HMAS Arrow in the eye of the storm
By Jayne Keogh, Naval Association of Australia
As the custodians of thousands of kilometres of Australian coastline, the Navy crews on Attack Class Patrol Boats, which operated 1967–91, were trained to deal with everything that the sea could throw at them. But nothing could prepare HMAS Arrow or her tight knit crew for Mother Nature’s ultimate fury, Cyclone Tracy. At a commemoration on 25 November at the Jack Tar statue in Brisbane, the Commanding Officer of Arrow, Captain Bob Dagworthy (Ret’d) honoured Able Seaman Ian Rennie and Petty Officer Les Catton who were lost on that terrible Christmas Eve in 1974.
Every day, the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) Attack Class Patrol Boats were at sea, policing Australia's maritime domain and protecting our sovereignty, resources and national interests. They enforced our laws on illegal immigration, fishing, quarantine, and smuggling.
At 2pm on Christmas Eve 1974, the Navy commander for Northern Australia, Captain Eric Johnston called all four patrol boat commanding officers to say that Cyclone Tracy was approaching Darwin. All crew on leave were recalled and the patrol boats were ordered to proceed to the cyclone moorings inside the harbour to ride it out.
By 6.30pm the CO of Arrow, 27-year-old Lieutenant Bob (Daggers) Dagworthy reported that all were secured.
However, ‘Water, in the form of broken surf was washing over the ship so I ordered all the crew to come forward and put on life jackets,’ recalls Bob. ‘By midnight we thought it was going to blow itself out, but then by 2am on Christmas morning all hell broke loose.’
Due to the extreme conditions, Arrow started to experience equipment malfunctions. The force of the waves tore the ship away from the buoy and the anchor winch was ripped out of the deck and fell into the sea. The life rafts’ hydrostatic release was activated by the waves breaking over the deck, so they also went overboard.
The eye of the storm came and went.
‘Unfortunately the conditions rapidly became more extreme, far worse than what they had already experienced,’ says Bob. ‘The wind and the sea became extremely violent.’
The waves were so high that they completely washed over the ship’s superstructure and the wind was gusting at up to 240 kilometres an hour, before all instruments failed.
‘Petty Officer Catton bravely crawled forward on the forecastle because visibility was zero. He confirmed that the anchor winch was ripped out of the deck and the anchor chain was gone.’
The intake for pumping water in, and cooling the engines, rose out of the water when a wave hit and took in air. This resulted in an airlock and the pumps failed. The engines were overheated and were likely to seize, leaving Arrow to bob powerless on the boiling sea.
‘I asked the Charge Engineer how long it would take before the engines would shut down,’ says Bob. ‘He looked at me in distress and said, “They never taught anything about that type of problem at Engineering School”.
‘I was still thinking that we could point the ship’s nose into the sea and try to ride it out until the cyclone passed. But once the engines started overheating, I knew that we would soon have no power.
‘At that stage I made a command decision to try and run the ship up into the muddy mangroves on the other side of the old slipway at Frances Bay.’
‘By now, the ship had lost its radar and gyro-navigation system. It just couldn’t operate in the extreme conditions.
‘At this time there was no visibility whatsoever. The sea spray was such that you couldn’t see. I went to the flying bridge and the wind was driving so hard that I felt the sea spray would damage my eyeballs.
‘The roar of Tracy was so extreme that I had to shout orders into the ear of the helmsman and the engineer.
Bob’s plan was to edge the ship around, to get a blind feel for where the mangroves might be. At that stage, while he was gingerly manoeuvring, a giant wave hit and washed the vessel sideways down onto Stokes Hill Wharf.
‘It was pointless to try to get off the wharf because the waves were just hammering the ship down,’ he says. At that stage, Bob believed the engines would soon shut down. ‘I made the frightful decision that no Commanding Officer ever wants to make, to abandon ship.’
Bob ordered his crew to scramble onto the wharf every time the ship rose up to wharf deck level. He stayed in the wheelhouse in case he had to manoeuvre with what engine power was left. The Executive Officer (second in charge) and the Coxswain (Navigator) took charge of the crew jumping from the ship onto the wharf, whenever it was possible to do so.
‘They put the safety of the crew before their own survival,’ says Bob. ‘Able Seaman ‘Mac’ Macleod in his support role, was heroic during this evacuation.’ Mac was later awarded the Australian Bravery Medal.
Les Catton made it onto the wharf and was taking charge of the situation but was hit by flying debris and knocked back into the harbour. ‘Jack’ Rennie missed the wharf and fell between the wharf and the ship.
The ship had taken on so much water, that it was no longer rising to the wharf deck level. ‘I told the crew who were still on board to fully inflate their life jackets, take their chances and leap into the harbour.’
Bob was washed beneath the wharf and pummelled onto the mud flats. He was found the next day suffering from shock and lacerations. His recollections of this time remain vague.
Some of the men were injured and in a very bad condition. Kevin Rainbow, the electrician, had serious lacerations and Navigating Officer, Sub Lieutenant Andrew Birtchnell, was also found suffering from hypothermia, and hospitalised.
The body of ‘Jack’ Rennie who had drowned was found by another sailor that morning. Les Catton’s body was found the following day under the wharf by crewmembers from another patrol boat.
Having lost his ship and two of his ship’s company, Bob believed that his naval career was finished. However, thankfully the board of inquiry completely exonerated him and in fact praised the professionalism of the Commanding Officer and crew. He went on to a long and successful career in the Navy.
Neither Bob nor the crewmembers received any counselling or psychological support after Cyclone Tracy for their traumatic experience and loss of shipmates.
These days Bob is retired and lives in Brisbane with his wife Christine, but the events of that terrible night, especially the deaths of the two sailors are never far from his thoughts.
He knows all the details of the families they left behind, and quietly says, ‘Not a day goes by that I don’t think of those two boys. They were my mates. Lest we Forget.’
Petty Officer Catton and Able Seaman Rennie are commemorated at HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin with a plaque and the Arrow Bar at the base is named in the vessel’s honour. Arrow Drive, Catton Court and Rennie Road are all also named in remembrance.
For more information and images of the Arrow before and after Cyclone Tracy, see the HMAS Arrow page of the Navy website.
HMAS Arrow in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy
Bob Dagworthy today
