Leading Stoker John Adrian Moxey, HMAS Goorangai, RAN
Australian War MemorialJohn Moxey was born on 15 November 1912 in Williamstown, Victoria to a nautical family. His father had been captain of the steamer Edina for over 15 years, and at the time of the Second World War, was master of an interstate freighter. John and his brother Alfred were members of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, reporting for active duty in September and August 1939 respectively.
John Moxey was eventually posted to HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime. When the war started, she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping. She operated primarily in the Bass Strait.
In early November 1940, a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession in the Bass Strait as a result of German minelaying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mine fields.
After two weeks on that operation the minesweeper returned to Queenscliff. But a rising storm sent the ship to Portsea, which was a safer harbour.
As the Goorangai passed through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay in the darkness, she was hit by an outbound merchant ship, MV Duntroon. The liner, weighing 10,364 tonnes and travelling at 17 knots struck the Goorangai on the port side, almost tearing her in halves.
A crewman on the Duntroon later reported:
“In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water.”
In that short moment, eyewitnesses heard men calling for help but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness and lifeboats were deployed immediately but despite a long search, no survivors or bodies were found.
The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.
Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. John Moxey’s was the fifth and final body to be found. The remaining 19 were never recovered.
The Goorangai was the first ship lost by the RAN in World War II. The wreck of Goorangai lay inside the shipping transit zone in less than 15 metres of water and was considered a hazard to navigation. She was demolished by explosive charges early in 1941 to clear the channel.
John Moxey’s brother, Alfred, spent another two years on active service, posted to HMAS Yarra in March 1940.
When the Yarra was attacked and sunk by a Japanese naval force on 4 March 1942, Alfred Moxey died in the service of his country like his brother before him.
Meleah Hampton, Historian, Military History Section
- Australian War Memorial https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM2017.1.214
