Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

USS CANBERRA BELL DEDICATION

Regarding your article of the dedication of the Bell to Australia is incorrect. The article stated it made its trip in 1968. My husband was on the on the Canberra when it made it’s “around the world trip” to Australia for the centennial, the year was 1960.  Just thought you might be interested in the facts.

Mrs. James E. Estes

Hello,

Sorry, I am at a loss when you refer to an article re dedication of the Bell to Australia in 1968. Could you please point me to the article in question. I was aware that USS Canberra left the US in March of 1960 for an 8 month world tour.

As a converted missile cruiser she came from the Vietnam War and visited Melbourne in May 1967, that is when my son Raymond was christened on board, and the ship's bell was struck from the mainmast and used as the font on the Quarterdeck for his christening.

Canberra's Captain Edwin Rosenberg USN, and Lady Dixon who launched USS Canberra, became Raymond's God parents. 

That was why I was always interested in having the bell donated to Australia.

After the ship was struck from the USN register and broken up for scrap, I traced the bell in storage in a warehouse in Williamsburg. Then after visiting the US Ambassador to Australia in Canberra mid 2001, and requesting him to use his good offices to get the bell for Australia, my wife and I were invited to Washington to attend the ceremony at the US Navy Yard in Washington DC  where the US President, George W. Bush, presented USS Canberra's bell to John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister to mark the 50th. Anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS Treaty between our two countries. That ceremony took place on Monday the 10th. of September, the day before the infamous 9/11.

The bell then was transported to Australia, and is displayed in the American Gallery at the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour in Sydney.

Nice to hear from you.
 
Best regards, 
Mackenzie Gregory.

Mr Gregory,
 
Since my wife has originated correspondence concerning the USS CANBERRA CAG2, I thought I may be able to correct the situation
 
In the article USS CANBERRA'S SHIP'S BELL in the second paragraph "came to Melbourne on her only Australian visit".  I was aboard her on the Around the World Cruise in 1960. I cannot remember the dates without some research, but the ship ported in Sydney and Melbourne on two separate weekends.  I was the lead Operations Yeoman in the Operations Dept Office. Our office was assigned the task of taking phone calls from citizens of both cities who wanted to invite crew members as their guests. There were two "land lines" placed directly into our office. We received an unbelievable number of invitations and I received only admirable compliments from the crew members who accepted the invitations including myself.

I was quite astonished at the great hospitality that your country and your citizens showed our ship and crew. As you probably are aware some sailors do not show their best behavior and as a result bring less than favorable acceptance in ports, foreign or home.  Your people treated us as countrymen and family.

There is an article on the ships history available at http://navysite.de/cg/cag2.htm that mentions the Around the World Cruise but does not mention the visit to Australia.  If your would like more precise information such as dates, etc. I will try to research them for you if you like. 

Please feel free to correspond as much as you wish.  E-Mail is a wonderful tool to correspond with other people all over the world.

J. E.. Estes

Hello again,

My thanks for your clarification.

When your wife talked about 1968 I was confused, no where had I used 1968, and I was adamant it was 1967 that USS Canberra was in Melbourne for Raymond's christening.

I also knew that the ship left the US in March of 1960 for an 8 months world cruise, but had never seen any list of ports they called into.

The article headed USS Canberra Ship's Bell  was not on my Ahoy website, and the one place on Ahoy I had used " the only time the ship had been to Australia" was at the end of my work on the Battle of Savo Island. I have asked my Web Master to amend that to indicate the ship was in Australia in 1960, and I have added a Bcc to you on that mail.

I then recalled writing a piece about the Bell for an Australian Ship Modeling site, I have found that via Google, and will ask them to make an amendment.

So, hopefully we will sort that out to all our satisfaction.

You are right about the power of E-Mail across the world, and thank you for alerting me to my mistake.

Although I strive to be accurate, human fragility some times wins out.

Best wishes and regards. 
Mackenzie Gregory.

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