''Booya'' was a three-masted schooner with a steel hull built in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1917. She was originally named ''De Lauwers''. The schooner was renamed ''Argosy Lemal'' in 1920 and carried that name until 1949. As ''Argosy Lemal'' the ship served as one of the early United States Army communications ships from 1942–1949. In 1949, on return to civilian use, the vessel was renamed ''Ametco'', ''Clair Crouch'' and finally ''Booya'' in 1964. ''Booya'' was last seen anchored off Fort Hill wharf in

Darwin Harbour Darwin Harbour is the body of water close to Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. It opens to the north at a line from Charles Point in the west to Lee Point in the east into the Beagle Gulf and connects via the Clarence Strait wi ...

at about 8.00pm on 24 December 1974, the evening

Cyclone Tracy Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from 24 to 26 December 1974. The small, developing easterly storm had been observed passing clear of the city i ...

hit Darwin. Nearly twenty-nine years later, in October 2003, she was discovered by chance in Darwin Harbour, lying on her starboard side in about 20 metres of water.Wreck of the Booya
(2005). Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts. Retrieved on 8 June 2009.Murdoch, Lindsay (2004)

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

. Retrieved on 9 June 2009.Wreath laying ceremony over Booya site
. (2007). NT Government Media Release. Retrieved on 9 June 2009.

History 1917-1942

''Booya'' was built in Waterhuizen, the Netherlands in 1917 by Gebroeders van Diepen, under her original name, ''De Lauwers''.Reynolds, Steve (2008). Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc
The Schooner BOOYA
. Retrieved on 9 June 2009. She was a three-masted auxiliary schooner with a steel hull and a 130 bhp engine. At the time of her loss, she was 35.8 metres long and had a gross register tonnage of 262 tons. In 1920, she became known as the ''Argosy Lemal'' after she was purchased and registered by the Argosy Shipping and Coal Company in

Newcastle-on-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is als ...

in England. In 1923, she was brought to Australia and was purchased by Yorke Shipping Pty Ltd and subsequently played an active role in coastal shipping working numerous ports including Port Adelaide and Hobart.Booya 1917 to 1974
(2009). Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts. Retrieved on 8 June 2009. That company later became a subsidiary of the

Adelaide Steamship Company The Adelaide Steamship Company was an Australian shipping company and later a diversified industrial and logistics conglomerate. It was formed by a group of South Australian businessmen in 1875. Their aim was to control the transport of goods b ...

U.S. Army WWII service

In November 1942, the Commonwealth Government requisitioned ''Argosy Lemal'' and she played an important role in the US Army Small Ships Section, functioning as a radio communication vessel in the Arafura and

Timor Sea The Timor Sea ( id, Laut Timor, pt, Mar de Timor, tet, Tasi Mane or ) is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, and to the south by Australia. The sea contains a number of reefs ...

s during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.Diving near Booya wreck a possibility
(2007). Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 17 June 2009. The crew of 12 was made up of Australians,

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

ns, Scots, and English personnel. As operations against the enemy began in the island and ocean areas northward from Australia in 1942, amphibious communications became necessary. The SWPA chief signal officer, General Spencer B. Akin, created a small fleet that served as relay ships from forward areas to headquarters. Their function and number soon expanded when they took aboard the forward command post communications facilities as the Army's CP fleet. The small communications ships, part of the U.S. Army's Small Ships Section of Australian, acquired vessels known officially as the "catboat flotilla," proved so useful in amphibious actions that Army elements in SWPA operations continually competed to obtain their services. The first Australian vessels acquired by General Akin to be converted during the first half of 1943 by Australian firms into communications ships, were the ''Harold'' (S-58, CS-3), an auxiliary ketch, and ''Argosy Lemal'' (S-6).These initial ships would be joined by the U.S. sailing ships ''Volador'' and '' Geoanna''. From Milne Bay, the vessels then served at Port Moresby, at Woodlark, and in the Lae-Salamaua area through mid-1943. A graphic account of some of the vicissitudes of the ''Argosy Lemal'' and its mixed crew came from S/Sgt. Arthur B. Dunning, Headquarters Company, 60th Signal Battalion. He and six other enlisted men of that unit were ordered aboard her on 9 September 1943, at Oro Bay, New Guinea, to handle Army radio traffic. The commander of the ship reported to naval authorities, not to General Akin. After six months' service along the New Guinea coast, the skipper was removed for incompetence. His replacement was no better. Among other things, he obeyed to the letter Navy's order forbidding the use of unshielded radio receivers at sea. Since the Signal Corps receivers aboard the ship were unshielded and thus liable to radiate sufficiently to alert nearby enemy listeners, the men were forbidden to switch them on in order to hear orders from Army headquarters ashore. As a consequence, during a trip in the spring of 1944 from Milne Bay to Cairns, Australia (on naval orders), the crew failed to hear frantic Signal Corps radio messages to ''Argosy Lemal'' ordering her to return at once to Milne Bay to make ready for a forthcoming Army operation. On the way to Australia the skipper, after a series of mishaps attributable to bad navigation, grounded ''Argosy'' hard on a reef. Most of the crew already desperately ill of tropical diseases, now had additional worries. The radio antennas were swept away along with the ship's rigging, and help could not be requested until the Signal Corps men strung up a makeshift antenna. Weak with fevers and in a ship on the verge of foundering, they pumped away at the water rising in the hold and wondered why rescue was delayed till they learned that the position of the ship that the skipper had given them to broadcast was ninety miles off their true position. As they threw excess cargo overboard, "some of the guys", recorded Dunning, "were all for jettisoning our skipper for getting us into all of this mess." Much later, too late for the need the Signal Corps had for the ship, the ''Argosy Lemal'' was rescued and towed to Port Moresby for repairs to the vessel and medical attention to the crew, many of whom were by then, according to Dunning, "psycho-neurotic." Besides Dunning, a radio operator, there were T/4 Jack Stanton, also a radio operator; T/Sgt. Harold Wooten, the senior non-commissioned officer; T/4 Finch and T/5 Burtness, maintenance men; and T/5 Ingram and Pfc. Devlin, code and message center clerks. Dunning described the ''Argosy'' as a 3-mast sailing vessel with a 110-horsepower auxiliary diesel engine. "She was the sixth vessel," he wrote, "to be taken over by the Small Ships Section of the U.S. Army, her primary purpose was handling adiotraffic between forward areas and the main USASOS headquarters."

History 1949-1974

After the war, she was purchased by the Middle East Trading Company in 1949 and renamed ''Ametco'' (acronym for Australian Middle East Trading Co). The ''Ametco'' sank at Low Wooded Island off the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

coast, but was salvaged in poor condition, and taken to Melbourne for repairs. She was purchased in 1952 by shipping company MB Crouch & Co Limited, who renamed her ''Clair Crouch'', after the owner's daughter. The ''Clair Crouch'' traded around the Australian coast until 1958 when she was converted to carry sulphuric acid between

Port Pirie Port Pirie is a small city on the east coast of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, north of the state capital, Adelaide. The city has an expansive history which dates back to 1845. Port Pirie was the first proclaimed regional city in South A ...

and

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

in South Australia. In 1964, she was sold to the

Mornington Island Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The largest town, ...

Fishing Company and renamed ''Booya''. She was used as a mother ship and fuel supply vessel for the Northern prawn fleets, but became laid up in 1965/66 until she was sold again in 1968 (some sources say 1971) to the Denham Island Transport Company, trading cargo mainly between Dili and Darwin. On the evening of 24 December 1974, ''Booya'' was moored near Fort Hill wharf with four crew and one guest on board. As Cyclone Tracy approached Darwin, she – and all other vessels – were ordered off the wharves and instructed to find safe

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

age. ''Booya'' was last seen at about 8.00pm leaving Fort Hill wharf.Reynolds, Steve (2005). Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc
Cyclone Tracy Shipwrecks
. Newsletter April 2005. Retrieved on 10 June 2009.Divers continue Booya search
(2003). NT Police Fire & Emergency Services: Media Release. Retrieved on 10 June 2009. For the next 29 years she remained missing, presumed sunk with the loss of all lives in the huge seas whipped up by Cyclone Tracy's 300 km/h winds.

Discovery

On 22 October 2003,

divers Diver or divers may refer to: *Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water *Practitioner of underwater diving, including: **scuba diving, **freediving, **surface-supplied diving, **saturation diving, a ...

discovered the wreck by chance in Darwin Harbour, lying on her starboard side in about 20 metres of water, five nautical miles (9 km) from shore. Her exact location was given as . The discovery and subsequent identification of the ''Booya'' led to a

coronial inquiry A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within the coroner's juri ...

.Inquest to be considered for Booya wreckage
(2004). ABC News. Retrieved on 17 June 2009. The

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

signed an instrument re-declaring the wreck site subject to an Interim Conservation Order, under the ''Heritage Conservation Act'' ensuring an exclusion zone over the wreck. In 2005, ''Booya'' and the surrounding area was declared a 'heritage site'.Interim Management Plan for the Wreck of the Booya
. (2007). Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts. Retrieved on 11 June 2009. Despite a thorough search of the ''Booya'' by police divers, no human remains were found; however some personal effects, able to be identified by relatives of the deceased persons, were retrieved.Cavenagh, Greg (2005
Inquest into the Deaths of Raymond Curtain et al
Coroner's Court of Darwin. Retrieved on 11 June 2009. The Coroner's Court concluded that the vessel sank due to strong winds and high seas created by Cyclone Tracy and that the crew perished at sea late on 24 or early on 25 December 1974.

Official number and code letters

Official Numbers were a forerunner to IMO Numbers. ''Argosy Lemal'' had the UK Official Number 144888 and used the Code Letters KGHS from 1930 and VJDF from 1933.

Notes

References

External links

Official wreck site brochure

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booya (Ship) 1917 ships 1974–75 Australian region cyclone season Shipwrecks of the Northern Territory Maritime incidents in 1974 Underwater diving sites in Australia History of Darwin, Northern Territory Ships of the United States Army South West Pacific theatre of World War II Fishing ships of Australia Australian Shipwrecks with protected zone Cyclone Tracy