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HMAS Parramatta (DE 46)
Career (Australia) RAN Ensign
Namesake: The Parramatta River
Builder: Cockatoo Island Dockyard
Laid down: 31 January 1957
Launched: 31 January 1959
Commissioned: 14 July 1961
Decommissioned: 11 January 1991
Motto: "Strike Deep"
Honours and
awards:
Battle honours:
Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation
Plus three inherited battle honours
Fate: Broken up for scrap
Badge: Ship's badge
General characteristics
Class & type: River class destroyer escort
Displacement: 2,750 tons full load
Length: 112.8 m (370 ft)
Beam: 12.49 m (41.0 ft)
Draught: 5.18 m (17.0 ft)
Propulsion: 2 x English Electric steam turbines
2 shafts; 30,000 shp total
Speed: 31.9 knots (59.1 km/h; 36.7 mph)
Sensors and
processing systems:
LW02 long range air warning radar
1979:
Mulloka sonar system
SPS-55 surface-search/navigation radar
Mark 22 fire control radar
Armament: Original:
2 x 4.5in Mark 6 guns
2 x Limbo Mark 10 anti-submarine mortar
1979 refit:
1 x quad Seacat SAM launcher
1 x Ikara ASW system
2 x Mark 32 torpedo tubes

HMAS Parramatta (F05/DE 46), named for the Parramatta River, was a River class destroyer escort (a licence-built Type 12 frigate) of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Construction[]

Parramatta was laid down by Cockatoo Island Dockyard at Sydney, New South Wales on 31 January 1957. She was launched on 31 January 1959 by Lady Dowling, wife of the First Naval Member and Chief of Naval Staff, and commissioned into the RAN on 14 July 1961.

Operational history[]

Parramatta escorted Royal Yacht Britannia during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1963.

The ship served on patrol duties during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation during the mid-1960s. On 3 June 1964, Parramatta and sister ship Yarra met the troop transport HMAS Sydney off the Philippines and escorted her to Kota Kinabalu, Singapore, and Penang to deliver Australian military units and supplies.[1] Parramatta escorted the former aircraft carrier back to Fremantle: the return voyage to Australia was interrupted on the morning of 23 June by the detection of a suspected Indonesian submarine: the two Australian ships performed evasion tactics for eighteen hours before resuming the voyage.[2] Other deployments[Clarification needed] were made during 1965 and 1966, with this service later recognised by the battle honour "Malaysia 1964–66".[3][4]

During late May and early June 1965, Parramatta was one of several ships escorting Sydney on her first troop transport voyage to Vietnam.[5] Parramatta and Sydney worked together on the latter's tenth Vietnam voyage during March and April 1968.[6] Parramatta's third escort run with Sydney occurred in May 1971; the former carrier's terntieth Vietnam voyage.[7]

Parramatta underwent a modernisation refit at Williamstown Naval Dockyard between 3 June 1977 and 26 August 1981, and visited the People's Republic of China in 1986.

Decommissioning and fate[]

Parramatta' paid off on 11 January 1991. She was sold in August 1991, and broken up for scrap in Pakistan.

Citations[]

  1. Pfennigwerth, Tiger Territory, pp. 159–61
  2. Pfennigwerth, Tiger Territory, p. 161
  3. "Navy Marks 109th Birthday With Historic Changes To Battle Honours". Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110613184920/http://www.navy.gov.au/Navy_Marks_109th_Birthday_With_Historic_Changes_To_Battle_Honours. Retrieved 23 December 2012. 
  4. "Royal Australian Navy Ship/Unit Battle Honours". Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110614064156/http://www.navy.gov.au/w/images/Units_entitlement_list.pdf. Retrieved 23 December 2012. 
  5. Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 169
  6. Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, p. 173
  7. Nott & Payne, The Vung Tau Ferry, pp. 176–7

References[]


All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at HMAS Parramatta (DE 46) and the edit history here.
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