[MARITIME] Collision of HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans de Photographer unknown

Associated Press photograph (235 x 185 mm) with typed caption, dated verso June 10 1969. During SEATO excercises in the South China Sea on June 3 1969, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with the USN destroyer Frank E. Evans, resulting in the tragic loss of 74 of the Evans' crew. In spite of the fact that this accident took place during the Vietnam War, and that the Evans had been on service in Vietnam immediately prior to the exercises and was due to return there on their completion, those sailors who died were controversially not included on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which honours U.S. servicemen who died in the conflict.