In early 1964, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS
Melbourne was doing air exercises off New South Wales along with the rest of her carrier group. One of the vessels in the group was a destroyer: HMAS
Voyager. The destroyer took up station off to the left of the carrier, crossing her path to do so. After a time, she inexplicably crossed back into the carrier's path, and was hit. The
Melbourne almost literally ran the destroyer over, killing dozens of the crew on board the smaller ship and sustaining severe damage to the bow...
In early June 1969, the
Melbourne was taking part in joint SEATO exercises in the South China Sea when the US destroyer
Frank E. Evans made an abrupt turn into it's path (in remarkably similar circumstances to the first collision) and was overtaken by the carrier.
A joint USN/RAN commission was set up, and the
Melbourne's captain was cleared of any wrongdoing. Multiple officers on board the
Evans, however, were charged with negligence.
These two collisions (along with an incident where the carrier took on water while at dock) took some time off the
Melbourne's service life, and left a bad taste in the mouth of the Australian political scene as to the use of carriers in RAN service.
So...what if neither of these collisions had happened? What if the
Melbourne had been able to maintain a fairly smooth lifespan? Would their be any difference at all in the RAN as we know it today, or in the RAN's history?