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THE FLEETS

In Remembrance

Australian-owned ships and their crews - deck, engine-room, catering and pursering departments - helped win the Second World War, particularly, but not only or exclusively, in the Asia-Pacific theatre of operations.

This website details the ships involved and the corporations that owned them. It will provide for some recollections and diary records of experiences of the people who crewed them and it acknowledges the allies alongside whom they served.

It is dedicated to mercantile mariners who, across the ages, have carried the world's goods from producer to user, but in particular it is intended as a tribute to all the Merchant Seamen who served in the 1939-1945 conflict, and indeed universally and especially to those who did not return, those who have no known grave but the depths of the oceans.

"They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters"

Barwon (Huddart Parker)

Barwon was attacked by a submarine on 4 June 1942 while steaming alone off Gabo Island, New South Wales. Initial assessment was that the damage was caused by shell fire, but later analysis identified parts of a Japanese torpedo. Following swift course changes, Barwon proceeded to a successful voyage completion..