In July 1942 I joined the William MacArthur, a 3000ton collier owned and operated by R.W. Miller and Co. ship owners, brewers and coal merchants, trading between Newcastle and Melbourne.I was informed the ship was sailing with a convoy early next morning, and that if the ship was torpedoed, to don a lifejacket and proceed to my lifeboat station at the stern of the vessel.

Early next morning about a dozen ships steamed out of Newcastle Harbour. eventually forming into three columns and proceeded south under escort of two R.A.N. Corvettes.

At approx 4.00am the next morning there was a loud crashing sound, and the tearing of metal the Wm.McArthur listed heavily to port and then violently righted herself, "We've been hit", I grabbed lifejacket and was on deck in record time,where there was much confusion and shouting with the Chief Officer yelling "Don't Jump" as some crew were preparing to abandon ship,water was pouring out of the forecastle entrance, I quickly went to lifeboat station and awaited orders.

What had occurred was the Steamship Goulbourn on the starboard beam had veered sharply to port and collided heavily with the Wm.McArthur on the starboard bow, the starboard anchor had been rammed through the steel plating, leaving a gaping hole in the forecastle crews quarters allowing the sea to enter, as we were a fully laden ship low in the water, some crew had arrived on deck and were preparing to jump, the Chief Officer realising the ship was not sinking, ordered them not to jump overboard.

The Goulbourn moved away and back into position the convoy proceeded on course away from the Wm.Mcarthur. A Navy Corvette arrived assessed the situation and departed with the rest of the convoy leaving us wallowing in a heavy wild sea. The Master and Mate assessed the damage and commenced salvage repairs, mattresses were jammed into the hole, the chain locker forepeak and forecastle were flooded, tarpaulins were placed overside and held in place by cargo derricks and steel wires, and with the pumps coping with the water flow, Wm. MacArthur proceeded at slow speed to Melbourne. A month in dry dock undergoing repairs gave this young inexperienced sailor his first contact with life at sea.

Convoy O.C.68. Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, North Bound.

7th February 1943 William MacArthur now a Defensively Equiped Merchant Ship (D.E.M.S.) had a 4inch naval gun fitted to the stern and carried one naval rating as gun layer, I had acquired a D.E.M.S. gunnery certificate and had my pay increased sixpence a day and acted as trainer, the rest of the guns crew were made up of volunteer seamen.

On the afternoon of the 7th it was decided to have gunnery practice, after receiving permission from the Commodore ship of the Convoy and the Naval escort. A regulation practice buoy was dropped overboard. The convoy was made up of eleven ships in two rows S.S. Iron Knight was in the front row at the seaward end, and the Wm. MacArthur was about a cable length directly astern, the Burns Philp cargo ship S.S. Mangola was in the port column of the convoy directly abeam of Iron Knight, which was fully loaded with iron ore for Newcastle while Wm. MacArthur was light ship,we reduced speed and dropped back a short distance astern of the convoy and firing commenced. I received a recoil kick from the first shot and retired to the back of the gun platform with the Chief Engineer, allowing the reserve trainer to take over and gain gunnery practice firing continued, the sea was calm.

It was at this particular time that the Chief and I saw something break the water surface astern of our ship and heading seawards away from the convoy,and was, what appeared, certain to be a submarine periscope. This observation was reported to the bridge but as no further sighting was observed through binoculars no report was made to the escort.

Upon hindsight we now believe the Japanese Submarine I-21 was tailing the convoy and waiting for the appropriate conditions to attack.

During the early hours of the morning of the 8/2/43 there was a loud explosion, followed by alarm bells ringing and high tension as we rushed to action stations. shortly after the first torpedo found its mark there was a second explosion. The Wm. MacArthur seemed to lift out of the water, and the bulkheads made an extraordinary loud noise as they flexed under pressure. The second explosion from the Iron Knight is unexplainable, possibly a second torpedo was fired at the ship immediately abeam of the Iron Knight being the Mangola. Wm MacArthur passed over the wreckage of where Iron Knight had been as she went down so fast like a stone, and we could hear the cries of the survivors as we passed over. A life raft was released, and eight survivors were picked up on it next day by the French Destroyer "Le Triomphant". ( Merchant Ships in convoy are instructed not to stop for survivors unless instructed by Navy escort) although two ships contrary to orders left the convoy, and proceeded independent on a course much closer inshore.

This event has remained clear to me since it occurred, and in my view the Japanese submarine I-21 had in fact been travelling with and at the stern of the convoy, and when hearing the practice surface gunfire the previous day had turned away from the convoy heading seaward, and that its captain had poked his periscope up for a quick determination of what was going on. It was during that night that he sank the Iron Knight with two torpedo

Extract Royal Australian Navy Events. 8th February 1943.

The Japanese submarine I-21 torpedoed the Australian merchant ship "Iron Knight" off Montague Island N.S.W. Eight survivors were picked up by the French destroyer "Le Triomphant". The fatal torpedo passed beneath the corvette HMAS Townsville?(questionable) The next day I-21 torpedoed the US Merchant ship "Starr King" 150 miles East of Sydney.

7th January 1943 I-21 set out from Rabaul New Guinea on its second patrol off the East of N.S.W.still under the command of Captain Kanji Matsumura, one of the most distinguished and reliable submariners in the Imperial Japanese Navy. I-21 was one of a flotilla of nine I-Class submarines the largest and most sophisticated under water vessels in the world, carrying a reconnaissance floatplane and the Japanese navy's Type 95 torpedo, far better than anything in the British, American, or German inventory.

Matsumura in command of I-21 at 1am 18/1/43 sank the Kalingo 2047tons (loss 2 crew), 9.50pm the same day I-21 torpedoed the American tanker Mobilube 9860tons, 60 miles east of Sydney (loss 3 crew), 22/1/43 9.55pm torpedoed the American Liberty Ship Peter H Burnett 7176tons, 420 miles east of Sydney (loss 1 crew), early on the morning 8/2/43 I-21 sank the BHP steamer Iron Knight 4812tons 21 miles from Montagu Island, she sank within two minutes (loss 36 crew). This convoy was being escorted by the corvettes HMAS Townsville and HMAS Mildura, 6.20am 10/2/43 Matsumura pumped two torpedoes into the American Liberty Ship Starr King 7176tons, 150 miles east of Sydney. In 23 days 31,000 tons of shipping hd been sunk or damaged by I-21. Information of the submarine activity off the Australian Coast was heavily censored.

The cost of the Japanese campaign in the space of 30 months, when 27 large submarines operated in Australian and adjacent waters over two patrols in the period between June 1942 and June 1943, was 41 ships sunk with 49 attacks, a total of 117,900 tons sunk, 25 other vessels survived attacks sustaining serious damage. The campaign resulted in 465 deaths of Merchant Seamen,off the Australian East Coast.

Footnote
To substantiate the narration of Norman Bersten's account on board William MacArthur, of the attack on the convoy and sinking of Iron Knight, I Ron (Steve) Wylie was Second Officer of the Burns Philp cargo vessel Mangola, on the midnight to 4 am watch in this particular convoy. I was positioned on the starboard wing of the bridge, when at approx 2 am and on station immediately abeam port side of Iron Knight, when two explosions occurred on the Iron Knight, by the time I was able to raise the alarm a matter of seconds aboard Mangola, Iron Knight had disappeared, by this time with binoculars focussed and being a clear calm night, all that was observed was a cloud of iron ore dust by myself the Master and Chief Officer, our assumption at the time being, also those aboard Wm. MacArthur was that the submarine (I-21 under Command of Matsumura) was between the escort HMAS Townsville which was patrolling extremely well out eastward of the convoy. HMAS Townsville did not receive any indication although equiped with anti submarine Sonar ( an active sound ranging below water sensor and hydrophones), used to detect submarine activity and alert all ships, both torpedoes were pumped into Iron Knight. There was no enquiry into this and the many other Japanese and German submarine and surface Raider attacks and operations around Australia, 1939 to 1945 it was veiled in secrecy and censorship. We are attempting to bring to light some of the courage and sacrifice via this website.