Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

November 22, 2010

Hi Mac,

I was doing a little searching on the web about oropesa's and came across your blog. Our small dive group found one on a reef just off Cairns a couple of weeks ago. I took a photo of the "Torpedo-Like" object into the Cairns Hydro office and they identified it for me.

They say it would have been lost while clearing mines after the war and as late as the 1960's from the deep approach
passages through the Barrier Reef off Cairns. Ships used Grafton Passage for access to Cairns during the war with gun batteries off False Cape to protect the entrance to the channel.

Now I'm trying to find which mine sweepers were operating in the area around this time and trying to access the ship's logs to find out which ship lost the oropesa and the circumstances around it. If you have any start "leads" I can channel, then I would be most appreciative of your hard-earned experience.

Thanks and I hope to hear from you,

Regards Tim

Tim Godfrey

Tim,

See this URL: http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozatwar/ozmined.htm for details of mines laid off the Australian coast in WW2.

Detail of post war minesweeping off Cairns:

Royal Australian Navy minesweeping after World War II

Regards,
Mac.


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