The wreck of the mysteriously missing Blythe Star found fifty years later.
Australia. A mysteriously missing shipwreck found fifty years later.
23 Jun 2023: In 1973, the Blythe Star, a 44 m coaster with a crew of ten, sank off Tasmania (Australia).
Until recently, the wreck had never been found. Researchers found it by chance in April 2023.
Australian researchers have put an end to a 50-year-old mystery. In April 2023, they succeeded in locating the wreck of the Blythe Star, a cargo ship that sank in 1973 off the coast of Tasmania but had never been found, reveals Smithsonian Magazine , Wednesday May 31, 2023, relayed by Slate .
It was quite by chance, while investigating an underwater landslide off the west coast of the big island, that they spotted the hull of the Blythe Star, according to a release from the Commonwealth Federal Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
They first used sonar to map the freighter, and then sent two underwater cameras to inspect the vessel, which was lying at a depth of 150 m.
The researchers were able to see that the wreck was teeming with life. They found numerous species such as fur seals, crayfish and algae.
Water rushed into the boat:
While sailing off the coast of Tasmania on October 12, 1973, this nearly 44 m long boat suffered an ingress of water. The ten crew members could do nothing and left the ship, which was carrying fertilizer and beer kegs, on board an inflatable raft.
The authorities launched "the largest maritime search ever conducted in Australia at that time", according to CSIRO, but to no avail. After a week, the search was called off. But the sailors continued to drift on their raft, feeding on glucose powder, a little water and cookies. Eventually, they reached land off Tasmania's Forestier Peninsula.
Of the ten castaways, one man died at sea and two others perished shortly after landing. Three of the seven survivors eventually found help and everyone was eventually repatriated by helicopter.
Increased security:
Despite numerous explorations, no trace remained of the sunken vessel. The whereabouts of the Blythe Star remained a mystery for 50 years. But this tragedy, the origin of which is still unknown, had consequences for maritime safety laws, which became stricter in Australia. Since then, ships have been required to report their route and location via the Australian Ship Reporting System, according to Slate.
Today, there is only one survivor of this shipwreck. He is Mick Doleman, a 68-year-old man who was only 18 at the time. Since the tragedy, he has fought to improve sailor safety.
TEN men rush into a small life raft, desperately free themselves and watch a ship in agony. The MV Blythe Star takes one last step, bow dipping skyward, and is swallowed by the ocean. Soaking wet, in shock, adrenalin coursing through their veins, the men allow themselves a sigh of relief that they haven't gone down with her, and set about waiting for help.
"Have you activated the SOS, George?" one asks.
"No," replies Captain George Cruikshank.
Hopes collapse as quickly as reality sinks in: nobody knows they're alive.
It's October 1973, and this is the beginning of an almost forgotten story of a failed search: an SOS call that was never made, and a desperate crew lost for 11 days at sea and on land that cost three of them their lives.
Seven men survived the sinking of the MV Blythe Star. Then they returned home and didn't talk about it much.
Forty-two years later, the last survivor of this story, Mick Doleman, finally spoke at length about the tragedy with Channel Seven's Sunday Night show - after his daughter encouraged him, as the last man standing, not to take it to his grave.
"It's a story that should have been told, but wasn't, mainly because none of the men who survived ever wanted to talk about it," says Sunday Night's Rahni Sadler.
"Firstly, because it was too traumatic. Secondly, because it's the code of the sea.
"It was a tragedy, and they never wanted it to be a story of heroism because three of them died. "Not only did these men not tell their families much more than was necessary, they didn't really talk about it with each other - even later, when some of them worked together again. It was a different time.
It's an incredible story, made all the more powerful by Doleman's stoic narration.
"The scariest thing is to stand on the side of your world - a crooked ship on the ocean - and watch it disappear beneath your feet," he says, reliving the minutes of despair as they abandoned ship.
They couldn't launch their lifeboats and were left with a frail rubber raft just over three meters long.
With the ship dying, he remembers the relief.
"We all went down, all ten of us. We survived, without worrying," Doleman recounts.
"We couldn't have been so wrong," he adds, realizing that the captain's inability to issue a distress call meant that the rescue would not take place in hours, but days, if at all.
Through meticulous reconstruction, Doleman's account reveals eight days of desperation, the loss of the first crew member, John Sloan, and his burial at sea.
"It shook us. It shook us," says Doleman, fighting back tears. "It made us lose all our composure.
The search had begun by then, but rescuers were looking for a ship, not a tiny raft.
"The Tasman Sea is the strongest and it threw everything at us," explains Mr. Doleman.
"It would crush us on the front of a wave and the raft would fold up.
For eight days, the crew endured bitter cold, rough seas and intense thirst. And sometimes, blissful delirium.
At one point, they drank their entire water supply, convinced in their delirium that they were at a party drinking beers.
Salvation came on the eighth day, when they made landfall at Deep Glen Bay, on the Tasmanian coast. It would be another three days - and two deaths - before the ordeal came to an end.
Type Steel-hulled coastal freighter Tonnage 321 gross tons Length 144 ft (44 m) Beam 25 feet (7.7 m) Draft: 10 ft (3.0 m) Engine power: 490 hp diesel Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) Crew: ten
Blythe Star was the second ship to operate under this name in Tasmania in the mid-twentieth century. The first, commonly known as Blythe Star I , was itself lost after a fire in the engine room in the late 1950s.
Blythe Star (II) was a small 371 gross ton cargo ship built by Ateliers Duchesne et Bossiere in Le Havre, France, in 1955, for owners Rederi A/S Orion of Drammen, Norway. Originally named Tandik, the vessel was purchased by Bass Strait Shipping Company in 1960 and renamed Blythe Star .
Records show that, during her time in Australia, she operated as a coastal freighter around Tasmania and the surrounding islands, as well as making voyages across Bass Strait to mainland Australia and around its coasts.
The ship had already gone ashore some time before it sank:
The MV Blythe Star in Prince of Wales Bay, Hobart in 1973. Shortly after this photo was taken, the ship capsized near Tasmania's South-West Cape. Photography : O'May Collection, Tasmanian Maritime Museum.
The Blythe Star docked in Melbourne in 1971. The shipwreck led to the development of modern maritime operating principles. Photo: R. Cox.
This is a new 3D project initiated by Roland Grard and myself.
Roland, who lives in Le Havre, has been in contact over the last few years with Australians who are interested in the sinking of the coaster Blythe Star. The ship sank very quickly without a distress message being sent out, but the ten crew members were able to get to safety in an inflatable raft.
One of his Australian correspondents wrote a book about the tragedy, and was able to send them photos and plans of the boat. Other plans were "unearthed" from the Australian archives by another of his Australian correspondents who was also passionate about the Normandie liner.
Last month he received a photo from her showing him with the last survivor of the sinking posing in front of a model of the Blythe Star. Roland knew that he had modelled the plans in 3D but was unaware that he had undertaken to make a model, and he was surprised to discover that this model had been partly made by 3D wire printing.
Nicolas in front of his model and Mick Doleman on the left, last survivor of the Blythe Star.
He kindly sent her his various print files to produce another copy.
That's when he asked me to print the ship.
The problem is that the coaster is at 1/50 scale and it would have been complicated to print a ship of this size with a resin printer as I only had the final STL files at my disposal, which would have been difficult to modify in order to split them correctly. What's more, the printing technique is not the same between wire and resin, which is its own constraint.
So I suggested to Roland that he redo the 3D drawing from A to Z with more detail, but at 1/100 scale, using the same plans he had available. The ship will be as she was in 1973.
An extract from the plans:
I've made good progress on the project since 28 November, a good week ago, I'm already at 50 hours of drawing, putting paid to my good resolution to finish the current projects, but at the same time I'm continuing to finish the battleship Bretagne.
This project should be completed very quickly, a 'Flash' project.
I'd made good progress despite some problems with Fusion, I can't change the bow lines any more. So I've got a few minor glitches.
I don't have the courage to start again. It won't show.
I've started drawing the sheet metal welds, which is time-consuming, but so much more realistic once they're in place.
Although it's quicker than before, I've improved my technique. I had more trouble with the bow than the stern, surprisingly. The bow is rounded, not easy to render. I'll do it differently next time. I was thinking maybe I'd do the forward hold open, with a load of bags on the mast, and we'll see.
Blythe Star ex-Tandik under construction at the Duchesne et Bossière shipyard in Le Havre during her launch:
Later I noticed that the type of radar antenna fitted on this ship meant that the photos could be dated approximately, at least the chronology, which is very interesting.
I drew the chateau, which was quite complex, in the "Art Deco" style of the time, as I like to call it, so with its magnificent curved lines, the architects went to a lot of trouble and the idea of simplifying the shapes didn't even occur to them! Beautiful times.
The plans are meagre for this part, but sufficient. I have my doubts about the exact shape of the stack when I compare the plans and the photos - it happens a lot. We don't always have the final plan, if there ever was one.
Based on what the photos show, I've rectified the junction between the bridge fin and the planking; I think we're close to the real thing, a very complex junction. For the stack it should look like this.
Today I continued with the area around the footbridge and the stack.
A few photos helped me with this part. In particular, a screen capture from one of the videos of the dive on the ship, which was quite clear.
I was able to see which way the front panels of the clerestory opened, for example. The aft part was used to ventilate the galley underneath, and the front, the engine compartment.
This photo also allowed me to see on the chimney where the exhaust pipe from the main engine and probably the two generators was positioned, as well as the air vents. I don't know if there was a small boiler on board.
Image CSIRO.
Here is a good photo of her sister-ship the "Kloster" (Construction N°102 at Duchesne et Boissière, 101 for the Blythe Star/Tandik) which also sank north of Bergen off Rongevær in Austrheim under the name of Frenafjell but on 20-21 June 1992, no casualties, she capsized and sank LAT. 60 49 50N LONG. 004 45 70E.
I've sailed in this particular part of Norway near Mongstad, where we used to stop off to load up. When the weather's fine, it's fine, but in winter it's a whole other story when the weather's bad.
Kloster doesn't have the small windsocks next to the bigger ones though. I'm going to use this photo to draw the davits too.
I've spent quite a bit of time over the last 2 days working on the modifications I needed to make thanks to the new photos Nicolas, who lives in Australia, kindly sent me via Whatsapp on Friday: stack, ventilation, camber of the main deck and bridge deck, fairleads etc... Installation of the anchors.
The Blythe Star has its maximum draught ( 3,10 m ). The freeboard is low.
I measured it compared to this photo in particular, and it turns out that it's a bit low on the construction plan compared to the roof of the bridge, exactly 36.5 cm at 1:1 scale, which is a lot for a small boat like this.
I've corrected that.
I've also corrected the size of the mast ventilation covers. The fixing of the pulley on the mast is also different in the photos.
The radar support is not easy to draw, it was added later when the second type of radar was installed.
Thank you Jim, Don't worry, "Bretagne" will be back soon.
I'm here this evening.
Drawing of the lifebuoy holders, the rail, the box to store the dynamite detonators ( Detonator Box ), when the ship carried some, from time to time.
And I'm closing the workshop for today...
The 1965 grounding (8 years before it sank) on a beach near the explosives dock. The ship was loaded with several dozen tonnes of dynamite (14,000 cases) when it broke its moorings, probably due to the swell.
The seawater-damaged dynamite was later dumped into the sea.
The ship docked in Melbourne, Australia. Probably early 1970s.
The aft deck is beginning to be furnished.
I've put in a wooden bench, made by the crew no doubt, which should allow you to smoke your cigarette in peace.
I have this bench in a photo, but I don't have permission to post the image, like others from the photo collections of the families of sailors who sailed on this ship.
A few visual advances. It's a time-consuming process to set up, even though I'd already planned this part of the design at the start of the 3D experience drawing.
All the elements have to fit together as well as possible during assembly, so you have to take this into account and apply tolerances to the dimensions of the parts that are going to be glued together. You also have to think about the application of paint, and masking must be as simple as possible, especially on a merchant ship, which is much more colourful than a warship.
We've seen this problem with some commercial models in injected plastic or 3D too.
The 3-blade propeller has been replaced by a 4-blade. It turns out that the ship had run aground a few years earlier, (See the press article above), the propeller would have been damaged and replaced by a 4 blade, it was confirmed by one of the sailors, speaking on a forum, who sailed on the ship. Then by doing some research with Nicolas and Roland, the screenshots of the film from the ROV that dived on the wreck reveal that a 4-blade propeller was fitted.
Progress on the drawing. The wooden deck, the storage lockers.
My new Photon M5s printer should make all this easier, as it prints with more accurate actual dimensions than my old Photon Mono X 4K. It's a real improvement for assemblies in general, which are always tricky to do at this scale.
Printing a few parts to adjust the new printer.
You can see the difference in definition with layers of 50 microns for the 2. You have to look at the grids on the portholes.
The Photon M5s 12K on the left, the Photon Mono X 4K on the right. The latter has nothing to be ashamed of. It's also a very good printer, and I've probably made several hundred prints with it. It's a workhorse of a printer.
There's a print counter on the M5s among others, which is much more modern and automated. We'll see how it performs over time, but I'm confident.
It almost indecent how quickly one can build models with this technology ... I am imagening myself making formers, templates and jigs for the complex parts and countless hours on the lathe and milling (though I enjoy the latter very much).
_________________ Eberhard
Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)
...do you indent the planking ? or is it lightly grooved?
Tks Jim,
No, I simulated a false planking plane, it's not like that in real life. It would take too much time and resources for my computer to generate such a plan... and incidentally I don't have the 3D skills. But these weld seams will barely be visible, it's just an evocation to avoid having a smooth hull. You can see it a lot in the software, but once it's printed, it's almost invisible and that's fine.
It almost indecent how quickly one can build models with this technology ... I am imagening myself making formers, templates and jigs for the complex parts and countless hours on the lathe and milling (though I enjoy the latter very much).
But the charm isn't the same.
The advantage is that it takes less time to complete the list of ships you've been dreaming of.
... and it requires a new set of skills that I still would need to develop. Perhaps, once I am finally retired and don't spend my days professionally in front of a computer, I may learn 3D modelling (I do have certain 2D CAD skills). Messing around with a resin printer in a rented apartment is also not an ideal combination ...
_________________ Eberhard
Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)
I started my (personal) computing life in 1981 on an Apple IIe in my university ... slowly upgrading to a MacBook Air now
The worst year was when I had to downgrade to MS DOS in 1991, when working in Italy ... and intermittendly at other places on MS Windows.
IT guys don't like Macs, because they can't really mess around with them, giving you 'support'. Or as my first 'real' boss put it: when using a Mac, one doesn't need an IT department, because things work from the start ...
Did a lot of FORTAN, BASIC and PASCAL coding in my younger years and then, some 17 years ago, I had to take a crash-course in MathLab coding, when diving into geochemical computer modelling again.
_________________ Eberhard
Former chairman Arbeitskreis historischer Schiffbau e.V. (German Association for Shipbuilding History)
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