Down Under - Perth, Nov. 18, 2022

I should have probably posted this a long time ago: before I came back home and started watching the FIFA World Cup every day, before Christmas break, and before I jumped back into full-time work. To be honest, though, it was also nice to have a break from delving in the past and the "heavy stuff."

Perhaps there is value in this kind of "hindsight" travel post, because when I think back to November of last year, it already feels strangely distant, a temporary escape to another world. Now that I'm back in the groove of doing the things I always do, going back to write this post allows me take a step back into this wondrous "sabbatical" world I got to experience.

And, indeed, one of the strangest (in the most positive sense of the word) experiences during my trip was that - somehow - I found myself in a room with some of the most prominent researchers in the history and legacy of the Sydney / Kormoran encounter as I was invited to Curtin University on November 18th (a day before the anniversary of the battle) to experience the unveiling of new 3D models of the Kormoran and Sydney wreck sites. Thank you to Andrew Woods, Ross Anderson and Michael Gregg for the invitation!

Hence -- and I couldn't resist the pun in the title -- I found myself deep down under the sea level, in a simulation of this wreckage that felt simultaneously real and surreal. Using the approximately half a million pictures and three hundred hours of video that were captured in the latest expedition to the wreck sites (in 2015), the researchers and computer scientists (with the help of very powerful computers) were able to create this incredibly immersive experience that provides further insight into what must have unfolded during the battle on November 19th, 1941.

I remember sitting there with my 3D glasses, between all these experts, diving across the surface of the Koromoran's engine room and hull, feeling like I had somehow been granted access to a secret society by virtue of the strange luck of my ancestor. The sheer power of the explosion that wrecked my grandfather's ship, evidenced by details like the bow anchor being stuck in the hull plating, only served to underscore that feeling. It seems evident that it wasn't the scuttling charges that caused the explosion but the 300 mines on board that eventually blew up. Somehow my grandfather and most of his crew made it to safety before this gigantic explosion, which, ultimately, seems a like it was not a controlled scuttling at all.

I also wondered how my grandfather would have felt about seeing this ultra-realistic reproduction of the wrecks - would he have wanted to be invited back into this deep-sea evidence of past trauma? Why was I granted access to this - among all these experts ? I felt like an imposter who had been endowed with a secret mission that he had no clue how to handle. I remember deciding to just enjoy the moment and absorb as much as I could.

My imposter syndrome and strange sense of luck continued when I took the 3D glasses off and was greeted by Wes Olson, author of Bitter Victory: The Death of HMAS Sydney and the more recent H.M.A.S. Sydney (II) in Peace and War. As a gift to me, he had brought an original letter that he had received from my grandfather in 1998 - a correspondence about the types of torpedoes used on the Kormoran. An incredibly kind and thoughtful gesture, and I loved that my grandfather somehow made it into this meeting - albeit only though his letter from a long time ago.

To round up the fantastic journey of that day, I got to hitch a ride back with the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Western Australia, Dr. Gabriele Maluga and her private chauffeur. (I hope you can tell why that imposter syndrome hit hard that day!)

(Top left: Wes Olson and me with the letter. Bottom Left: The Honorary Consul and me. Photo credits to Andrew Woods, Curtin University)

Oh, and I went to a Guns N' Roses concert that night as well. What a trip!

PS: It was fun to jump back into last Fall while I'm staring out the window at the muddy half-snow of New England March. So I might as well add another post soon about some of the other amazing things I saw on the trip that weren't directly related to the Sydney/Koromoan story (mostly cool nature stuff).