Gathered from around the Australian coast, they flew the US 'Stars and Stripes' and made up the small ships section of the United States Army Services of Supply.

WHILE flying the US flag, they were skippered by an equally odd mix of almost entirely Australians ? some too old or too young to enlist in the war effort, others discharged as medically unfit.

Some were crewed by marine engineers, others by fellows who just loved 'mucking about in boats'.

Their united aim was to stop the Japanese from getting a toe-hold on Australian soil and to chase them back to Japan.

Just like soldiers in the jungle, these little boats worked day and night, often through uncharted reefs. They went where larger ships couldn't go.

They took Allied forces, metal matting to build landing strips, high octane fuel for aircraft or PT boats, trucks and jeeps, and necessary spare parts for them.

According to the authors, "they carried guns and ammunition, medical supplies, mail for the troops, boots and breeches, tin hats and Tommy guns, dehydrated potato and egg powder, bully beef and biscuits, tanks and tents and bulldozers."

The small ships took fresh troops to the north of Australia and returned with tired, sick and wounded ? even dead ? soldiers.

In the later years of the war, the original flotilla of small ships was joined by hundreds of small freighters and sturdy tug boats built especially for the war effort by dozens of shipyards, large and small, around the Australian coast.

In official war histories these small ships were relegated to passing references and occasional footnotes.

'The Forgotten Fleet' therefore recovers some of the missing pieces of the New Guinea campaign, filling in "the margins and footnotes of history", Mr Meldrum said.

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GORDON Meldrum, along with two other well known Taree personalities, Clive Woolcott and John Jackson, played a role in construction of some of the small ships which kept our coast safe during the war.

The trio worked for the Taree firm Haden Engineering which at the time had a contract to build some of the vessels, along with their subcontractors, W Ryan and Sons Shipwrights.

The shipyard was located on the banks of Browns Creek in Taree, which had access to the Manning River.

Haden's staff used their small tug to transfer the completed hulls from Ryan's to Haden's slipway (next to the present Sailo's club), where further construction was carried out.

The owner, Hector Haden, was a marine engineer who had constructed the slipway as an adjunct to his general engineering works nearby.

Gordon Meldrum served his mechanical engineering apprenticeship with Haden's for five years from 1941, working alongside Mr Woolcott and Mr Jackson.

"The three of us worked side by side and have a friendship that has endured all these years," Mr Meldrum said.

Among their duties was taking Haden's small tugboat from the slipway in the river around into Browns Creek to tow the partly completed small ships to the slipway, where they were fitted with their engines, propeller shafts and other 'skin' fittings.

Mr Meldrum recalls that about 12 vessels were made here for the Small Ships fleet, all timber with shallow drafts, and ranging in size from 45 to 66 feet.

After being worked on at Hadens, they were then taken to a workshop further up-river (near Fotheringham Park and the Martin Bridge) where their fitting out was completed. (This site was previously owned by the North Coast Steam Navigation Company.)

On completion, the vessels were river trialled and sea trialled via the Manning River entrance at Harrington, with Haden's staff on board.

The vessels then sailed under their own power to Newcastle or Sydney where they went into service as the 'Small Ships'.

Similarly at Tuncurry, Wright's Shipyard built a number of Small Ships, producing three main types, 35 footers, 66 footers and 85 footers.

The exact number is not known, but there were orders for at least 37 45ft tug boats.

The finished vessels were towed from Tuncurry over the bar and on to Stockton, near Newcastle, for final fit-out.