Difference between revisions of "HMAS Echuca"
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Latest revision as of 23:00, 21 June 2022
 Navy photo | |
 photo Allan C Green State Library of Victoria | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMAS Echuca |
| Owner | Royal Australian Navy |
| Builder | Melbourne Harbour Trust, Williamstown |
| Launched | 17 Jan 1942 |
| Completed | 6 Sep 1942 |
| In service | 7 Sep 1943 |
| Out of service | 29 Jun 1948 |
| Fate | Transferred to NZ Navy May 1952 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Australian Bathurst Class Minesweeper |
| Length | 186 feet (56.69 metres) |
| Beam | 31 feet (9.45 metres) |
| Depth | 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 metres) |
| Propulsion | 2,000HP twin screw |
| Speed | 15 knots |
| Capacity | 85 crew |
Remarks
One of 60 Minesweepers (Corvettes) built in Australia during WW2. Her construction began on 22 Feb 1941, with commissioning on 7 Sep 1942. She served as a convoy escort and anti-submarine patrol vessel on the east coast of Australia an around New Guinea until August 1944. In Aug 1944 she was based in Darwin as a member of the American 7th Fleet survey group, and spent the rest of the war surveying northern Australian waters. In Oct 1945 she was sent to Sydney to be converted to minesweeping duties which she then undertook with other elements of the 20th Minesweeping Flotilla. They were used in Australian, New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomon Islands until Aug 1946 when HMAS Echuca was paid off into Reserve.
Echuca was reactivated in Jan 1947 to undertake minesweeping around the Great Barrier Reef until late 1947 when she was then again placed in Reserve, this time in Freemantle before being sold to the New Zealand Navy in 1952. In 1967 they sold her to Pacific Scrap Pty Ltd for scrap.
Battle Honours
- Pacific 1941-45
- New Guinea 1942-44
Crew members
- Rowland Basil Devereux 8 Feb 1946 - Jun 1946