SS Iron Knight

SS "Iron Knight" was a Broken Hill Proprietary iron ore carrier of 4,812 tons which was sunk during World War II off the coast of Australia.

On 8 February 1943, "Iron Knight" was part of a convoy of ships travelling from Whyalla, South Asutralia up the east coast of New South Wales to Newcastle, New South Wales. At 2:30 am, a torpedo fired by Japanese submarine I-21 at escorts HMAS "Townsville" and HMAS "Mildura" passed under the bow of "Townsville" and struck "Iron Knight", which was at the head of the convoy.

"Iron Knight" sank within two minutes bow first. Out of the crew of 50 only 14 survived after climbing on board a single lifeboat. The convoy steamed ahead and the survivors were picked up by the French destroyer "Le Triomphant" 10 days later.

The wreck of the "Iron Knight" was discovered in waters off the town of Bermagui, New South Wales at a depth of approximately 125 metres.

References

* p5 "Heritage NSW" (Newsletter) Spring 2006 Vol 13 No. 2 [http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/heritagensw/newsletter_vol13no2.pdf]
* [http://maritime.heritage.nsw.gov.au/default.cfm NSW Maritime Heritage Online]
* [http://www.sydneyproject.com/ Sydney Project Dive Team]