HMAS Voyager Encountered An Unidentified Submerged Object in 1962
HMAS Voyager was a Daring-class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy that was lost in a collision in 1964. Two years prior there was another incident of a strange kind in 1962 when the Voyager had an encounter with an Unidentified Submerged Object (USO). The witness who reported the incident to UFO Research Queensland in 2003 was a member of the crew and on duty in the Wheel House when Voyager chased an Unidentified Submerged Object. This is his own account of the event:
“These events happened and remain etched in my mind after all these years as if it were yesterday. I was then a clearance diver serving on HMAS Voyager which was cut in two by HMAS Melbourne on June 5, 1964 with the death of 82 sailors.
The exact date of this strange event eludes me but the month was January 1962, and the approximate position was where Voyager was to meet her nemesis. The ship was at anchor in Jervis Bay with the rest of the RAN fleet that was involved in “work up trials” for the oncoming Far East Strategic Reserve trip due to depart Sydney in February 1962. Voyager’s role was to act as anti-submarine escort to the HMAS Melbourne and an exercise with the British submarine was to commence the following day. However, our ever-ready Captain, DC Wells, sailed the ship early from Jervis Bay as darkness fell.
The captain was determined to make the Voyager the best ship of the fleet, an objective he achieved with our help, and which aided him in becoming Rear Admiral, Chief of Naval Staff.
We sailed over the Continental Shelf and proceeded on an easterly heading. My ‘watch on deck’ started at 2000 hours and after ‘falling in’ by the starboard sea boat, I was detailed two hours ‘wheel house’. It was always a requirement to relieve 15 minutes early. Upon reaching the wheel house, situated two decks below the bridge superstructure, I received the heading on the gyro strip, and my telegraph rating, the engine position (half ahead) and the engine revs, and thereby relayed to the bridge the relevant heading and engine revs.
About three quarters of an hour into the watch, the first of a series of frantic calls came down from the bridge. I was given a SE heading, increased telegraphs to ‘Full Ahead’, and revs increased dramatically until we were at top speed 38-40 knot (74kph). We stayed on this heading and speed for about 10 minutes, altering headings only slightly. Then I was given 20 degrees of port wheel. The ship lurched and rolled in the slight NE swell and then we had more confusion. We were given ‘reduce revs’ and then ‘engine half ahead’ and resumed our old heading. We stayed on this until the end of our watch at 2145 hours.
Full of confused questions we mustered back at the starboard sea boat, and our fellow seamen told us the events that had occurred.
The ship had been sent to cruising stations prior to 2000 hours, the sonar operators being ‘closed up’ they located a large ‘ping’ on the sonar about the time we got our new heading and speed change. The bridge, thinking it was the British submarine, chased it. The captain was now in charge of the bridge. The sonar blimp got quite big (estimated at over 100 metres long) and then it increased speed. We were at about 40 knots and the blimps speed continued increasing. Finally it disappeared at some incredible speed which the sonar operators estimated in the hundreds of knots. That ended the chase.
The whole ship’s company were agog. Soon our first leftenant’s voice came through the intercom reminding us of our sworn oath not to communicate with the media regarding any of the nights’ events. Things returned to nearly normal but a lot of us still alive will never forget that chilling chase of – WHAT???”
*We are not given the exact speed of the USO except that it was in the hundreds of knots. If it was 200 knots (370kph) it was five times faster than the destroyer at the time, and that implies about 125 times as much engine power, perhaps three gigawatts – the equivalent of the output of a modern power station.
Nowra Airbase, New South Wales. circa 1974/1976. Pre-dawn until 8am.
Another report comes from an ex-naval aircraft fitter based at the Nowra Airbase during the 1970s when Australia still operated its A3 Skyhawk jet aircraft. The following is the witness’s statement.
“1974-1976 I was a naval aircraft maintainer in the Fleet Air Arm preparing A4G Skyhawk fighter-bombers for a dawn sortie at the HMAS Albatross on the day. I cannot remember when, but a newspaper article in the local paper about strange overnight activities inland from Batemans Bay appeared about two days later.
I was doing my preflight inspections on the flight line with other 805/724 squadron personnel when our attention was drawn by flying objects entering airspace over the bush land south east of the base.
There were about six objects flying at a rapid speed (near supersonic as no boom was noticed) in an easterly direction. These objects appeared to be teardrop in shape most of the time, but would change shape and were reflecting the first rays of the sun brightly from their unpainted metal surfaces. No sounds were emitted from them.
Their appearance was strange, but their activities just astounded. Although they were several kilometers away, they were observed swooping down to about treetop level then up again to return from the area of the Princess Highway and headed west, out of sight.
We asked each other if we really saw them, but they soon returned and did similar maneuvers for about 10 minutes. We found that we needed to work and observe at intervals. I noticed that they slowed down to helicopter speed in a wheel formation and slowly rotated around Pigeonhouse Mountain, a mesa like formation about 14 kilometres south of us and just inland from Batemans Bay.
As our pilots arrived, the UFOs were breaking formation and randomly, shooting high into the atmosphere and returning in an erratic manner. (understood to be the “falling leaf effect”) They also changed direction without slowing down. (impossible to survive such forces)
We told the Skyhawk pilots that they had company up there this day. One replied, “Oh #@!*, not again!” We busied ourselves to launch the fighters but by the time we were returning to the line shack, the UFOs had dispersed and left the area. It felt like observation was 45 minute to an hour. Weather was clear.
We knew that on that day no other aircraft from our base had taken off. We also knew that they were not Australian military aircraft. The nearest RAAF base was Fairburn, Canberra ACT about 200 km away, a base mainly used for VIP aircraft. (ground crew always spent sortie time reading pilot’s aircraft identification magazines)
Even though aircraft activity of this sort would have compelled any one of us to report possible attacking aircraft to the Airfield Tower, to my knowledge on one ever did. It was discussed amongst the ground personnel during the day and the lack of cameras was lamented, but the subject wasn’t brought up until the Batemen’s Bay reports two days later, of strange lights and people in bush shacks being besieged by strangers, noises and bright lights. It was apparent that these objects had been active for most of the previous night and we had only witnessed the tail end of the activity.
I cannot understand why I did not make a note of the date and times, why the sighting never left the base, nor why no other witnesses ever came forward. They were not swamp gas, Venus, ball lightning, garbage bags carrying fires or unusual cloud formations. I have delayed reporting because of the time problem. I was going to revisit Nowra to check the newspaper date but it hasn’t happened. I also left the Navy in 1977 to join a Police Force and thought such information might jeopardize my career. Thanks to “John” of Fedpol for showing me the courage. I might get hit by a bus tomorrow and no one would have ever reported it.”
Wide Bay Training Area, Queensland. 2001/2002
I saw a UFO/UAP at Wide Bay Training Area about 2001/2002. It was interesting in its performance. We were on an Army exercise on gun picket, and we were watching satellites, shooting stars etc in a magnificent night sky. What we thought was a piece of space junk or satellite tracked across the sky, about the same speed as the others, then accelerated vertically out of site in about 1-2 seconds, it was phenomenal, nothing on Earth accelerates like that, and this thing was up in space, ridiculous and so eye opening. (witness requested to remain anonymous)
[Report submitted to UFORQ via email and FB on 11 July 2023]
UFO Research Queensland - Australia 