page_title: SS Bombo
section_title: World War II service
hierarchical_section_title: SS Bombo / History / World War II service
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial port-side view of HMAS Bombo auxillary minesweeper in service for RAN during World War II
context_page_description: The SS Bombo was a coastal freighter which foundered on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia in February 1949 with the loss of twelve of her fourteen crew. Built in Scotland in 1929, the SS Bombo was sailed to Australia to carry blue metal from the town of Kiama to the port of Sydney. During World War II she was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy and served as a minesweeper and a stores carrier in the Pacific Theatre to the north of Australia.
  She capsized during a heavy southerly gale off Port Kembla while steaming from Kiama with a load of blue metal, and her wreck, close to the main harbour entrance, is a popular dive location. A memorial to the vessel and her lost crew stands on Black Beach, Kiama, overlooking the harbour where she made her final departure on 24 February 1949.
context_section_description: The RAN requisitioned the Bombo in 1940 for service, and she was fitted-out in early 1941 as HMAS Bombo. Throughout her service she carried ship's pennant number FY12 and displayed the identification letters "BB" on her bows.
  The most obvious changes made to the Bombo were the fitting of a mast amidships replacing the original deck crane, a smaller mainmast on the aft deck, and a range of armaments. Her initial assignment was as an auxiliary minesweeper, and for this role she was fitted with a 12-pound deck gun on an elevated platform forward, two heavy machine-guns amidships, and four anti-submarine depth charges set-up at the stern. In 1944 she was converted to a stores carrier, and modifications included replacing the machine-guns with twin platform-mounted 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannon, adding a protective shield to the 12-pounder, and fitting twin derricks to the midship mast.
  The vessel spent much of its service life in waters to the north of Australia, being based in Darwin from 1943. At the conclusion of the Pacific War, HMAS Bombo relocated to Koepang in West Timor to participate in reconstruction, and was finally released by the RAN and returned to her civilian role in February 1946.
caption: SS Bombo in service as HMAS Bombo, taken Feb 1944
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