As Japanese forces advanced in the South Pacific in 1942, the US Army recognised the need for small shallow drafted craft to navigate the dangerous coastline of New Guinea. A flotilla of small craft, mainly from Australia, was assembled under the US Army Small Ships Section in which many Australians served.
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One of these small boats was S-96 Coweambah, originally built as a lake steamer in 1919 at Tea Gardens. On a stormy night in June 1945, S-96 Coweambah was being towed from New Guinea to Sydney by a US Naval ship when they ran into a fierce storm off the Mid North Coast. They anchored near South West Rocks but the storm grew in intensity until the hawser connecting them to the larger ship broke and the anchors failed to hold. A South West Rocks correspondent for the Macleay Argus described the storm as the worst in many years, with winds of seventy miles (116 kilometers) an hour and driving rain.
The escorting vessel was unable to assist as the 100 ton (90 tonnes) steamer was buffeted around the bay for several hours until it was hit by a large wave, and rolled then sank about half a kilometre off the river entrance. Six of the crew managed to get clear of the vessel, however a seventh member disappeared and was never seen again. The survivors were eventually washed up on the sands of the northern side of the river where local fishermen and other locals rowed across the swollen river to their rescue.
The survivors were made comfortable with blankets and cigarettes and then rowed back across the river where an ambulance had arrived to take them back to Kempsey and the Macleay Hospital. Whilst there, the Kempsey Ambulance driver, Mervyn Duke, found a folding chair from the wreck which he salvaged and later used as his office chair at the Ambulance Station.
The survivors of S-96 Coweambah were treated at the Macleay District Hospital and all but one discharged after a few days. American Naval Security Officers arrived in Kempsey to interview the survivors and police and from that time there was little further mention of the shipwreck.
Several years ago, Mervyn Duke's family donated the folding office chair to Kempsey Museum where it is now on display as a reminder of that terrible night and the valour of the 3,000 Australian civilians who served with the US Army Small Ships Section during World War 2. On June 11, 2018, a memorial plaque to the personnel of the Small Ships Section was unveiled at South West Rocks by veteran James Gadd, one of the survivors of the Coweambah sinking.
