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16/09/2005: "LIBERTY SHIP ..... purchased by RAAF for practice attacks."
Considerable live ammunition was left aboard the ship in 1945 when Francis Preston Blair a 7,196 ton Liberty Ship went aground on Saumarez Reef.
The following year another group of Australian divers visited the ship and detonated the ammunition by fire.
Other salvage divers from Australia are thought to have stolen the huge four-blade bronze propellor.
(June 1973. RAAF takes delivery of F-111C aircraft). "A few days later Wing Commander Funnell and Flight Lieutenant Bushell flew the first bombing mission at Saumarez Reef".
