ss Millimumul

Red Funnel Trawlers Ltd

Sydney, Australia

Built in1915 by Smith Dock Co. : United kingdom : South Bank on Tees

287 GRT

About 7.45 p.m. on March 26th Millimumul was about 22 miles off barrenjoey N.S.W, deck hand Thomas Grundy was standing near the foregallows watching the foredoor (a board used to keep the net extended) when he noticed a strange cable caught round the trawl. As the winches hauled the net closer to the side of the ship he noticed a mine which had been dragged to the surface in the net. Chief Mate Gibson, who had also seen the mine shouted to Capt. Rixon, who was on the bridge, "There's a mine."

Immediately Capt. Rixon jumped from the bridge and ran aft with Second Mate Low, Deck Hand Osterburg and Fireman Kelly. Expecting an explosion, Lowe, Osterburg and Grundy crossed the galley. A few minutes later came a deafening explosion and the ship shivered violently. The mine had connected with the hull about 40 ft. from the bows and showers of red hot shrapnel were falling on the deck as the ship rocked. When she began to settle, the Millimumul lurched suddenly and Grundy was thrown into the sea. Low said that when the explosion occurred he rushed to Capt. Rixom and the two of them tried to launch the raft. As they were setting it over the side of the ship, the sea dashed it back on the deck .

This jammed the Skipper and the 2nd Mate up against the casing near the wheelhouse and at that instance the Millimumul sank taking them with it. While they were under the water, Low was still clinging to the raft then suddenly he felt it loosen. The raft rose to the surface dragging him with it, but Capt. Rixom remained jammed by the wheel house.

When Low got on the raft, he yelled at the top of his voice to find if there was anyone about. He heard a few calls from the darkness and passed close to Ogilvie, who climbed aboard. Then Tommie Grundy called out. When they got close to him Low and Ogilvie found Grundy was lying on the hull of an upturned lifeboat. They grabbed the lifeboat and dragged it along with the raft. They then picked up fireman Kelly who was swimming about and put him on the lifeboat because there was no more room on the raft. A little later the four men turned the lifeboat right-side up and made the raft fast with a painter. They then heard a call from firemen Hamilton, they rowed the boat about in the dark until they found him and picked him up, he was in the cook's meatbox. By this time there was five men in the lifeboat and they waited until daylight to see if they could pick up any more survivors.

When the sun rose they found they were surrounded by wreckage but there was no sign of their shipmates. At around 7 a.m. they decided to bail out the boat and shape a course for the coast under sail. All day they used the sail when there was any wind and the oars when there was a lull. That night they saw a collier and set a jersey on fire in an attempt to attract the ships attention but she sailed on.

The men were to learn later that the collier was the Mortlake Bank who did not see the blaze, however, it had attracted the attention of a shore station which signalled the Mortlake Bank to start a search. Kelly, Hamilton and Grundy had all lost their pants and the night was very cold and none of the men had had any food for 18 hours. The collier finally plucked the men from the lifeboat at 11 p.m. on the 27th. The survivors were brought into Sydney harbor at 6.30 a.m. the following morning and taken to Sydney Hospital. There it was found that Ogilvie had a injured arm and Hamilton a cauliflower ear and an injured left arm. The other 3 men were all right, after a period of observation they were allowed to go home.

Lost crew members

Master - George William Clewlow Rixom

Chief Engineer - Robert Regan

First Mate - Frederick James Gibson

Second Engineer - James Joseph Dempsey

Wireless Operator Harold Hordern

Cook - Gordon Henry White

Deck Hand - Arthur Geiser Osterburg

Rescued crew members

Second Mate - W Low

Deck Hand - Thomas William Grundy

Fireman - G. Ogilvie

Fireman - P. Kelly

Fireman - William Hamilton