HMAS Kanimbla (1936)

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For other vessels of the same name, see HMAS Kanimbla.

Career (United Kingdom / Australia)
HMAS Kanimbla at Fremantle port, 1945
Builder:	Harland and Wolff Limited
Laid down:	July 1933
Launched:	15 December 1935
Christened:	6 September 1939 (Royal Navy) 1 June 1943 (Royal Australian Navy)
Decommissioned:	25 March 1949
Renamed:	Kanimbla (1936-1939) HMS Kanimbla (1939-1943) HMAS Kanimbla (1943-1950) Oriental Queen (1961 onwards)
Reclassified:	Passenger vessel (1936-1939) Armed merchant cruiser (1939-1943 Landing Ship Infantry (1943-1950) Passenger vessel (1950 onwards)
Motto:	"Cry Havoc"
Badge:
General characteristics
Displacement:	10,985 tons
Length:	468.8 ft (142.9 m)
Beam:	66.3 ft (20.2 m)
Draught:	24.4 ft (7.4 m)
Propulsion:	Diesel engines, twin screws. 10,000 horsepower
Speed:	19 knots
Capacity:	1,280 troops (as landing ship)
Complement:	345
Armament:	(as merchant cruiser): 7 x 6-inch guns 2 x 3-inch anti-aircraft guns 2 x Lewis light machine guns (as landing ship): 1 x 4-inch gun 2 x 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns 2 x 2-pounder anti-aircraft guns 12 x 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns

The first HMAS Kanimbla (1936) was laid down as a motor vessel for McIlwraith McEachern Limited by Harland and Wolff Limited at Belfast in Northern Ireland in July 1933, launched on 15 December 1935 and completed on 26 April 1936.

The ship operated a passenger service between Cairns in Queensland and Fremantle in Western Australia until the outbreak of World War II when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser at Sydney and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Kanimbla on 6 September 1939. Kanimbla was one of several Allied vessels located in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attack of 31 May 1942.^[1] She arrived back in Sydney on 2 April 1943, was converted to a Landing Ship Infantry (LSI) and commissioned as HMAS Kanimbla on 1 June 1943.

Kanimbla paid off at Sydney on 25 March 1949 and returned to her owners on 13 December 1950. In 1961 the ship was sold to the Pacific Transport Company and renamed Oriental Queen.

The ship is named for the Kanimbla Valley, west of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

[edit] References

^ Jenkins, David (1992). Battle Surface! Japan's Submarine War Against Australia 1942–44. Milsons Point: Random House Australia, pp 193–194. ISBN 0-09-182638-1.