I suspect I am not the only one to think so but there is no small stirring of pride when I read that the HMAS Sydney, heavy cruiser lost in battle 67 years ago, has been found sitting upright on the seabed, 6000′ down. Ambushed, shot up, carrying so many of her crew with her, she still retains, by all accounts, a modicum of dignity on the seafloor. There is more emotion in the news of this event of course that has more substance than my reaction. This discovery touches the lives of so many families it is moving to hear the children and grandchildren and other relatives of those 600+ servicemen who were lost all that time ago. Time does not weary them – so the ode goes. But time doe not remove the hurt either and the families we have been listening to today will be experiencing a rolling range of emotions, which we all partly share with them.
The actual search and the results are always fascinating, adding to rather than detracting from the human story of a ship lost at sea. People search for these things as much to close the story (or at least to add another chapter) as well as to find the ship itself. Some of those initial results including the sonar images can be found at www.hmassydney.com It is all going to add to the legend and I will be watching it with close interest.
