As time would tell, Sydney Harbour would be extremely significant in the coming 1939-45 conflict.  Aside from the steel and coal production of the area, both very important commodities, Sydney would become the home of the Royal Navy in the event of a German invasion of the British Isles and the assembly point of the slow convoys travelling to war besieged England.  Code named "SC", meaning Sydney to Clyde, there would be 177 convoys to sail from Sydney with the first leaving on 15 Aug. 1940 and the last on 26 May 1945 with it's lights on.

     SC-I, comprised of 40 vessels, sailed into one of the most dangerous and bloody battles of the Second World War, "The Battle of The Atlantic".  In the words of James Lamb, captain of several Canadian Naval Corvettes during WWII and author of "Corvette Navy", the Sydney convoys were the most often attacked because they travelled as slow as a submerged U-boat.  In many cases, Sydney was the last landfall that many merchant sailors saw.  To demonstrate the danger faced by the Sydney convoys it should be noted that SC-7,, the first of many to suffer U-boat attacks, lost twenty out of thirty-four ships to enemy action.  However, to the credit of the merchant sailor, by the end of the first convoy season on 02 Jan. 1941, 967 ships had sailed in 48 convoys with 60 ships in each convoy as a rule and an average of 9 sailings per month.  On 10 Nov. 1941 the largest convoy to sail from Sydney departed with 72 ships in company.