HMAS Moresby
From Our Contribution
 Navy photo | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | HMAS Moresby |
| Owner | Royal Australian navy |
| Builder | Barclay Curie & Co Ltd, Glasgow |
| Launched | 12 Apr 1918 |
| Completed | 19 Jun 1925 |
| In service | 20 Jun 1925 |
| Out of service | 14 Mar 1946 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Survey Sloop |
| Tonnage | 1,320 tons |
| Length | 276 feet 6 inches (84.28m) |
| Beam | 34 feet 10 inches (10.64m) |
| Depth | 16 feet 7 inches (5.04m) |
| Speed | 14 knots |
Remarks
Built as a mine-sweeping sloop for the RN as HMS Silvio which saw brief service during World War I as a convoy escort. Converted to a survey vessel in 1924-25, she was transferred to the Australian Navy as HMAS Moresby. Initial work involved surveys of the Great Barrier Reef until December 1929 when she was laid up and placed in reserve.
Recommissioned in 1933 to undertake urgent strategic survey work in northern Australia waters and off the Queensland coast. Again placed in reserve during December 1934, she was recommissioned four months later and continued to focus on northern waters, including Papua New Guinea.
For the first half of World War II, HMAS Moresby served as an anti submarine training vessel off the eastern seaboard. However, she returned to survey duties in January 1941, again focusing on northern waters until Japan entered the war. From that point she was utilised as convoy escort and for anti- submarine warfare at a time when Japanese submarines were active. From November 1943 she again became a survey vessel and spent the rest of the war charting seas around Darwin and Bathurst Island. HMAS Moresby participated in the Japanese surrender on Timor before undertaking her final survey, of Yampi Sound. HMAS Moresby paid off on 14 Mar 1946 and was sold for scrap on 3 Feb 1947 to Broken Hill Pty Ltd.
Battle Honours
- Pacific 1941-45
- New Guinea 1942-44
Crew members
- † Patrick John Kelly 1 Feb 30 Mar 1939
- † Thomas Charles Johnson 5 Feb - 29 Aug 1939