The Flamingo Bay Voyage

Author/s M. McCarthy

Year of publication 1991

Report Number: 45

Explanatory note
This offering replaces a preliminary report dealing solely with HIJMS 1124 which was produced in May 1990. Though some relevant documents still had not been made available, at the time, the mercury contamination issue surrounding / 124 had not been resolved and the wreck was a continuing source of speculation and rumour. An interim report was clearly required.

Despite the fact that / 124 was outside our area of responsibility, the W A Museum became involved in a manner which will soon become apparent. Acting as an independent historian, I attempted to produce an objective and infonned assessmen t of the claims in the fonn of my Ma y 1990 report. In November 1990 I was finally able to view the last official documents that I had requested be made available to me relating to the submarine.

This, my final report on / 124, deals with a number of site inspections conducted in March and April 1989 on board R Y Flamingo Bay. Two of these sites, / 124 and Ann Millicent are in waters administered for the purposes of the Historic Shipwrecks Act by the Northern Territory Museum and one, a site believed to be the SS Koombana, the rationale for the entire project, in waters administered by the Western Australian Museum.