HMAS Perth: WWII warship grave stripped by salvagers

CDF · **Posted:** Wed Dec 18, 2013 11:56 pm

Quote:

Survivors, historians and Defence personnel have been horrified to discover that the wreck of HMAS Perth, which was sunk by the Japanese in 1942, is being destroyed by commercial salvagers in Indonesian waters.Australian authorities have tried to keep the scandal a secret, fearing the issue might add fuel to the ongoing diplomatic tensions between Australia and Indonesia.
The warship, which sank in the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, is the last resting place of as many as 355 Australian sailors who went down with the vessel after it was struck by multiple torpedoes

More here
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-13/o ... rs/5156320

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:25 pm

what disrespect for a war grave. perhaps Interpol ( the international police) can be of help. they are non partisan & represent most nations in regard to international law.

bdk · **Joined:** Sun May 02, 2004 1:16 am **Posts:** 11281

Does anyone fault Australia for not recovering the bodies? Seems that would be a priority before the ship collapses in on itself.

And is this really any different, other than that the salvagers were sponsored by the US government?

http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Fo-Gs/Glo ... lorer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian

CDF · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 6:09 am

Without appearing glibe the context of the "salvage" should be taken with this in mind

Quote:

Australian authorities have tried to keep the scandal a secret, fearing the issue might add fuel to the ongoing diplomatic tensions between Australia and Indonesia.

Currently the Australian Govt and the Indonesians are at odds over apparent "spy' scandals and boat arrivals of refugees into Australia. The fate of a WW2 wreck gets lost in the sound bytes of the 24hr news cycle and how we're doing in the test cricket.

CAPFlyer · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:33 pm

bdk wrote:

Does anyone fault Australia for not recovering the bodies? Seems that would be a priority before the ship collapses in on itself.

And is this really any different, other than that the salvagers were sponsored by the US government?

http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Fo-Gs/Glo ... lorer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian

It's very different. Project Azorian was a US Gov't mission to recover intelligence from the ship and they gave a proper burial at sea to all bodies recovered. These guys are just stripping the ship without any respect to those aboard and are not sanctioned by the Indonesian Gov't.

Also, K-179 sank due to an accident onboard, not enemy action and was never declared lost by the USSR.

CDF · **Posted:** Fri Jan 03, 2014 8:28 am

http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/p ... nda-strait

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HMAS Perth: WWII warship grave stripped by salvagers

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