HMAS Bendigo (J187)

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HMAS Bendigo
HMAS Bendigo
Career (Australia) RAN ensign
Namesake: City of Bendigo, Victoria
Builder: Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company
Laid down: 12 August 1940
Launched: 1 March 1941
Commissioned: 10 May 1941
Decommissioned: 27 September 1946
Motto: "Advance with Purpose"
Fate: Sold to a Chinese company as a civilian vessel, later absorbed into PLAN
Badge: Image:HMAS bendigo crest.gif
General characteristics
Class and type: Bathurst class corvette
Displacement: 650 tons
Length: 186 ft (57 m)
Beam: 31 ft (9.4 m)
Draught: 8.5 ft (2.6 m)
Propulsion: triple expansion engine, 2 shafts
Speed: 15 knots
Complement: 85
Armament: 1 x 4-inch gun, 3 x Oerlikons, Machine guns, Depth charges chutes and throwers

The first HMAS Bendigo (J187/B237/A111) was a Bathurst class corvette laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company at Sydney in New South Wales on 12 August 1940, launched on 1 March 1941 by Dame Mary Hughes, wife of the Minister for the Navy, and commissioned on 10 May 1941.

HMAS Bendigo joined the Royal Navy's China Squadron based at Singapore in September 1941 and first saw action off Malaya in the Netherlands East Indies during the early months of the Pacific War. She returned to Australia on 8 March 1942 and escorted convoys in Australian and New Guinean waters until 1945. In March 1945 Bendigo joined the British Pacific Fleet and took part in the Battle of Okinawa. Following the end of the war Bendigo operated as a minesweeper in the Hong Kong area before returning to Australia in December 1945.

HMAS Bendigo paid off on 27 September 1946, was sold to the Ta Hing Company of Hong Kong as a seagoing vessel and renamed Cheung Hing. The ship was later acquired by the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and re-armed for naval service under the name Loyang. She appears to have left PLAN service by 1988.

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