The Battle for HMAS Perth: Saving a Wrecked Second World War Cruiser from Illegal Salvage

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

HMAS Perth (I) was one of three modified Leander Class light cruisers commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy shortly before the beginning of the Second World War. In February 1942 Perth, along with the heavy cruiser USS Houston, encountered a Japanese invasion fleet off the Indonesian island of Java. Both ships were sunk with heavy casualties. Perth was discovered by an Australian wreck diver in 1967 and over the next 30 years became a popular recreational and technical dive site. In late 2013, technical divers reported to the Australian Government that Perth was being targeted by commercial salvage activity. This paper examines the role of the Australian National Maritime Museum, Silentworld Foundation and Indonesia’s National Centre for Archaeology and Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries to survey the site in 2016, 2017 and 2019. It also explores attempts to get the site protected under Indonesian cultural heritage law.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 717