The Matafele, a Burns Philp inter-island trader, was
commissioned into the RAN as a stores carrier
in 1943. It is seen here in 1938.

[AWM 301002]

Break W.T. silence and report your position.

An oar marked Matafele was amongst the few items that were recovered from the small RAN stores carrier when it disappeared on a voyage between Townsville and Milne Bay, Papua, in June 1944. HMAS Matafele, originally a small cargo and passenger ship which had been built by Burns Philp to travel around the New Guinea coastline, was commissioned into the RAN on 1 June 1943, the only RAN vessel ever to be commissioned at sea. Crewed by merchant seamen, Matafele and her sister ships, Lakatoi and Mamutu, had been requisitioned to carry military supplies from Cairns to Darwin and had also evacuated civilians from New Guinea in December 1941, just ahead of the Japanese invasion.

By 1944, Matafele’s original civilian crew had been replaced by RAN personnel and Pacific Islanders. Early in June 1944, the ship left Sydney after a refit and, carrying stores and mail for Milne Bay, headed north through the Barrier Reef and out across the Coral Sea to Milne Bay. She was expected there on 22 June.

She didn’t arrive and on 23 June the naval depot at Milne Bay, HMAS Ladava, sent a radio message to the Matafele:

Break W.T. silence and report your position.

There was no reply.

On 24 June, a RAAF aircraft claimed to have seen the small vessel making its way towards the Papuan coast but subsequent searches by both aircraft and naval vessels found nothing.

In late October 1944, a Naval Board of Enquiry concluded that the ship may have been overloaded, had put to sea beyond its permitted ‘deadweight’ and that it must have foundered.

Four officers, 20 other ranks and 13 islanders were lost with the Matafele.

According to Engine Room Artificer John Mayall, who left the ship just before her final voyage, the Matafele had been dogged by engine problems and oil leaks. The mounting of a 12-pounder anti-aircraft gun on the ship had also caused a displacement of her centre of gravity:

The addition of gun mountings and extra ballast both have a detrimental effect on the vessel’s range of stability by increasing displacement and reducing free board nor was allowance made for two new water tanks built into the ship’s hold in Brisbane.

[John Mayall, ‘Last Days of HMAS Matafele’, AWM MSS1433]