EPISODE 8: The behaviour and conduct of the Ship’s Company was at all times of the

highest order.

Some of the rescued get to go home. How will the survivors cope with the ordeal of the sinking, emotionally and physically? What impact will the secrecy placed on the Timor mission have on their Navy careers ... and their lives? And what of the men on the raft?

“... the thought still strikes me, comes to me at times, did the blokes on the raft think I walked out on them. And it’s a very hard question to get an answer to that. ... Although going in the whaler there was no certainty you were going to be picked up. There was no certainty that anybody was going to be picked up. Ordinary Seaman, Rex Pullen.

“One of the blokes on the raft, Stoker Jim MacVicar, had been married for less than one day. He was married in Sydney on Saturday afternoon, and we sailed early next morning. They never saw each other again.” Ordinary Seaman Russ Caro.

“... and the grandfather looked at us and apparently, we must have been a shocking sight because, you know, we were still caked in oil and … we had tattered clothes. I remember I had a slipper on one foot and a shoe on the other because I'd had ulcers and I couldn't fit a shoe on. Anyhow he looked at Russell, his grandson, and didn't recognise him at all.” Ordinary Seaman, Ray Leonard.