HMAS Melbourne (1945)
| | | Career | |
|---|
| Ordered: |
| Laid down: | 15 April 1943 |
| Launched: | 28 February 1945 |
| Commissioned: | 28 October 1955 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 June 1982 |
| Fate: | Scrapped at Dalian, China |
| Struck: |
| General Characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement: | 20,000 tons |
| Length: | 214 m |
| Beam: | 24 m |
| Draught: | 7.5 m |
| Propulsion: |
| Speed: | 24 knots |
| Range: |
| Complement: |
| Armament: | 25 x 40mm Bofors AA guns |
| Aircraft: | 27 (A-4 Skyhawk, S-2 Tracker, Sea King) |
| Motto: | "Vires Acquirit Eundo" |
HMS Majestic (R77) was the
lead ship of
her class of
aircraft carriers of the
Royal Navy. She was laid down by
Vickers-Armstrong Limited at
Barrow-in-Furness in
England on
15 April 1943 as HMS
Majestic and launched on
28 February 1945. Construction was suspended in May
1946 but when it was decided to acquire two aircraft carriers for the
Royal Australian Navy in
1947, work was resumed in
1949. However, it took another six years of work before she was ready to enter service, due to the decision to modify the ship to contain the latest developments in aircraft carrier technology - angled flight deck, steam catapault and mirror landing sight. On
28 October 1955 she was renamed
HMAS Melbourne in a ceremony performed by Lady White, wife of the then Australian
High Commissioner in the
United Kingdom, Sir Thomas White and commissioned as the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy.
During her extensive service she was involved in two major collisions: one with the
Daring class destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of
New South Wales which sank with the loss of 82 lives on
10 February 1964, and later with the destroyer
USS Frank E. Evans which sank in the
South China Sea with the loss of 74 of her crew on
3 June 1969. In both cases the destroyers crossed in front of
Melbourne's bows while she was at flying stations at night. The ultimate cause of both accidents appears to have been errors on the bridges of the destroyers.
Melbourne was due for a refit during the early 1980s. However, the Australian government decided to purchase a new aircraft carrier from the
Royal Navy (intended to be
HMS Invincible).
Melbourne was paid off on
30 June 1982 and laid up at
Sydney, was sold to China United Shipbuilding Company Limited in February
1985 and broken up in the port of
Dalian in
China where it is suspected she had been studied to help design a Chinese aircraft carrier. Several events, including the
Falklands War and the
1983 Australian election led to no replacement being purchased.
See
HMS Majestic and
HMAS Melbourne for other ships of these names.
*
List of disasters in Australia by death toll*
Royal Australian Navy history of HMAS Melbourne*
Story from "The Age" newspaper in 1969 when the incident occurred.* Cabban, Peter T. (Peter Thomas) (2005).
Breaking ranks / Peter Cabban and David Salter. Milsons Point, N.S.W. : Random House. ISBN 1740513150
* Frame, Tom. (2005).
The cruel legacy : the HMAS Vovager tragedy (1st ed.). Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1741144213
* Frame, Tom. (1992).
Where fate calls : the HMAS Voyager tragedy Sydney : Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0340549688.
