HMAS ''Waree'' (W128) was a

tug boat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

operated by the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN) during World War II. She operated as a tug boat for the

Waratah Tug and Salvage Company The Waratah Tug and Salvage Company was a tug and salvage company formed in 1931 by the Adelaide Steamship Company. It took over the J & A Brown tugs at Newcastle and Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, an ...

before being requisitioned by the RAN in 1942, and operating in northern Australia and Papua. She sank on 17 October 1946 off the New South Wales coast while sailing to Sydney from Thursday Island.

Construction and design

Laid down on 4 July 1938, ''Waree'' was built by the

Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company The Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company was a ship building and maintenance company which operated the Cockatoo Island Dockyard on Cockatoo Island in Sydney, Australia between 1933 and 1992. History The Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company ...

Cockatoo Island Dockyard The Cockatoo Island Dockyard was a major dockyard in Sydney, Australia, based on Cockatoo Island. The dockyard was established in 1857 to maintain Royal Navy warships. It later built and repaired military and battle ships, and played a key role ...

in Sydney and launched on 21 January 1939 for the Waratah Tug Company. Construction was completed on 12 April 1939. Measuring 233 gross register tons, the ship was long and had a beam of and a draught of .Gillett & Graham 1977, p. 257. Powered by a single screw triple expansion steam engine producing , the ship was capable of steaming and had a crew of 13, including two officers. In RAN service, the ship was fitted with 2 × .303-inch

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and ...

s for self-defence.

Operational history and fate

''Warree'' was requisitioned by the RAN on 4 September 1942 and after fitting out she was commissioned on 18 September 1942. She was sent to

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

Territory of Papua The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the a ...

, where she served until 30 January 1945. She returned to Australia where she operated in the waters off North Queensland and the Northern Territory. While steaming to Sydney from

Thursday Island Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cap ...

with cargo on 17 October 1946, ''Waree'' began taking on water and was run aground near the entrance of the Clarence River at

Yamba, New South Wales Yamba is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia at the mouth of the Clarence River. The first European to visit the area was Matthew Flinders, who stopped in Yamba Bay for six days in July 1799. The town economy is strongly based on ...

. She was declared a total loss. All crew members were rescued after a long swim to shore. A court martial later found ''Waree''s captain, Lieutenant Bill Boas, culpable for her loss.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waree, HMAS 1939 ships Ships built in New South Wales Tugboats of the Royal Australian Navy Shipwrecks of the Richmond-Tweed Region Maritime incidents in 1946 Iron and steel steamships of Australia