HMAS Swan (U74)
| HMAS Swan |
|
|---|---|
.jpg) |
|
| period of service | |
| Builder: |
Cockatoo Port Jackson Naval Shipyard (Sydney) |
| Keel laying: | May 1, 1935 |
| Launch: | March 28, 1936 |
| Commissioning: | January 21, 1937 |
| Fate: | Decommissioned on September 20, 1962, scrapped in 1966 |
| General properties | |
| Ship type : | Sloop |
| Displacement : | 1,060 ts standard 1,370 ts maximum |
| Length: | 79.8 m |
| Width: | 10.8 m |
| Draft : | 2.25 m |
| Drive : | 2 Admiralty three drum boilers 2 Parsons - geared turbines 2000 WPS on 2 screws |
| Speed: | 16.5 kn |
| Range: | 5,700 nautical miles at 10 kn |
| Crew: | 135 |
| Armament: | 3 × QF 4-inch ship guns Mk V (3 × 1) 4 × 3-pdr guns 1 MG 2 launchers for depth charges |
The HMAS Swan ( ship identification U74, later F74, later A427, HMAS : Her Majesty's Australian Ship) was the second ship that was named after the River Swan in Western Australia . It was a Grimsby-class sloop of the Royal Australian Navy during World War II . The Royal Navy designated quite slow escort ships primarily for fighting submarines as sloops . Sloops were distinguished from corvettes and escort destroyers by a greater range, which is why they were predestined to accompany convoys even in remote areas. The Swan was launched on March 26, 1936 in Port Jackson (Sydney) at the Cockatoo (Cockatoo Island Dockyard) and was commissioned on January 21, 1937. The Swan served as an escort and patrol boat in Australian waters and the Southwest Pacific .
In February 1942 she was an escort ship in a convoy to Kupang , which had loaded urgently needed reinforcements for the defense of Timor , including an Australian engineer battalion and an artillery battalion of the US Army . The escort was correspondingly large, in addition to the Swan the heavy cruiser USS Houston , the destroyer USS Peary and the sloop HMAS Warrego , a sister ship of the Swan . The convoy was attacked by 54 Japanese aircraft on February 16. There was only slight damage to the ships from close hits, but due to the severity of the attack and since further heavy attacks were to be expected before reaching Kupang, the convoy was forced to return to Darwin. Three days later, the Swan was therefore in the port of Darwin when the Japanese fighter planes from four aircraft carriers of the Kidō Butai attacked the city on February 19, 1942. The airstrike on Darwin caused severe damage to the city, sunk eight ships and damaged others, including the convoy's four transports and the Peary , which sank after five hits. On the Swan there were three dead and 19 wounded as well as slight damage from close hits.
On September 18, 1945, the surrender of the Japanese troops who had occupied New Ireland was ceremonially accepted on board the Swan . The Swan was retired on August 18, 1950 and used as a training ship between October 1954 and February 1956, until she was put back into service on February 10, 1956. On September 20, 1962, the Swan's career ended for good and she was sold for scrapping on June 5, 1964 at Hurley and Dewhurst in Sydney.
literature
- Warships of Australia , Ross Gillett, Illustrations Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0472-7
