Sygna all but gone

[slcs78]

For those who have been to Stockton over the years, this might be of interest to you. Looks like the storms have all but claimed the last of the ship

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3951862/sun-finally-sets-on-famous-sygna-photos-video/#slide=22

[scrapsD40]

Wow, that brings back memories. My family was living in New Lambton when that happened. That weekend Dad drove the family to the Church (above Newcastle cbd) to see it washed up. Then at some stage not long after (40+ year ago) we drove to the track nearby at the back of the dunes (??) and walked to the stern. (No 4wd's on the beach back then unless you were army)

For those from the area, may also remember this. The bow, which was eventually floated off the beach was moored for a time at Fishermans Beach/Salamander Bay area inside Port Stephens. We had a small boat at the time and had a family picnic out there one weekend running mini group boat trips around the bow and back to the beach.

[slydar]

as a boy I watched the Sygna story unfolding unfolding from my parents house in kotara. I remember the storm itself and the day we went to see the sygna a couple of weekends afterwards when most people had to walk from the old concrete bunker that my father said housed air force radio/radar equipment somewhere near the end of what I think was lavis lane. he was lucky (?) enough to be based in the fort in the dunes in ww2 after his basic training before heading away north.

as far as we could see the whole of Stockton beach was covered in the filth and stench of crude oil and the occasional remains of dead fish and sea birds, and the Sygna itself still had its bow section albeit with its back broken and the sounds of metal against metal on the occasional seventh wave. for years afterwards the  papers had articles on the latest developments such as the bow section being removed and towed out the off the beach and the entrepreneur who bought the stern with a few business ideas that never got past the flying fox he set up to take him out to it to show business associates around. many years later I worked with someone who was based at RAAF Williamtown who took a trip out there and managed to get past the fences to take himself out on the flying fox and have a look around, back then not everyone had a camera so he could only relate what he saw as he descended down into its depth until he didn't feel comfortable going any further, partly due to how quickly it seemed to be deteriorating even then which would have only been in the late 70s.

I didn't get close to it again until about six years ago with my now partner who had never seen nor heard of it before. even over these recent years we have watched it breaking down further every trip. I guess now I have one more pilgrimage to make to see the last of it before it disappears completely

[achjimmy]

Wow as a young cadet I'll always remember approaching the sygna along Stockton beach in an Iroquois so low that we had to pull up to clear it!  The pilot then spotted a highway patrol car and beat that up before returning to Williamstown!

[rags]

It is worth noting that the Sygna wash ashore in the big storms of 26 May 1974.
During that same storm the beach front of Collaroy Beach was smashed with fears that houses and units were going to be swallowed by the ocean.
42 years later give or take 10 days and the same ship is being battered by the seas as is the same unit block and houses in the same location on Collaroy Beach.
Back in 1974 there wasn't a mention then of the storm being the result of climate change. Ah the good old days when a storm was just that.

[slydar]

I guess the sygna got more media attention because of the possible environmental effects of it breaking up (which it did in the end) in much the same way as the pasha bulker. there was also talk of the ships being warned of the storm and to move out to sea presumably so there would be less risk of this happening, never really had any confirmation of that but locals up there tell me that the maritime authorities now monitor the ships more closely and make them stay out further so there aren't so many anchored off the port - I did notice there seem to be less ships waiting to come in these days, up until a few years ago it was becoming not unusual to count over thirty ships at anchor which back in the early 80s was a record number and a big controversy brought on by the 'rolling strikes' in the port