Cunard Line Peak Cap Badge
Date1939
Object number00055234
NameCap Badge
MediumCloth, thread, dye
DimensionsOverall: 80 × 270 × 15 mm
ClassificationsClothing and personal items
Credit LineANMM Collection donated by Geoff Clarke
DescriptionA Cunard Line peak cap badge with band belonging to RMS AQUITANIA crewman Kenneth David Clarke. Clarke served aboard AQUITANIA as engineer when it recovered 26 KORMORAN survivors found floating at sea four days after the battle between HMAS SYDNEY and HSK KORMORAN. One of the German sailors was Siegfried Fröhsel who wore the Kriegsmarine (Nazi German Navy) cap 00055233.HistoryThe Modified Leander Class light cruiser HMAS SYDNEY (II) was launched in September 1934 as HMS PHAETON and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (and renamed) the following year. It served with distinction in the Mediterranean during WWII before being reassigned to Australian waters in early 1941 to serve as a convoy escort.
Launched in 1983.8, the German merchant vessel STEIERMARK was acquired by the Kriegsmarine following the outbreak of the WWII and converted into an auxiliary cruiser. Renamed HSK KORMORAN, the vessel was administered under the designation Schiff 41, but was known to Allied navies as RAIDER G. KORMORAN was the largest merchant raider operated by Germany during WWII and was responsible for the destruction of ten merchant vessels and the capture of another during its year-long career in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
On 19 November 1941, SYDNEY entered into a mutually destructive engagement with the KORMORAN. Both vessels sunk with heavy loss of life; in KORORANS case 82 officers and ratings from its total complement of 400 were killed. Tragically all of SYDNEY's crew of 645 perished.
Some of the KORMORAN survivors were subsequently picked up by the troopship RMS AQUITANIA four days later on 23 November. AQUITANIA recovered one of the two life rafts carrying 26 German sailors at 24°35'S 110°57'E. The troopship's officers initially believed the KORMORAN crewmen were survivors of a German raider attack, and that the raider may still be operating in the area. Consequently the AQUITANIA resumed its voyage to Sydney and maintained radio silence until the afternoon of the 26 November. Among the 26 survivors picked up by AQUITANIA was Maschine Obermaat (Engine Room Chief Petty Officer) Siegfried Fröhsel, who was listed as 'Frosel' on an official list of survivors retained by the National Archives of Australia and the original owner of this cap.
After several failed searches the remnants of both SYDNEY and KORMORAN were located in March 2008. A second expedition in April 2015 utilised high definition cameras and multi beam sonar to archaeologically document both sites. SYDNEY's loss is one of the most significant in the history of the Royal Australian Navy and until its discovery was one of two enduring naval mysteries (the other being the loss of the submarine AE1).
Siegfried Fröhsel was born in Wittenburg Germany and was 24 years old when captured (although his actual date of birth is unknown). He served as a Maschine Obermaat (Engine Room Chief Petty Officer) aboard KORMORAN and was presumably aboard the vessel at the beginning of its first (and ultimately last) raiding voyage. Following KORMORAN's loss he was one of 26 crewmen who abandoned ship in a rubber life raft and were picked up by the AQUITANIA. Archival records spell Fröhsel's last name as 'Frosel', 'Frozel' or 'Froessel', with the latter being the most common variant. Fröhsel arrived in Sydney on 28 November and was ultimately transferred to the internment camp at Murchison in Victoria where he remained until repatriated to Germany aboard the ship ORONTES. ORONTES departed Melbourne on 21 January 1947 for the German port of Cuxhaven.
Siegfried Fröhsel's cap ended up in the possession of AQUITANIA engineer Kenneth David Clarke, who was aboard the troopship at the time of the resuce of the KORMORAN crew.
SignificanceThe loss of HMAS SYDNEY (II) in November 1941 became one of the nation’s worst naval tragedies and enduring mysteries. The rescuing of German naval survivors of the KORMORAN is often not looked at in the general narrative of the SYDNEY disaster. This cap (00055233) and peak cap badge worn by rescuer Kenneth David Clarke of the AQUITANIA, remind us of the others involved in the event.
