Book Title: John Jess, Seeker of Justice. The story of the collision between HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager in 1964, the greatest tragedy in Australian peacetime history.

Book Title: John Jess, Seeker of Justice. The story of the collision between HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager in 1964, the greatest tragedy in Australian peacetime history.

 

50 Years On

 “The truth must be found out and it must be told. Otherwise the people of Australia will repudiate this parliament forever.”

                                                                                     

John Jess J. 1967

(Jess J. (1967) CPD 16 May) ¹

When one hears the words Voyager Royal Commission, the first thing that comes to mind is “whitewash.”

John Jess described the first book ever written about Voyager by Admiral Hickling as “clearly piercing the darkness.” ²

John Jess, Seeker of Justice goes a step further. This book is not an interpretation of history. It is history being allowed to speak for itself. In his own words, which Liberal parliamentarian Edward St John termed “the voice of Truth which can never be still or silenced”³ John Jess sheds even more light upon the collision between HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager in 1964, which was the greatest tragedy in Australian peacetime history.⁴ A re-examination of the first royal commission, particularly the prohibited publication pages of transcript, sheds light on the collision and the conclusion proposes a reason for the collision that has never previously been advanced. No book comes closer to solving the mystery of this tragedy that cost eighty-two lives. No book has word for word the conversations that went on behind closed doors between politicians and prime ministers and the pressures and influences that existed between the powers that be.

If a film were to be made about Voyager, this book would be essential reading as nothing has been glossed over, it has real conversations, real quotes; the true story has finally been told.

 

Author Information

Elizabeth McCarthy (nee Jess) MA (CSturt) born in Melbourne in 1960.

She studied visual art at Prahran College, Melbourne, graduating with a Diploma in Art and Design, in 1981. She did further studies at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, with two National Gallery scholarships, graduating in 1983 with a postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art and awarded National Gallery of Victoria School Acquisitive Prize.

In 1985 she travelled to study art galleries in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada,, in particular the work of Vincent Van Gogh. From 1988 she lived and worked in far west NSW teaching art at TAFE colleges and outreach centres in Aboriginal communities. She has been selected in three national acquisitive awards for drawing.

She was the inaugural winner of the Far West Award for Excellence in Visual Arts in 2003. She continued her studies at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW, graduating as Master of Arts in 2003.

She lives in Geelong, Victoria, with her husband and her sons from her first marriage, James and Jack.

After her father passed away in 2003 she decided to put her art career on hold and write the story of her father’s fight for justice.

This is her first publication. Book Title: John Jess, Seeker of Justice. The story of the collision between HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Voyager in 1964, the greatest tragedy in Australian peacetime history.