WanderingAus' Wandering Vung Tau Ferry Moorooduc, Victoria, Australia
By WanderingAus on 01-Dec-12. Waypoint GA5321

WanderingAus' Wandering Vung Tau Ferry is an entrant in the 'Bingo' moving cache race for 2012/2013. This is a 10cm x 8.5cm laminated magnetic card, easy to hide. It carries the GA code, the name, and the QR Code for those Smarty Pants Cachers Smart Phone Cachers.

In February 1970 as a member of the Seventh Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, WanderingAus 'Embarked for service South Vietnam' aboard HMAS Sydney III, nicknamed 'The Vung Tau Ferry'.

HMAS Sydney III was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built for the Royal Navy and launched as HMS Terrible (R93) in 1944, but was not completed before the end of World War II. The carrier was sold to Australia in 1947, completed, and commissioned into the RAN as Sydney in 1948.
 
From late 1951 to early 1952 Sydney operated off the coast of Korea during the Korean War. Sydney set a record on 11 October 1951 for light carrier operations: her aircraft flew 89 sorties during the day, with 31 aircraft aloft at one point.

Retasked as a training vessel following the 1955 arrival of her modernised sister ship, HMAS Melbourne, Sydney remained in service until 1958, when she was placed in reserve as surplus to requirements.
 
The need for a sealift capability saw the ship modified for service as a fast troop transport, and recommissioned in 1962. In 1965, she sailed on the first voyage to Vũng Tàu, transporting soldiers and equipment to serve in the Vietnam War. 25 voyages to Vietnam were made between 1965 and 1972, earning the ship the nickname "Vung Tau Ferry".

In September 1972 WanderingAus embarked once more on HMAS Sydney III, this time as Acting Platoon Sergeant of a group of 60 soldiers from most Corps (about 30 Engineers, 10 Infantry, and a couple from each of the other Corps). This was to be a pilot voyage, with the Army members working parts of ship (including Helsman, cool) and moving stores and ammunition at the various ports of call.

After stops at Tanjung Priok in Indonesia, Port Klang in Malaysia (and a 2 day shore leave visit to Kuala Lumpur), and Singapore (and another 2 day shore leave) we steamed into Vung Tau Harbour with our destroyer escort just after first light. This was Voyage 25, the last voyage of the Vung Tau Ferry.

The plan was to spend the full day and half of the next day unloading 'Defence Aid' stores, including blankets, bolts of cloth, bundles of aluminium sheeting, flat bottomed aluminium assault boats, and two 40 HP Johnson Outboards for each boat. The ship would stand out to sea before last light and return after first light the next day.

Such was the efficiency of the Army personnel, the task was completed about 8 hours faster than expected, despite the un-nerving effect of regular 'Scare Charges' exploding outside the hull while we were working below decks. We steamed out to sea in the middle of the afternoon and made our way up the coast, heading for Hong Kong.

That night, as we steamed north in moderate to heavy seas some distance out from the mouth of the Saigon River, the Port Lookout reported 'A ship showing Not Under Command Lights'. We were bound by the International Law of The Sea to render assistance, and to this end I was asked to rouse my soldiers and, under the direction of the Bosun, work the lines to pass a tow to the stricken freighter, the Kai Wing registered in Panama. After firing over a shot line, then a light line, we fed out a 'Grass Messenger', a light floating line capable of carrying the weight of the heavier tow line. When the crew of the Kai Wing saw the Grass Messenger they decided it must be the tow rope, and 'buttoned on'. Since we were still feeding the Grass Messenger out over the stern, and they had stopped taking it in over their bow, it very soon tangled on our starboard screw. While we sent divers over to clear the messenger from  the screw we were virtually dead in the water, with a risk of crashing into the Kai Wing, which came as close as 10 or 15 feet at some stages.

With the Grass Messenger destroyed we started the procedure all over again, and this time succeeded in putting over a 6 inch nylon hawser. This time there were no problems as we had taken the opportunity to put a party aboard while the ship was stopped. The nylon hawser was then buttoned on to the Kai Wing's anchor chain, and they let out their twelve shots of anchor chain (a shot of chain is 90 feet long). In heavy towing tasks such as this the towing vessel tows the anchor chain, and the anchor chain tows the towed vessel. All was well and my men were safely in their hammocks by about 2 AM, the combination steaming at about 3 knots towards Hong Kong.

At about 4 AM we were roused once more from our hammocks, as the tow had parted. It was determined that if the anchor chain had failed we would be unable to render further assistance, so while we made some preparatory work ready to retrieve and if possible send over another tow, the party on board the the Kai Wing started reporting the recovery of the anchor chain over the two way radio. We could all clearly hear the periodic announcements as they came - "One shackle on deck", "Two shackles on deck", "Three shackles on deck", and so on up to "Twelve shackles on deck, the tow has parted".

Each shackle on deck reports another shot of chain recovered, the tow had failed beause the eight tuck splice at the end of the nylon hawser had stripped out. A couple of the old salts remarked "shoulda bin a ten tuck splice", but the real cause of the failure was that the officer of the watch decided we weren't going fast enough, so he ordered "Revolutions for five knots". The increased speed caused the entire hawser to clear the water, putting a direct pull on the splice. With the integrity of the anchor chain not in doubt, we were now put to the task of putting out a new tow. This time we removed a 4 inch steel wire rope from a large drum and flaked it out in the hangar deck in long loops, ready to feed out over the stern. This task took about two hours, and for all of this time the Army men had a large audience of pussers watching through the lift well. When I asked why the audience weren't doing this task, I was told "they don't know how to work lines". This reinforced our knowledge that, while Army can learn any task in the dark on a heaving deck if necessary, Navy just can't cut it.  

We proceeeded at 3 knots to Hong Kong, with the only occurrence of note being our votes in the Federal Election. Many of us were stationed at Holsworthy, Moorebank or Ingleburn, and our local member was Gough Whitlam. The coalition candidate in that election ran third behind Informal. Our votes were despatched by diplomatic pouch from Hong Kong several days later, but they went astray as we all got "please explain or pay the fine" letters from the Electoral Commission.

Sadly one of the first actions of the Whitlam Government was to disband three battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment, including mine, and to decommission HMAS Sydney III. 7 RAR and 5 RAR were linked to form 5/7 RAR.Happily in December 2006 – early January 2007, 5/7 RAR was delinked and the mighty Seventh Battalion was re-raised.  In January 2009, 7 RAR achieved operational status, a year ahead of schedule. It is currently part of the 1st Brigade and is based at RAAF Base Edinburgh in Adelaide, South Australia.

Sydney III was decommissioned in 1973, and was not replaced. The name lives on in HMAS Sydney IV, a guided missile frigate currently in service with the Royal Australian Navy. She has recently been extensively upgraded. Sydney IV is a long-range escort with the ability to provide area air defence, anti-submarine and anti-shipping warfare, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. She can counter simultaneous threats from the air, sea surface and under water.
 
Sydney has deployed to the Middle East four times.

If you can abide by the rules below please help to keep my Vung Tau Ferry moving in the race by picking it up and moving it on.
•Caches must be found and hidden by the same cacher (i.e. no mailing the cache to another cacher to hide)
 •Only moves count towards your bingo card and you must move the cache at least 1km to count as a valid move
 •There is no limit to the distance cachers can move the cache
 •Cachers in the game are requested to move it on within 2 days