‘‘I felt the ship shudder,’’ he told the Newcastle Morning Herald on February 9, 1943.

‘‘The vessel trembled and the lights started jumping. I ran up the bunkers to ‘tween decks and then got to the boat deck. She was listing badly and was afire, but there was no panic.

‘‘The bosun said ‘To the boats, boys’. The ship took another list and went down by the nose. She lifted and the propellers were left racing out of the water. The vessel took another lurch about 10 feet forward and then stopped.’’

Mr Johnston, from Carrington, was among 14 who survived the deadly attack by the Japanese on the Iron Knight – seven of those were from the Newcastle area. More than half of the 36 who perished were also from Newcastle.

‘‘The cook, an able-bodied seaman, the storekeeper and myself were on the boat deck. I said ‘We’ve got to make a go for it’, and I went over the side. At that time the ship had a list of about 45 degrees.

‘‘The third engineer stopped the engines and put the ship hard astern, but it was too late to save her. There were a few men left on the boat deck when I went overboard.’’

Mr Johnston, and all of the others who survived the attack, have since died, but their vivid recollections will be shared again in Newcastle this Saturday when the annual memorial service to merchant mariners remembers the 70th anniversary of the Iron Knight’s sinking.

The Iron Knight was one of three BHP ships which carried ore into Newcastle. Another, the Iron Chieftain, was also sunk by the Japanese. In some quarters, it is still thought that the Knight was hit by mistake, with the torpedo instead intended to hit an Australian Navy escort ship.

The Iron Knight was travelling to Newcastle in a fleet of 10 merchant ships when it was hit. They were being escorted by HMAS Townsville and HMAS Mildura. The torpedo was fired from the Japanese submarine I-21, and passed under the Townsville before hitting the Iron Knight.

The late Norm Elbourne, of Cooks Hill, was also on board at the time.

‘‘Someone on the bridge got away the signal rocket to warn other vessels of the attack,’’ he recalled to the Newcastle Herald in 1993 on the 50th anniversary of the attack.

Others tried to get a lifeboat in the water, but it was secured and could not be freed.

‘‘I had no idea how far we were from the water. I remember an older seaman, Andy Johannesen, standing beside me just as we jumped. He jumped with his arms spread out.’’

Seaman Johannesen was never seen again, but Mr Elbourne made it to a raft with 13 others. They spent the next 10 hours on board before being rescued by the French destroyer Le Triomphant which had been sent down from Sydney.

In the decades following, Mr Elbourne later moved to Wallsend where he passed away. His Certificate of Discharge from the merchant fleet does not mention the Iron Knight’s sinking. It simply provides a date, 8.2.43, the night when the Iron Knight disappeared beneath him.

The Newcastle Morning Herald of February 10, 1943, records only those who survived. An Australian Army censor made sure that news of the 36 men killed was not published until after the war had ended.

Descendants meet for first time after major research

IT was the first time they had met, but each shared a thread with Newcastle’s maritime history and the dramatic events that occurred 70 years ago.

Ken Iredale from Fletcher and his sister Dawn Taylor lost their father, also named Ken, when BHP’s iron ore carrier Iron Knight was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the state’s south coast on February 8, 1943. 

All but 14 of the ship’s crew of 50 were killed, and most were from the Newcastle area.

Loaded with iron ore, the ship sank quickly, but French destroyer Le Triomphant rushed from Sydney to collect the survivors who had piled into the ship’s only lifeboat.

On board Le Triomphant was Roger Sauvan, whose son Ray settled on the Central Coast and who this week met the descendants of Ken Iredale at Newcastle’s Maritime Centre. Also on board was Louis Desit, whose widow still lives quietly on Lake Macquarie.

‘‘It’s amazing that people in the area still have connections and strong historical links to both ships and have never met before,’’ chairman of Newcastle Merchant Navy Memorial Committee Peter Morris said.

‘‘It shows that Newcastle really is a sailor’s town.’’

Mr Sauvan said he only began researching his father’s actions two years ago. His family were not from France but from the French Pacific nation of New Caledonia.

‘‘There is a scale model of Le Triomphant in New Caledonia,’’ he said. ‘‘I suppose you just start looking and, with the internet, you just find more and more information ... we found out a lot of things that we just didn’t know about our father and the ship,’’ he said.

Mr Iredale and his sister have been researching their father’s death for a decade, amassing folders of historic records and photographs.

‘‘We’re always finding out new things,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s quite fascinating.’’

All three will meet again on Saturday, June 1, when the annual memorial service to merchant mariners is held in Newcastle. This year’s service will focus on the 70th anniversary of the Iron Knight’s sinking. The service will be held at the Merchant Mariners Memorial on Newcastle foreshore from 11.15am. Attendees will receive a free pass to The Forgotten War display at Newcastle Maritime Centre, which records the vital role played by the merchant navy in Australia’s defence during WWII.