HMAS VOYAGER . This meeting gave Bush the final piece of the puzzle required to begin working on the accurate reconstruction of the scuttling of HMAS Voyager.As Bush alluded to in his letters, the composition of the final HMAS Voyager painting was constructed with the assistance of an unattributed photograph taken during the month Voyager was scuttled. The collision of HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager remains the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) worst peacetime disaster. Monday 10 February 2014 marks the 50 th anniversary of a momentous event in Royal Australian Navy (RAN) history, the loss of the destroyer HMAS Voyager II following a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne II.. With many new crew members aboard, HMAS Voyager sailed from Sydney to Jervis Bay on 6 February 1964 for a series of post re-fit trials and exercises with HMAS Melbourne. Safety, constant improvement and professional discipline became key goals.Improvements in Command Team training also shifted the responsibilities of the Captain and surrounding officers. The decision was taken at noon to abandon all attempts to free the ship, as by this time sand had surrounded the propeller and ship’s hull.The efforts of the independent companies and Voyager’s crew were now diverted to emptying the ship of all supplies and anything else that could prove useful. Whilst the collision itself is one of the service’s most damaging events, it and the resulting alterations laid the foundations for many practices of the modern RAN.Anderson, D., 1993, The Voyager disaster: a 30 year saga, Issues brief number 6, Parliamentary Research Service, Canberra.Chapman, A.I., 1979, The ‘Melbourne’ collisions: ‘Voyager’, 10th February 1964, ‘Frank E. Evans’, 3rd June 1969, a treatise of analysis and opinion, Department of Defence, Canberra.Ferry, D., 2014, HMAS Melbourne/Voyager collision: cause theories and inquiries (with aspects of the HMAS Melbourne/USS Frank E. Evans collision), Headmark, 151, p 2-16.HMAS Voyager: the cruel legacy, 1992, Four Corners, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).Naval Historical Society of Australia Inc. ENJOY YOUR VISIT . Despite a heavy recruiting campaign commencing almost immediately after the incident, numbers were significantly lower and did not recover for several years indicating the persistent nature of the damage to the RAN’s reputation (Frame 1992).The negative perceptions of the RAN and their longevity were compounded by the handling of the collision.Internal relationships within the RAN were also damaged by the treatment of members involved.Oxenbould (2004) asserts that the insufficient lookout onA range of measures were introduced after the collision to address the deficiencies that became evident.In addition to improved OOW and Command Team training, practices relating to communications, escort ships and rescues were refined.In regard to ship-to-ship communications, speculation that the collision may have been caused by misinterpreted signals resulted in the confirmation of ambiguous signals being encouraged (Frame 1992). Flowers and rosemary leaves were sprinkled onto the waves off Jervis Bay on Monday in the place where, a kilometre below, the wreck of HMAS Voyager rests. The need for the RAN to have stronger relationships with government and be more aware of civilian processes was evident. This photograph along with Bush’s field sketches and his meticulously gathered eyewitness accounts all culminated in informing the final reconstructed composition of the burning of HMAS Voyager.This series of photographs, sketches, and paintings clearly demonstrates the artistic process Bush went through as a war artist to reconstruct historic events. The Melbourne–Voyager collision, also referred to as the "Melbourne–Voyager incident" or simply the "Voyager incident", was a collision between two warships of the Royal Australian Navy; the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the destroyer HMAS Voyager. Furthermore, some escape hatches on In addition to procedural changes, the collision eventually forced the somewhat-reluctant RAN through positive cultural change (Chapman 1979). The HMAS Voyager Survivors Association, in memory of those that served upon her and those that were lost in 1964. Occurring off the New South Wales coast in 1964, the aircraft carrier Melbourne and destroyer Voyager were engaged in night flying exercises when Voyager inexplicably turned in front of Melbourne ’s bow. She was launched on 1 May 1952 by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the prime minister. A HMAS VOYAGER survivor has overcome years of turmoil to make several startling revelations that could cripple the findings of two royal commissions into the sinking of the domed destroyer. Captain Robison urgently needed to manoeuvre the ship into deeper water using the port engine, but he waited 17 minutes for the troops to get clear, as he feared if the port engine were to start it would suck the men into the propeller.