We have all seen this. You’re on the highway, plenty of traffic and plenty of trucks, when a car comes weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed. He dodges in and out, missing other vehicles by inches, not a turn signal to be seen. Then, darting across three lanes of traffic, he exits with inches to spare, leaving a line of outraged drivers in his wake. Most of the time, the perpetrator escapes without a scrape. But on occasion, he misjudges how much space there is and causes a major accident and backs up traffic for miles.
It is bad enough when only private property is at stake, but when ships collide, the consequences, both material and personal, can be catastrophic. Such was the case in the early morning hours of June 3, 1969, when the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R.21) collided with the escorting destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD 754).
HMAS Melbourne steams between flight operations during SEATO Exercise Sea Imp in May 1966, with a weather balloon apparently lifting off near her stern. Note the Westland Wessex helicopters on deck as well as a Grumman S-2 Tracker near her bow. (Photograph by Bob Westthorp, RAN 1964-1988, via Horatio J. Kookaburra/ Flickr)
HMAS Melbourne (R.21)
Laid down as HMS Majestic at Barrow-in-Furness in Northwest England, the light carrier that would become known as HMAS Melbourne was intended to bolster the Royal Navy’s flagging carrier force during the Second World War. Changing wartime priorities and the difficulty of securing the necessary equipment during wartime would push back the completion date of the carrier to 1955. By this time, a new buyer for the carrier had emerged: Australia.
