Merchant Navy National Commemorative Ceremony Address
Memorial Director, Matt Anderson's address at the Merchant Navy National Commemorative Ceremony, Merchant Navy National War Memorial, Kings Park, Canberra on 22 October 2023
Thank you David.
Can I also acknowledge Merchant Navy Veteran Don Kennedy, OAM and thank you for your service. You honour us with your presence.
RADM Stuart Hughes, AM, CSC Head of Capability, RAN Representing the Chief of Navy
Defence Attaches and Naval Advisers of Korea, New Zealand and Timor Leste
When I was asked give this address, the first thing I did was to consult one of the many reputable books on my shelf that provides an overview of Australian Military History for a synopsis of the Merchant Navy – the basic nuts and bolts, who, what, where, how many etc.
I was amazed that there is NO entry for the Merchant Navy in the book. (It jumped from Robert G Menzies to HMAS Mermaid!)
So that’s when I agreed to be here with you today.
We are both an island continent and a trading nation. 98 percent of our goods arrive by sea.
Back in the late 1600s, George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax responded “to the question, what shall we do to be saved in this World? There is no other answer but this, Look to your Moat.”
England did. And we too have looked to our moat or we would have perished!
Ships in the Merchant Navy carried essential supplies and traversed routes both along the Australian coast and distant waters.
Merchant seamen often crewed hospital ships.
These men, like Don, did not volunteer for service like others who joined the Australian Naval and Military Forces.
Their job was already an essential service.
This service is perhaps one of the most undervalued contributions to the war efforts of both the First and Second World Wars.
As an island nation, we are arguably more dependent on our naval services than many other nations.
Maintaining the flow of goods to the home front while trying to sustain overseas forces was and remains a disproportionate challenge; the increase in movements required was far outweighed by the increased risk.
And as a consequence, the Merchant Navy suffered disproportionate casualties compared to the armed forces.
The bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was both rapid and devastating.
A build-up of military force in the preceding months made it a prime target, particularly after the success of the Japanese raids at Pearl Harbour. Indeed, it was the same task force – aircraft from the same Japanese carriers – that bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942.
On the morning of the bombing, there were 65 ships in the harbour. These were mostly Australian Navy vessels, but also included a troopship, hospital ship, merchant ships and American vessels.
The attack lasted only 12 minutes and in that brief window of time, the port, the fleet and the town were destroyed. The Americans lost 113 crew. Second only to that loss, the Merchant Navy suffered the highest casualties with 41 men and 5 vessels lost.
The event stands out as the first time the Australian mainland was under attack. What is not known, or not recognised is that disproportionate casualty rate borne by the Merchant Navy, often captured as part of “civilian losses”. Their numbers are invisible in this group, with the term civilian bringing to mind the townspeople rather than crews of non-military vessels.
We are here today to recognise these men who put service before self. We recognise this service here, in Kings Park at the dedicated memorial, and in the grounds of the Australian War Memorial.
Such was the contribution of the Merchant Navy that they are afforded a place in the Memorial’s commemorative garden. The bar for recognition on the grounds of the Memorial is high. The sculpture for the Merchant Navy sits, as it should, alongside memorials to Bomber Command and the Sandakan Death March.
Captain William Roy “Bill” Reynolds MBE was from Brighton, Victoria. He joined the Merchant Navy at a young age, after the death of his father. In early 1942 when Singapore fell to the Japanese, Reynolds set to work rescuing evacuees from the region.
He had acquired a Japanese fishing vessel called the Kofoku Maru and used this unassuming craft to complete his rescues.
This is the same vessel that was eventually renamed the Krait, used in the audacious Operation Jaywick attack on Singapore. Reynolds himself was to have taken part in the raid, but due to a delay with the operation, he was replaced.
Instead, Reynolds accepted a mission with American intelligence. He was inserted near Borneo in November 1943. Only a few days later villagers revealed his presence to the Japanese and he was taken prisoner.
Knowing that little would be recorded about his mission and movements, he scratched detailed information into the doorframe of his makeshift cell. He included his full name and address in Australia – probably in the hope that someone would contact his family with news of what had happened to him.
In February 1944, Reynolds was moved to Surabaya in Java. This date is the last entry of his doorframe diary, and appears to have been written in haste. We now know that he was held in solitary confinement for 6 months. On 8 August 1944, he and several other prisoners were executed by firing squad.
The doorframe where Reynolds scratched out his story was discovered by the AIF in August 1945. They cut out the piece of frame that held his messages and, in 1946, this was donated to the Australian War Memorial.
Reynolds was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for rescuing the evacuees around Malaya in 1942. It is currently on display in the Second World War Gallery.
I was recently honoured to sail on the MV Krait around Sydney harbour on the 80th anniversary of the Jaywick mission. There is a 1964 plaque dedicating the MV Krait as a War Memorial to honour the men of Z Special Unit who lost their lives on special operations between 1939-1945.
I will be asking the Australian Maritime Museum how we can ensure the telling of the MV Krait’s story also allows us to honour the Merchant Navy’s efforts rescuing civilians in our darkest hours of the Second World War.
Because today, we are here to recognise the service of men like Captain Reynolds, and you Don.
We remember those seamen inscribed behind me in bronze who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars.
We recognise the tremendous fortitude it would have taken to put out to sea, again and again.
These ships were not well defended. They were not fast. They often travelled at the speed of the slowest ship in the convey making a large and slow target for enemy attacks. When the ships went down, many men went down with them.
They have no grave but the cruel sea. And so today, here, we stand with their names and we remember them.
We remember the thousands more who served. Who faced those dangers, and those of the sea and weather. Those who embraced the hard physical and unforgiving tasks that were required to supply a world at war. Those who were not trained or equipped for war, but who placed themselves in the centre of one nevertheless. Who pulled their mates from the water when their ships were struck, and sunk.
Who came home, changed as one must be by such experiences.
To those able to be with us today, I say to you personally, thank you. You and your service to Australia are not forgotten, and never will be, as long as we tell your story.
We are richer as a nation, materially and morally, for your service and your example of service before self.
Lest we forget.