--Originally Posted 4/12/06 --

The following are some remarkable pictures I was able to find on-line; the first to be released (4/4/08) by The Finding Sydney Foundation, showing HMAS Sydney as she lies today, on the floor of the Indian Ocean. Between each pair I have inserted a graphic locating (as best I could determine) each picture on the ship, likewise adapted from a Finding Sydney Foundation on-line graphic, and the quoted captions are transcribed directly from those found with each pic, on-line:


Click on Image to Enlarge"'A' turret (left), with its gun housing destroyed and with the foredeck rent back over its twin gun barrels...'B' turret (right) showing evidence of a direct hit between gun barrels and damage to turret roof."


Click on Image to Enlarge"(At left,) Sydney's badly damaged compass platform, bridge and remnants of the base of the Director Control Tower...(at right) Upturned searchlight platform torn away from forward funnel."


Click on Image to Enlarge"A deep sea anemone adorns Sydney's main deck (left)...Areas of Sydney’s teak decking remain remarkably intact(right)."


Click on Image to Enlarge"Midships kedge anchor (left)...(at right,) Port side cradle for aft 27 foot whale boat (missing)."


Click on Image to Enlarge"Some of the many portholes visible on Sydney’s port side (left)...(at right,) This cluster of four 5.9-inch shell hits within a line 20-feet high clearly demonstrates the deadly precision of the German gunnery."


Click on Image to Enlarge"The front of the gun housing of 'X' turret (left), credited by the Germans with inflicting the mortal blow on Kormoran...(at right) Wreckage strewn on top of 'Y' turret."


Click on Image to Enlarge"A capstan in the centre of Sydney's stern (left) sits elevated above the collapsed main deck with the two bollards in the foreground folded inward because of the same collapse...One of Sydney's port propellers and shafts (right) dislocated from its normal position against the hull."

All Above Photos: The Finding Sydney Foundation
Incredible. These are awesome times to be a ship modeler; amazing times to be a naval historian.


Long Live HMAS Sydney!


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