HMAS VIDAL
By Paul Williams
As told to me by my father around 45 years ago, this photo was taken by him, with a Box Brownie, from the top deck stern of the troop ship Queen Mary during World War 2, sometime in 1940. From memory, I think it was the HMAS Vidal, a mine sweeper escorting the Queen Mary from England to the Middle East. Knowing the height of the Queen Mary (very high) and the angle of the shot (about 45° from the deck of the Mary), you get a fair idea of the size of the wave that this little ship is sitting on. Apparently, this rogue wave came up so quickly that everyone was caught out, including the Vidal's crew. "It went up like an express elevator." I remember my father telling me of the white faces staring down at him when he took the photo. He could see them even from that distance. All of the crew on his area of the deck were also grabbing onto anything solid. He realised this when he looked around to see that he was fully exposed on the deck and now completely alone. It did happen that both the Vidal and the Mary came through unscathed but, for a few seconds, no one believed that they would.
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