ADAMSTOWN's Lynette Dailey is angry.
A shocked Mrs Dailey is infuriated over the recent theft of up to 20 historic plaques from Newcastle foreshore, especially those stripped from the merchant mariners memorial, leaving it bare.
A major concern here was the loss of the heavy, original BHP plaque commemorating the loss of seamen lives, particularly on BHP ships sailing from Newcastle in World War II.
"Despite fears once of it being vandalised there, in such a public place, it's been untouched for 30 years. Why is it suddenly gone now?" a puzzled and emotional Mrs Dailey says.
"It's disgraceful. What would people commit such senseless vandalism?" she says soon after learning about the brazen thefts along the popular waterfront walkway.
She regards the merchant mariners memorial thefts as almost sacrilegious. So concerned was she that her first reaction was to consider hiring a scuba diver and spend up to $500 to search the harbour waters around The Brewery site.
"But then I thought, NSW has police divers, haven't they? Maybe they could dive down there and see if they could find anything," she says.
Mrs Dailey is convinced many of the plaques were probably simply flung into the harbour in a mindless spree of vandalism by uncaring, mischief-making individuals.
Many Novocastrians, however, aren't so sure, believing the cast iron and bronze plaques were probably stolen for their scrap metal value, to be melted down.
Other Herald readers have suggested the missing memorial plaques, apparently taken during the recent school holidays, may have been part of an end-of-year scavenger hunt and have called for more security patrols.
Another Herald reader remarked the thefts might have a darker implication, commenting: "Poverty and inequality breeds crime and social unrest".
But boredom and mischief by persons unknown seems to be the motive behind the recent trashing of the cast-iron lacework of the 1904 King Edward Park Rotunda causing an estimated $30,000 damage.
The initial focus of the recent foreshore thefts was on numerous missing cast iron and circular bronze plaques outlining the long history of Newcastle's working harbour.
But also missing were commemorative plaques on the nearby, but often overlooked, Merchant Mariners Memorial on parkland between The Brewery and the Watt Street traffic roundabout.
The centrepiece of this $52,000 merchant navy memorial is an impressive long black marble sculpture topped with a large anchor painted a stark white.
It was unveiled on the foreshore in June 1994 thanks to people like former Hunter federal MP Peter Morris and captains Les Packman and Jeff Fair, plus other members of the organising committee.
But it all started with an unlikely dream by a determined woman called Jean Roggers, the mother of Lynette Dailey.
"Mom fronted John Prescott, the head of BHP Australia, to help with a Newcastle memorial when she attended the unveiling of a similar memorial in Sydney's Darling Harbour in 1992, only two years before ours. He agreed and BHP was really good in helping us," Mrs Dailey says.
"Mum and I had heard many harrowing stories of Carrington families who had lost relatives on ships in war and in 1990 decided it was about time these men were recognised.
"People forget our merchant navy. They were not fighting men, like soldiers, but were vital, being in the firing line at sea carting goods around. They helped our troops and equipment get overseas."
An appalled Mrs Daily said if anti-war protestors were somehow involved in the recent plaques going missing, they were seriously misguided.
"Many of the sailors lost at sea in WWII were just kids, many as young as 13 or 14 years (serving as deck or cabin boys). They weren't hardened sea dogs. That's why I got so cranky when I learned about the thefts," she says.
"I grew up at Carrington and every second person over there then worked either at BHP Steelworks, at the State Dockyard or were merchant seamen. My uncle was on the BHP ship, the Iron Chieftain, which was torpedoed after leaving Newcastle on the night of June 19, 1942," Mrs Dailey says.
"It was sunk by Japanese submarine 1-21 just off Norah Head. My uncle, Edward Luxton, fondly called 'Boyo', was a survivor. He was aged 18 years.
"On the same ship attacked, one young sailor was frozen with fear and was thrown by someone into the water towards a lifeboat, but he was never saved."
Mrs Dailey's research also revealed that the day after the Chieftain was sunk, the vessel Iron Crown, chartered by BHP, would suffer the same fate with only five of her crew of 43 being rescued.
Eight months later, on February 8, 1943, the Iron Knight, another of the BHP'S fleet, was also torpedoed and sunk. Fourteen of her 50 crew did not survive.
"Mum felt the loss of these men deeply, as some were close friends," she says.
"Two of mum's brothers were merchant navy men. All the seafarers who perished at sea in wartime were just ordinary men, living in extraordinary times in a time of world conflict who wanted to do their bit for Australia."
Mrs Dailey claimed that the percentage of lives lost in the merchant navy's 'forgotten war' was higher than any other branch of the armed forces.
"The number of merchant ships and men lost around our Australian coast varies, depending on the source accessed. One tells us that 33 ships went down, with a loss of 654 men. The Australian War Memorial, however, lists 29 ships and 386 men lost," Mrs Dailey says.
She recalls her Uncle Boyo had been a happy-go-lucky guy, enjoying life before fleeing his sinking ship in 1942 dressed only in his pyjamas, making it into the only lifeboat able to be launched. He and others, all scared, wet and shivering then had to endure 32 hours in an open boat.
After that trauma, he was renowned for getting into fights, he never married, drank heavily and ended his days, aged 57, at the home for alcoholics at Morisset.
"Besides being exposed to enemy attacks at sea, the wages of these seamen were also below what was paid to the armed forces and they did not receive any kind of benefits," Mrs Dailey says.
"When their ship was sunk, their pay was stopped, this meant they became destitute and would have to rely on charities to get them back to their home port.
"In the later stages of WWII, they did receive some compensation, which was 20 pounds ($40) that only covered the cost of two suits and two dress shirts. It did not cover buying sea boots, oil skins and dungarees. They also had to buy a new identity card at their own expense," Mrs Dailey says.
"In March 1946, a bill was passed through federal Parliament allowing merchant seamen to have access to government loans, to buy a War Service Home. The deputy opposition leader, however, opposed the bill feeling seamen who only sailed between coastal ports and who 'were never exposed to danger' should not be entitled to the same benefits as men, who climbed over the Kokoda trail. He failed to realise many Aussie sailors died in Commonwealth and foreign allied ships, well beyond our borders," she says.
