''Yandra'' was a 990-ton coastal steamer built by

Burmeister & Wain Burmeister & Wain was a large established Danish shipyard and leading diesel engine producer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by two Danes and an Englishman, its earliest roots stretch back to 1846. Over its 150-year history, it g ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1928 for Coast Steamships for service in the Australian state of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. She was requisitioned 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 ...

in June 1940 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 opposin ...

for conversion to a minesweeper and anti-submarine vessel and was commissioned on 22 September 1940 as HMAS ''Yandra''. She returned to civilian service in 1946. She ran aground during dense fog onto South Neptune Island on 25 January 1959 and was subsequently

written off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

Service in South Australia

The ''Yandra'' was built for Coast Steamships, a wholly owned 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 ...

, by

. She arrived in

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

from

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on 23 October 1928 and commenced service in early November 1928. She was specifically designed for serving regional ports on the west coast of

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

– a locality commonly known as the 'west coast' in South Australia. Her relatively shallow draft allowed access to ports at destinations such as Elliston and Venus Bay.

Military service

The ''Yandra'' was requisitioned from Coast Steamships on 27 June 1940. She was converted for anti-submarine warfare in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and then commissioned into the

on 22 September 1940. HMAS ''Yandra'' challenged a ship off

Rottnest Island Rottnest Island ( nys, Wadjemup), often colloquially referred to as "Rotto", is a island off the coast of Western Australia, located west of Fremantle. A sandy, low-lying island formed on a base of aeolianite limestone, Rottnest is an A-class ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

on 5 October 1941 during the night and was given a false name ''Salland'', from Calcutta. The ship never appeared in port as expected and caused naval intelligence some concern that this vessel could have been the German auxiliary cruiser ''Kormoran'', it was dismissed as a misreading of the morse code. HMAS ''Yandra'' picked up 72 German survivors of the ''Kormoran'' on 27 November 1941, while searching for . Transferred to Sydney, HMAS ''Yandra'' was patrolling off the harbour boom gate on 31 May 1942, when a Japanese midget submarine (later identified as M-27) got entangled in the boom net. She later sighted a midget submarine (later identified as M-21) in the Harbour. HMAS ''Yandra'' and dropped depth charges over the site, with HMAS ''Yandra'' ramming the midget submarine on the bows. Unfortunately, both HMAS ''Yandra'' and HMAS ''Sea Mist'' were disabled by their own depth charges. After being repaired, HMAS ''Yandra'' patrolled on both the Australian east and west coasts, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. She was returned to her owner in 1946 and resumed service to west coast ports on 20 July 1946.

Fate

''Yandra'' ran aground during dense fog on the northern island in the South Neptune Island group at the mouth of

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and ...

at about 10 pm on Saturday, 25 January 1959 about 400 metres (1300 ft) from the lighthouse located on the nearby southern island. The decision to abandon ship was advised by radio at 11.10 pm. The crew abandoned the ship using a

breeches buoy A breeches buoy is a rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one place to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harn ...

and all 23 crew had safely evacuated to the northern island by 11.45 pm where they spent the night in the open. At dawn, the fog started to clear and the grounded ship was sighted by the lighthouse keepers who had been unaware of the grounding due to difficulties with radio transmission. The yacht ''Iline'', a competitor in the annual Neptune Island yacht race conducted by the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron, answered a radio call at 3.30 am and proceeded to the wreck site where it assisted in ferrying to the crew to the lighthouse complex on the southern island. The tug ''Tusker'' was dispatched from

on 26 January 1959 to assess the damage. It was decided that ''Yandra'' could not be recovered and ''Tusker'' returned to Port Adelaide with the rescued crew. The wreck is officially located at .'View Shipwreck – Yandra,' at the

Australian National Shipwreck Database __NOTOC__ The Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database (AUCHD) is an online, searchable database containing data on shipwrecks, aircraft that have been submerged underwater or wrecked on the shore, and other artefacts of cultural sig ...

, http://www.environment.gov.au/shipwreck/public/wreck/wreck.do?key=5906. Retrieved 30 June 2012. Her Ships Bell is on display at Paramount Browns,

Gepps Cross Gepps Cross (pronounced 'Jepps Cross') is a suburb and major road intersection in the north of Adelaide, South Australia. Gepps Cross is traditionally seen as the end of the inner suburbs and the start of the outer northern suburbs, as it was hom ...

Notes

Further information

The online collection of the

State Library of South Australia The State Library of South Australia, or SLSA, formerly known as the Public Library of South Australia, located on North Terrace, Adelaide, is the official library of the Australian state of South Australia. It is the largest public research l ...

includes images of the ship during its grounding such as the following: * The "''Yandra'' Salvage", 21 February 1959 at http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/20250/B20213.htm. Retrieved 30 June 2012. * The "''Yandra'' Salvage", 21 February 1959 at http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/20250/B20212.htm. Retrieved 30 June 2012.

External links