later on. Two collisions at seacaused heavy loss of life. On 10 February 1964 HMAS MELBOURNE collidedwith H.M.A.S.Voyager, 82 sailors were lost. And yet again on June 3rd 196974 sailors were lost in a similar collision with the USS Frank E Evens.The Melbourne was not responsible for either collision.

One doesn.t have to be in a war or operational waters for this type ofloss. It is the hazards that servicemen endure constantly during theirtime in the service.

Photo and annotation courtesy of Jim Reardon