I was thinking of something other than the so-called wreck. If Leeuwin has time, why not search in a more likely place?
Here's my take on the problem.
It's based on a cyphered report prepared by Captain Detmers while a prisoner. He hoped to find a way of getting it to Germany, but it was found by the Aussies and the code was cracked. A version of it, possibly verbal, did get to Germany when Kormoran's doctor was part of a prisoner exchange in 1943.
My chart is a bit rough, but it will serve to show the problem. Only the position from which Sydney was sighted was given by Detmers. The rest is my own dead reckoning, based on times, courses and speeds given by Detmers. How accurate this data is we don't know. His speed may be incorrect by a little and his times could be rounded off to the nearest five minutes.
I've left out Sydney's course, for clarity and because it's not accurately known. Essentially, she chased Kormoran, while staying somewhere off her starboard quarter, until she finally closed with her. She then cut behind her and was seen to head south and later an estimated 150° True.
By my reckoning, the area to be searched is about 1,600 square nautical miles. There's talk of a new search this summer, presumably by David Mearns. If Sydney is not somewhere in the area I propose, it's going to get ugly and expensive.
While looking at this, it occurred to me that all the signs are that Sydney was underway after the battle, but not under control. Had it been possible to steer, surely she would have steered more to the east, or even a bit north of east, towards the coast and the shipping tracks. If the Germans are right, she was headed roughly for Geraldton, which was more than 100 miles away.
