HMAS Hawkesbury (K363)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 HMAS Hawkesbury in 1954 |
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| Career (Australia) |  Royal Australian Navy |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | River class frigate |
| Namesake: | Hawkesbury River |
| Builder: | Mort's Dock & Engineering Company, Sydney |
| Laid down: | 24 August 1942 |
| Launched: | 24 July 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 5 July 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 14 February 1955 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1962 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,420 long tons (1,440 t/1,590 S/T) 2,020 L/T (2,050 t/2,260 S/T) (deep load) |
| Length: | 283 feet (86.26 m) p/p 301.25 feet (91.82 m)o/a |
| Beam: | 36.5 feet (11.13 m) |
| Draught: | 9 feet (2.74 m); 13 feet (3.96 m) (deep load) |
| Propulsion: | 2 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37.0 km/h) |
| Range: | 500 L/T (510 t/560 S/T) oil fuel; 5,180 nautical miles (9,593 km) at |
| Complement: | 140 |
| Armament: |
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HMAS Hawkesbury was a Royal Australian Navy River class frigate which saw action during World War II. She entered service with the RAN in mid-1944 and was decommissioned in 1955.
[edit] History
HMAS Hawkesbury was built by the Mort's Dock & Engineering Company in Sydney and was commissioned at Sydney on 5 July 1944. After conducting trials off the Australian east coast she proceeded to New Guinea to undertake convoy escort duties. She escorted convoys in the South West Pacific Area until December when she returned to Brisbane.
HMAS Hawkesbury began her second operational deployment in January 1945 and conducted escort duties in New Guinea and Filipino waters until mid-April. On 27 April she formed part of the escort for the convoy which landed Australian troops at Tarakan on 1 May. Hawkesbury provided fire support for the landing force until 7 May. After another period of escort duties Hawkesbury took part in in the Australian Brunei Bay landings in Borneo in June. In July she spent a period collecting intelligence in the Maluku Islands and established lighthouses with HMAS Cape Leeuwin to open a route between Darwin and Morotai. She returned to Sydney in July for a short refit.
Following the surrender of Japan Hawkesbury escorted the repatriation transport Duntroon to Singapore in August. After escorting the transport to Darwin she took part in the Japanese surrender ceremony at Koepang, Timor on 3 October. Hawkesbury operated in the eastern Netherlands East Indies until mid-November when she returned to Sydney. She received a four month refit at Melbourne and operated off the Australian east coast until 31 May 1947 when she paid off to reserve.
After five years in reserve HMAS Hawkesbury was recommissioned on 14 May 1952. From late July she conducted operations in support of the British atomic bomb test in the in the Montebello Islands off Western Australia. She returned to Sydney in January 1953. For the next two years she undertook routine patrols and training exercises off the Australian and New Guinean coasts, completing two patrols of Australian waters in the South-West Pacific area.
HMAS Hawkesbury paid off to reserve for a second time on 14 February 1955. She was declared for disposal in early 1961 without having been recommissioned and was sold for scrapping in September 1961.
[edit] References
- HMAS Hawkesbury. HMA Ship Histories. Seapower Centre - Australia. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
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