[3] Blythe Star (II) was a small freighter vessel of 371 gross tons, built by Ateliers Ducheans and Bossiere at Le Havre France in 1955, for owners Rederi A/S Orion of Drammen Norway.

On 12 October 1973, Blythe Star left Prince of Wales Bay, Hobart, Tasmania bound for Currie on King Island, located in Bass Strait.

By the next morning, with the weather and sea conditions still good, the vessel was a short distance off South West Cape when, between 8:00am and 8:30am, a sudden list developed to starboard.

[7] The ship's lifeboat was unable to be launched due to the extreme list angle; however, an inflatable liferaft was released into the sea by the boatswain, Stan Leary.

Unfortunately for all concerned, no notice had been left by Blythe Star as to which direction the vessel would take, and this immediately compromised the efficiency of the search operation that was launched on 15 October when she failed to arrive at King Island and there had been no radio contact.

The inflatable liferaft to which the crew escaped was 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter, covered with an orange canopy, and equipped with tinned water, old biscuits, some flares, two oars and a baling pail.

Keeping the raft upright and afloat took much effort, with big waves regularly collapsing the inflatable vessel onto itself, and water needing to be constantly bailed-out.

[12] A welcome weather change then carried them north as far as Schouten Island off the Freycinet Peninsula, following which the raft drifted south-westerly approximately parallel to Tasmania's eastern coastline.

Eventually, Michael Doleman, Malcolm McCarroll, and Alfred Simpson set out together and over the next day and night managed to scale the cliffs and force their way through the rainforest until they came to a rough track.

The three were eventually taken to the nearby township of Dunalley, where a helicopter was quickly arranged to collect the remaining four crew members from Deep Glen Bay.

[2][3][7][11][13]: 47 [14][15] A Ministerial Statement was made in the Australian House of Representatives on 24 October 1973 by Charles Jones, Minister for Transport, upon receipt of the news that the missing crewmen had been found.

An extract from his speech included the following description of the drifting lifeboat:[8] This is an incredible story because there was mounted a large and expensive search with all the technical facilities at our command.

[8] The court of inquiry was held at Melbourne between 3 December 1973 and 14 February 1974; virtually none of those involved in the vessel's operations, or in the search that commenced after she was reported missing, escaped criticism.

[5] A forensic report "Loss of MV Blythe Star" was published by R. J. Herd in January 1974, possibly as part of the court of inquiry being conducted at that time,[16] with its findings summarised in The Australian Naval Architect journal of August 1999.

[23] Doleman, his wife, and Smith were all interviewed in detail (as were some of the survivor's children and journalists of the time), providing valuable first-person perspectives on the disaster.