Michael J. Goulandris (14965)

South West Reef near Cape D’Entrecasteaux some six kilometres offshore

Michael J Goulandris was built by W. Doxford & Sons, Ltd as the Hallgyn, Norwegian owned and registered at Bergen. It was later sold to French owners, registered at Dunkirk and the name changed to Lina L.D. By 1944 it belonged to The Heirs of the late Michael J Goulandris (Goulandris Bros managers), and was registered in Greece. The ship had one deck and a shelter deck, a bulkhead on the shelter deck and five bulkheads below the main deck. The triple compound engine had cylinders of 27 inches, 44½ inches and 75 inches, with a stroke of 54 inches. There were three single-ended boilers operating at 180 lbs/square inch. A Direction Finder was fitted. This appears to be a sister-ship to the Castlemoor (see entry), launched in August 1922 with identical length, breadth, depth, engines and boilers, and also built by Doxford.

The Michael J Goulandris had picked up a cargo of 7 000 tons of coal in Newcastle, NSW, and 2 000 tons of general cargo in Sydney.

THE LOSS
At 9.45 p.m. on 21 December 1944 the Michael J Goulandris struck the South West Reefs some 3½ miles south of D’Entrecastaux Point. The weather at the time was fine and the wind was reported as being force 4 (11-16 knots). The Port St John (Captain E.T.N. Lawrey), which was in the vicinity, was requested by radio from the Naval Officer in Charge at Fremantle to go to the assistance of the stricken vessel. It arrived at the wreck site at 4.40 a.m. on 22 December and succeeded in rescuing all the crew of the Michael J Galoundris. Captain Lawrey’s report stated:
No boats could be seen on the stranded vessel on the side visible to Port St John, and no communication could be established by daylight signalling, but men could be seen on board the stranded vessel, which appeared to be fast on the reef forward with swell breaking over her forepart. We lowered our motor boat, the Chief Officer in charge and by noon he returned towing the Greek lifeboat with the remainder of the crew and all their effects. The boats were hoisted in board with difficulty and by 1500 we left the scene and resumed our voyage.

The Chief Officer informed me that between his two visits to the stranded vessel, she was much deeper in the water and was grinding and working. The swell had increased and was breaking over the forepart of the stranded vessel with great force at times. He noticed that the wireless aerial and jumper stay had carried away and he had great difficulty in manoeuvring his boat near the wreck and in keeping her close to the side.

The position of the vessel when sighted was on S.W. Reef, 4 miles off D’Entrecastaux Point and appeared to be heading W.S.W., which heading had altered to the south when we left the vicinity at 1500 (quoted in Dickson, 2010:10).

The crew of the Michael J Goulandris were subsequently landed at Bunbury.

INQUIRY
The Royal Australian Navy in Fremantle sent Commander C.J.R. Webb, RANR(S) retired, on board HMAS Dubbo to the scene of the wreck as Salvage Officer. His subsequent report stated that the Michael J Goulandris was fast on the reef, facing in a direction of 230º. Dubbo could not approach closer than a mile to the wreck due to heavy seas, but Webb could see that the stricken ship was either lying in a crevice or had partly collapsed, as all that was visible above water was the funnel, a tall samson post or ventilator, the main mast and the heads of two other samson posts. The fore part of the vessel had broken away in the vicinity of the foremast. Webb concluded that the ship had struck while heading on a north-westerly course, and had then swung round to point south-west.

INITIAL SALVAGE
The sea was littered with flotsam and HMAS Dubbo collected a number of items including two inner tubes, a drum of petroleum jelly, two torpedo air chambers, a coil of rubber hose and a badly damaged Carley life boat. However, people from the surrounding area collected much more, and the police from a number of towns, together with Customs officers, were sent to request the return of goods taken from the beaches. The items recovered made a very long list, most of it domestic items, and obviously part of the general cargo:
Favourite brands of toilet and laundry soaps, American canned meats of several varieties, Milo in large and small tins, Glaxo baby food in large tins which we found to be excellent substitute for powdered milk, medical supplies, clothing, leather, paint, varnishes, Benzol in 44 gallon drums, sawn pine timber in various sizes, torpedoes and axe handles…As petrol was rationed and in very short supply, the first priority with vehicle owners was the Benzol. (Benzol at the time was used by tobacco growers as a fungus inhibitor in seeding trays.) Not knowing its suitability or otherwise for use in motor vehicles in it went with disastrous results. For the first few miles when used in the old “bombs” of the day they would take off like a rocket, but not for long. The Benzol having a high heat ratio and high octane rating soon blew up the weary old motors, or dissolved the rubberised fuel pump diaphragms. A few drums of Methylated spirits also came ashore and some tried it mixed with Benzol but to no avail. Later it was found that mixed with Power kerosene it wasn’t too bad (Moore, n.d.: 67).

There was also a quantity of torpedo parts that were recovered from various farms and towns. One of the most sought after items was some tanned leather, later used by one family to upholster their dining room suite. Not everything found was handed over to the police and Customs officials. One man handed in a small parcel of salvaged goods and received £3 10s 0d in salvage money. However, hidden in the bush in front of his house was a cache of:
240 small tins of Milo, 25 tins of Glaxo, 150 tins of assorted American meat, a large quantity of soap, numerous large tins of surgical Elastoplast, leather, paint, varnish, timber and many other sundries…It was a bad season for bushfires and: Every time a little puff of smoke went up everybody rushed out to see where it was in relation to their bush “plants” (ibid.: 68).

Many bales of raw rubber (a particularly valuable commodity during the war) were recovered by John Wellstead at Bremer Bay. These were sent to the authorities who later acknowledged Mr Wellstead’s contribution to the war effort. It is probable that these came from the wreck of the Michael J Goulandris . Despite being very heavy the bales evidently float, and the current close inshore along that part of the south coast sets to the east. A bale of the rubber was also found by staff from the Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Museum, while inspecting the wreck of the Harlequin near West Cape Howe.

SITE LOCATION
The wreck of the Michael J Goulandris lies on South West Reefs, three nautical miles south of Point D’Entrecastaux.

SITE DESCRIPTION
The Michael J Goulandris lies scattered in depths of from 3 to 18 m of water, much of it in very rough surf on top of the reef. Few parts are recognisable except the boiler and a propeller shaft approximately 20 m in length.

EXCAVATION AND ARTEFACTS
Tom Snider, an American submariner who had been put ashore at Fremantle for health reasons, obtained the salvage rights to the Michael J Goulandris (and other wrecks on the Western Australian coast). In 1960 he removed the propeller from the wreck.