THE PERTHsail

HMAS Perth, a modified Leanderclass light cruiser, was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1939. Its early war service included patrol and escort duties across the Atlantic, followed by the battle of Matapan and the evacuations of Greece and Crete.

By February 1942, Perth was part of a 14-ship ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) force stationed in the Netherlands East Indies to stem the rapid Japanese advance. At 7 pm on 28 February, Perth left Tanjung Priok on Java’s north coast alongside USS Houston. In the Sunda Strait, Perth was not expecting to be troubled by enemy forces. However, just after 11.00 pm, Perth made contact with the Japanese Western Invasion Convoy. Heavily outnumbered, Perth sank less than 90 minutes later, and Houston shortly afterwards.

Just over half of Perth’s crew of 680 perished in the sinking; of the survivors, most were picked up by the Japanese. After some hours in the water, three Australians found a Japanese lifeboat and looked for comrades; eventually around 50 Australians made it to Sangiang Island. There they decided to attempt the journey to Australia. They landed first at Anjer, then Labuan, and finally on an islet dubbed Refuge Island. For their best chance of reaching Australia, 2,700 km away, they selected a skeleton crew of ten. It was agreed that the remaining men (including the wounded) would surrender.

At Princes Island, a new set of sails was found and the crew named the boat Anzac. A week later, at Tjilatjap on the Javanese south coast, low on both water and food, the crew went ashore. Japanese troops had already landed on Java, and the men from Anzac were taken prisoner.

To save the few possessions they had, Petty Officer Ray Parkin used this sail to wrap up their remaining food. The Anzac crew soon agreed that both the lifeboat and Perth needed to be commemorated. Parkin designed and drew the central decoration onto the sail in indelible pencil, before all ten of the Anzac crew signed it. Around Perth’s coat of arms Parkin wrote, “To the memory of the gallant ship HMAS Perth sunk in Sunda Str. March 1st 1942 in action this foresail was used in salvaged lifeboat of unknown origin. It was called Anzac and sailed to Tjilatjap by 10 survivors (signatures below).”

The signatures are for Lieutenant J. A. Thode, Sub-Lieutenant N. H. S. White, Chief Petty Officer H. F. Knight, Yeoman of Signals J. R. E. Willis, Petty Officer H. H. Abbott, Petty Officer A. J. E. Coyne, Petty Officer R. E. Parkin, Leading Seaman H. K. Gosden, Able Seaman H. O. Mee and Able Seaman N. J. Griffiths.

Nine of the Anzac crew were later transferred to a camp at Bandoeng. Jack Willis was left behind, as he was too sick to be moved, and the sail was left in his safekeeping. When Willis eventually arrived at Bandoeng, his Anzac crewmates had again been moved on. However, he met another Perth survivor, Navy Writer Donald McNab, and they decided McNab would add the names of all 310 surviving members of Perth’s crew, including the ten Anzac sailors. The job done, McNab returned the sail to Willis, who rolled it up as a pillow to keep it hidden from the Japanese.

Surviving the war, the sail was presented by Willis to Commodore Harold Farncomb, who had been Perth’s commissioning captain and was now commanding officer of HMAS Cerberus. The sail was displayed there for many years in St Marks Chapel before it was donated to the Memorial in 1994.

Of the Perth men who became prisoners of war, 105 died in captivity, including one member of the Anzac crew, Petty Officer Alfred Coyne.

AMANDA NEW Assistant Curator, Military Heraldry & Technology