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By tk *Blue crab pinch may soon be over *About half of Hilton Head Island's upcoming beach nourishment project could be completed in the winter *Voices of Carolina: Dredging group attempts 'end run' *MPC recommends reinstating greenspace standard on islands *"Outsiders" enter Calibogue Sound dredge controversy *Voters may get to offer opinions on beach nourishment plans Two scanned pages An unusual link between HMAS Warramunga and HMAS Picture too Chinese Submarine Accident. Accident to Chinese Submarine No.361 kills all its crew. On May the 3rd. 2003, Reuters reported that China was being unusually frank in reporting a Submarine accident in which all 70 of the crew had died. This disaster came about off the North East coast in Chinese territorial waters, but the cause was nor really disclosed. Conjecture about this accident has suggested a gas leak, but the submarine has been towed back into port. One Military expert, from Taipai suggests that Submarine No. 361, a 20 year old diesel powered boat was an indigenous Ming Class Submarine, which usually carries about 9 Officers and 46 Sailors, and wonders why she carried an extra 15 crew members at the time of this accident. One would think if it was a torpedo blowing up, that the Submarine would have sunk, but not so, as the boat was salvaged and towed home as reported, it seems possible that a poisonous gas leak eg. carbon monoxide may be to blame, but this is pure speculation. The Chinese Navy is reported to run something like 90 Submarines in their underwater fleet, some locally built, and some from a Russian source, but many are quite old, going back many many years. Jane's Defence Weekly last year, reported that the Chines Navy had ordered 8 Kilo Class from Russia, to be delivered over 5 years and to cost $ 1.6 Billion. We may never find out the cause of this accident causing 70 Chinese Submariners to die. The attached photograph from the Melbourne Age today Wednesday the 7th. of May 2003, shows two of China's top leaders with relatives of the lost Sailors aboard Submarine No.361, it looks all very intact, and the mystery deepens! French Explorers P 10 Marie Louise became the lover of a Sub Lieutenant in Rescherche, but in 1794 both died from dysentery within a day of each other. For some 5 weeks the Frenchmen explored the area, charting as they went, and producing 39 charts, and those of Van Dieman's land remained the basis of English charts for a long time into the future. The ships now sailed into the Pacific Ocean, arriving on the 28th. of May 1792 off the Isle of Pines, south of New Caledonia, now they altered course to the north, passed the Solomon Islands, through St Georges Channel between New Britain and New Ireland, on the 28th. of July, sighting the south east coast of the Admiralty Islands which perch close to the equator, and where the massive American base at Manus was located in WW2. It became at that time the crossroads of the world, and the invasions of the Philippines were staged from this location.
There was no sign of La Perouse or any of his crew members, d'Entrecasteaux now made for Amboina where he was able to restore his vessels. He sailed down the coast of Western Australia off to Cape Leeuwin, seeking La Perouse off the southern Australian coastline, but still no sign of him at all. On the 6th. of December, still in 1792, the SW extremity of Australia was sighted and land nearby named d'Entrecasteaux Point. Sailing eastwards, the Frenchman missed King George III Sound, that magnificent body of water found by Captain Vancouver, and where the modern day city of Albany stands. Continuing to the east the weather became rough in the notorious Great Australian Bight, the land remained arid, and the need for fresh water became serious, forcing the French explorer to sail directly for Van Dieman's Land where he knew he could obtain that precious comodity. This move robbed d'Entrecasteaux from discovering many geographical features on the southern coast of Australia, which fell to the lot of Flinders and Bass a number of years later, perhaps to have made a French Terre Napoleon fact. It was back to Recherche Bay on the 22nd. of January in the new year of 1793, another 5 weeks was spent in this idyllic location, natural history and geography being explored. Beautemps-Beaupre with other officers surveyed north to Storm Bay, the mouth of a river named Riviere du Nord, only to be renamed the Derwent River a few months later by Captain John Hayes who arrived in Duke of Clarence and Duchess. By the 28th. of February it was time to move on, and Van Dieman's Land was left behind, as the expedition now sailed for the Friendly Islands, seeing New Zealand and the Kermadecs on the way. Here the locals remembered both Cook and Bligh, but had not seen anything of La Perouse, all this area was searched to Santa Cruz, the southern coasts of the Solomons, the northern parts of the Loiusades, through Dampier's Passage , coasting north of New Britain, the southern coast of the Admiralty Islands, and leaving New Guinea to the south, across to the Moluccas. Nothing of La Perouse, and even today his disappearance with his crews remains an unsolved mystery. But within the two ships it was becoming desperate, the Officers were mainly Royalists, and the crew the reverse, were all Revolutionaries, Kermadec died of phthisis, and now on the 21st. of July 1793, d'Entrecasteaux himself died of scurvy. The commands needed to be rearranged, and d'Auribeau took charge, naming de Rossel in Kermadec's place. In Surabaya it was learned that France was now a Republic, and the new commander handed over his two ships to the Dutch authorities, so that the new French Government could not get their hands on them. Now d"Auribeau died a month later, and de Rossel sailed from Java in January of 1795, arriving at Table Bay at the Cape in that April, his ship suddenly took off with all the expeditions important documents on board, leaving him stranded at the Cape, but the British soon captured the ship. Rossel now took passage in a brig-of-war, it too fell into British hands, but when the Peace of Amiens was signed in 1802, all of d'Entrecasteaux's papers were returned to D'Rossel who was able to publish a narrative of the whole expedition. d'Entrecasteaux and his staff travelled many thousands of miles in search of the elusive La Perouse, exploring and charting as they went, he added much to European Exploration and knowledge of the New World south of the equator, but never lived to savour any kudos from his hard work, trials and tribulations.
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