SLNS Gajabahu

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Career (SLN)

Namesake:	King Gajabahu I
Builder:	Canadian Vickers, Montreal
Laid down:	22 Nov 1943
Launched:	28 Mar 1944
Acquired:	1958
Commissioned:	1958
Homeport:	Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee
Fate:	Cadet officer Training & Accommodation Ship
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,445 tons (1,470 tonnes); 2,110 tons full (2,143 tonnes)
Length:	283 ft (86 m) p/p 301.25 ft (91.82 m) o/a
Beam:	36.5 ft (11.1 m)
Draught:	9 ft (2.7 m) ; 13 ft (4.0 m) full load
Propulsion:	2 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, 2 shafts, reciprocating vertical triple expansion, 5,500 ihp
Range:	646 tons oil fuel; 7,500 nmi at 15 kt
Complement:	107
Armament:	2 x QF 4 in (102 mm) /40 Mk.XIX, single mounts CP Mk.XXIII, up to 10 x QF 20 mm Oerlikon A/A on twin mounts Mk.V and single mounts Mk.III, 1 x Hedgehog 24 spigot A/S projector,up to 150 depth charges

SLNS Gajabahu (Gajabahu former king of Sri Lanka) was a River class frigate of the Sri Lanka Navy. She has since been converted to a training ship for the Naval & Maritime Academy, Trincomalee.

[edit] History

Formally HMCS Hallowell of the Royal Canadian Navy, she was built for service in World War II after which she was sold to the Israeli Navy in 1949 as Misnak. Purchased from the Israeli Navy in 1958—3 years after another River class frigate, HMCyS Mahasena—she was commissioned as HMCyS Gajabahu into the Royal Ceylon Navy. She participated in many flag-showing missions in various countries, including a cruise to Japan. Gajabahu also took part in many international naval exercises.

Following the failed military coups d'état in 1962 in which the former Captain of the Navy (as the Commander of the Navy was known then) was implicated, the government undertook a program of downsizing the military. As a result, Gajabahu became the flag ship of the fleet and only major warship of the Royal Ceylon Navy after HMCyS Mahasena & HMCyS Parakram were sold off and SLNS Vijaya was lost in a storm. During the 1971 Insurrection she could not be deployed to sea since her crew were dispatched for ground duty due to personnel shortages. HMCyS Gajabahu was renamed SLNS Gajabahu when Sri Lanka became a republic in 1972. In the 1980s she was taken out of active service to be converted to a training ship for the Naval and Maritime Academy‎, Trincomalee.