A hat's tale: out to sea and back

20 April 2007 By Barry Rollings

Fame has not gone to the head of ABSN Amanda McGrath of HMAS Ballarat.

Rather, at the drop of a hat, fame has come to it by way of her junior sailors' white service cap which embarked on a "message-in-a-bottle" style 150km voyage of its own after being lost overboard during a November exercise in Western Australian waters.

The hat was discovered by Perth holidaymakers Mr and Mrs Laurie and Howard Maddison little the worse for wear for its salty saga and in reasonably good nick.

Mrs Maddison, of Glen Forrest, takes up the story:

"We were holidaying from Perth at Moore River at Guilderton and walking on the beach in November.

"It's a regular holiday destination for us and we go there every three months.

"We were walking on the beach with our three dogs when our Kelpie named Mac spotted the hat, paddled in, retrieved it and brought it to us. It was coming in on the northside of the breakwater over the rocks.

"We searched the beach and when we did not find anyone, just about the second thing that entered our heads was that it could belong to someone who had fallen overboard but the Navy reassured us that this was not the case.

"It had drifted about 150km up the coast and was found in absolutely perfect condition and there were some pretty heavy seas at the time as well.

"When we got back to Perth we found Navy's website on the Internet and put the wheels in motion through the feedback and comments section to return the hat to its owner.

"That process eventually put us in touch with Amanda and we posted the hat home to her in NSW along with a 'photo-shopped' image of the hat among seaside rocks. She sent me a beautiful bunch of flowers... "

Mrs Maddison said she issued an invitation to ABSN McGrath to visit if she was ever over her way again.

ABSN McGrath, who is based with Fleet Base East, thought she had seen the last of the hat. The wind blew it off her head when she was on the fo'c'sle of her ship as it was coming alongside at HMAS Stirling.

"Fortunately I had written my name inside the hat, which you are supposed to do but some people don't," she said.

"It's not uncommon for sailors to lose headgear overboard but when I told several Navy colleagues that mine had been recovered, they did not quite believe it.

"It was in quite good nick and it was a fair way where she picked it up from where I lost it."