The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (W1433) Chief Engine Room Artificer, Charles William Green, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Robyn Siers, the story for this day was on (W1433) Chief Engine Room Artificer, Charles William Green, HMAS Goorangai, Royal Australian Navy, Second World War.

W1433 Chief Engine Room Artificer Charles William Green, HMAS Goorangai
Accidentally killed 20 November 1940
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 20 November 2013

Today we remember and pay tribute to Chief Engine Room Artificer Charles William Green of the Royal Australian Navy.

Charles Green was born on 19 April 1900 in Preston, Lancashire. He came to Australia with his family as a young man. Little is known of his early life or education, but in 1929 he married Isabella Reid. He enlisted in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve and, following the outbreak of the Second World War, was called to active duty.

Green was posted to the HMAS Goorangai. This vessel had been a fishing trawler in peacetime, but when the war started she was taken over by the Navy Board and fitted out for minesweeping. In early November 1940 a British ship and an American freighter were lost in quick succession in Bass Strait to German mine-laying operations. HMAS Goorangai was one of a number of minesweepers sent to locate and destroy the mine fields. After two weeks on that operation she returned to Queenscliff, but a rising storm sent the ship to the safer harbour of Portsea.

As the Goorangai passed in darkness through the dangerous rip at the mouth of Port Philip Bay she was hit by an outbound merchant ship and torn almost in half. A crewman on the ship that hit the Goorangai reported: "In the short time it took me to run along the promenade deck to the rail by the bridge the Goorangai had disappeared. There was not a sound but the crash of water." Some eyewitnesses heard men calling for help, but could do little for them. Floatation devices were thrown out into the darkness and lifeboats deployed immediately but, despite a long search, no survivors or bodies were found. The minesweeper had sunk almost immediately with all hands still on board.

Over the following weeks diving operations recovered the bodies of five of the crew. Charles Green's body was the second. The remaining 19 were never found, and the wreck of the minesweeper was blown up to clear the channel.

HMAS Goorangai was the first vessel of the Royal Australian Navy to be lost in the Second World War and the first surface vessel of the RAN to be lost in any war.

Charles Green was sadly missed by his family and friends, who wrote of him that he was 'a true pal'.

The names of Charles Green and the crew of HMAS Goorangai are listed on the Roll of Honour on my left, along with more than 40,000 others from the Second World War.

This is but one of the many stories of courage and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Chief Engine Room Artificer Charles William Green, and all of those Australians who have given their lives in the service of our nation.