USS KNOX

Photo: D. White collection.

Several years ago I learned of a US warship that had a connection to the Kelly story.

The ship was the USS Knox and they had a Yahoo group which I joined. I learned a little
about the ship and why the crew had taken Ned on as their ship mascot.

(hello to all ex serving members of the Knox!)

Some time back I noticed a small paperweight 'Ned' (see image above)
from the ship for sale on e-bay both in America and Australia.

This prompted me to create this page and explain how Ned became
part of an American warship as he has.

The creator of the Yahoo USS Knox group is Ron Criss and I asked
him to give me a short story about the ship and how Ned had become
part of it.

Below is his reply:

Dave,

Well, the story as I have it is that the Skipper made Ned our mascot. He and
some of the crew used to hang out at Ned Kelly's Last Stand, an Australian
pub, when in Hong Kong. I believe the pub is still there. Anyway, one time,
during an exercise among several US ships, the Captain was inspired by the
story of Ned to conduct an audacious manoeuvre. Sorry I don't know the
details. Anyway, the Knox was victorious and from that time on (if not
before) Ned Kelly became the ship's official mascot. The Ned Kelly
soundtrack was played over the announcement system when other
ships were alongside. One poor fellow was made to dress like Ned periodically and I
designed a flag depicting Ned which was sewn in the Philippines.

Let us know if we can do anything to help the site. When you finish I'll
even make it the group's official link on the homepage.

Ron

Above are logos from the Ned Kelly pub in Hong Kong.

Another ex-crewman gave his thoughts about the ship and Ned on the Knox forum.
(Note: I have now been contacted by the author, 28 Feb 2007.)

"One night in Hong Kong (Kowloon side) the captain and exec along with a bunch of us, learned about the bushwacker Ned Kelly. There was a pub in Kowloon called Ned Kelleys last stand and that started our quest to Geraldton, Australia to show the folks there we knew about NED.
When pulling into Geraldon, one of the Chiefs dressed up like NED when
we were at Sea and Anchor detail as we tied up. The Aussies were a bit
surprised and humoured. Cheers Patrick Reardon."

Sharon Hollingsworth tracked down the Commander and I received the following
comments from him.

                Dave,

                Sorry this took so long, this has been a busy time in our business.
                I've attached a couple of .jpg's from the Geraldto paper, and a
                write-up of Knox's relationship to Old Ned.

                The brass statue you have was made in Korea and passed out to a variety
                of officials in different ports as I made calls on them.

                 You have a great site!

                 Bill Hartman

                William A. Hartman
                Executive Vice President

The pics below were sent in by Cdr Hartman...(sorry about the size)

So there you have it. Ned is famous in the most unusual places.

The following photographs are from the USS Knox group, (Yahoo Groups)
operated by Ron Criss.

The crew had some armour made and a flag of Ned Kelly. (see pictures below)

Commander Hartman.

USS Knox Flag.

Ned on board ship.

.....................................................................................................................................................
The following E-mail was received Feb 2008.

The USS Knox (Ned Kelly's flag ship) became such when the skippier CMDR Hartman
had the boatsen mates go over the side in botsens chairs & change the ships hull numbers
to get us past the ships looking to destroy us in a Navy game off Guam & the Philippines.
While we were off Guam (land no where in site) we were listening in on the Soviet fleet the
Knox with it's sonar maped the reef the ships had dropped anchor on. We named the reef
Ned Kelly's Reef. The Knox was part of a discovery. That is the story of how the ship
became the Ned Kelly's flag ship. By the way we got past the ships looking for us &
pulled into Subic Bay for some L B F M fun!

& that's the way it was

Michael Milner

Links: http://navysite.de/ff/ff1052.htm http://ussknox.org/Seastories.htm