On the night of 11-12 August 1942, Castlemaine entered Sydney Harbour at three knots with dimmed navigation lights. Reversing her engines failed to prevent a collision with a Manly ferry. The impact tore a hole in the corvette's port side, damaged frames down to the waterline, and crushed her port motorboat, but nobody was injured. A passenger's newspaper account recalled the sudden impact and profanity exchanged between crews, while describing the ferry passengers as calm. The inquiry initially cleared Castlemaine of blame. After reviewing its findings, the Naval Board assigned partial blame because her navigation lights had not been burning at full brilliance.
Notable Point · 1:20:39-1:23:46
A dimly lit Castlemaine collided with a Manly ferry
Castlemaine's August 1942 collision with a Manly ferry led to conflicting accounts of her lights and successive findings about responsibility.