On This Day
1946-1959 > Post WW2
On This Day - 1946-1959
- September 26, 1959
HMAS QUIBERON, (frigate), escorted the Bass Strait ferry PRINCESS OF TASMANIA on her maiden voyage from Melbourne to Devonport.
- August 18, 1959
817 squadron, flying the Fairey Gannet AS.1, decommissioned.
- July 24, 1959
HMS TELEMACHUS, (submarine), returned to Sydney after an exercise in which whales were tagged from the submarine. Professor Dawbin, of Sydney University, fired the tags into the whales, using a specially designed gun.
- June 23, 1959
The Daring class destroyer HMAS VAMPIRE, (CAPT E. J. Peel, DSC, RAN), was commissioned at Sydney. VAMPIRE was laid down in Cockatoo Island Dockyard Sydney, on 1 July 1952, and launched on 27 October 1956. Lady Slim, (Wife of the Governor-General Sir William Slim), performed the launching ceremony. VAMPIRE was decommissioned on 13 August 1986, and transferred to the Australian National Maritime Museum in 1991, as a permanent exhibit.
- June 22, 1959
HMAS Diamantina was recommissioned into the RAN as a survey and oceanographic research vessel. Diamantina had previously paid off to the reserve in August 1946 after service in New Guinea during the final phases of World War II.
HMAS Fremantle finally paid off at Sydney for disposal. She had steamed 113,654 miles since recommissioning in 1952. In all, including her war time service, she had steamed 190,776 miles. Fremantle was sold on 6 January 1961 to Kinoshita (Australia) Pty Ltd to be broken up