HMAS Advance (P 83)
Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Advance (P 83) was an Template:Sclass of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed during 1967 and commissioned into the RAN in 1968, Advance operated from Darwin and patrolled northern Australian waters.
During her career, the patrol boat shadowed a Soviet trawler, survived Cyclone Tracy, was used for filming of the television series Patrol Boat, and participated in the RAN's first anti-terrorism patrol of the North West Shelf. Advance was replaced in 1980, but continued to operate as a training ship until she was decommissioned in 1988.
Advance was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum, which has maintained her in an operational condition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Design and construction
Template:Main The Attack class was ordered in 1964 to operate in Australian waters as patrol boats based on lessons learned through using the Template:Sclass2s on patrols of Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and to replace a variety of old patrol, search-and-rescue, and general-purpose craft.<ref name=Gillett86/> Initially, nine were ordered for the RAN, with another five for Papua New Guinea's Australian-run coastal security force, although another six ships were ordered to bring the class to twenty vessels.<ref name=Gillett86/> The patrol boats had a displacement of 100 tons at standard load and 146 tons at full load, were Template:Convert in length overall, had a beam of Template:Convert, and draughts of Template:Convert at standard load, and Template:Convert at full load.<ref name=Gillett86>Gillett, Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946, p. 86</ref><ref name=Janes68>Blackman (ed.), Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69, p. 18</ref> Propulsion machinery consisted of two 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines, which supplied Template:Convert to the two propellers.<ref name=Gillett86/><ref name=Janes68/> The vessels could achieve a top speed of Template:Convert, and had a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name=Gillett86/><ref name=Janes68/> The ship's company consisted of three officers and sixteen sailors.<ref name=Janes68/> Main armament was a bow-mounted Bofors 40 mm gun, supplemented by two .50-calibre M2 Browning machine guns and various small arms.<ref name=Gillett86/><ref name=Janes68/> The ships were designed with as many commercial components as possible: the Attacks were to operate in remote regions of Australia and New Guinea, and a town's hardware store would be more accessible than home base in a mechanical emergency.<ref name=ANMM>The patrol boat, Australian National Maritime Museum</ref>
Advance was laid down by Walkers Limited at Maryborough, Queensland in March 1967,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> launched on 16 August 1967, and commissioned on 24 January 1968.<ref name=Mitchell>Mitchell, Past meets future</ref> It was the third ship of its class.<ref name=ANMM-PB/>
Operational history
Advance operated out of Template:HMAS in Darwin, Northern Territory between 1968 and 1980.<ref name="ANMM"/> As well as the standard duties for her class, Advance was also used for surveillance, search-and-rescue, and hydrographic survey (in company with the survey ship Template:HMAS).<ref name=ANMM/><ref name=Mitchell/>
During 1968, Advance and sister ship Template:HMAS shadowed the Soviet trawler Van Gogh, which operated in the Gulf of Carpentaria for two months.<ref name=Mitchell/><ref>Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, p. 256</ref>
Advance and three other patrol boats were in Darwin Harbour on 25 December 1974, when Cyclone Tracy hit.<ref name=Jones234>Jones, in Stevens, The Royal Australian Navy, p. 234</ref> Advance and Template:HMAS managed to escape serious damage, but Attack was forced aground and suffered hull damage, and Template:HMAS collided with Stoke's Hill Wharf and sank.<ref name=Jones234/>
During 1975 and 1976, Advance regularly operated as part of Operation Trochus: a concentrated effort to respond to illegal fishing vessels in northern Australian waters.<ref name=Mitchell/>
From late 1977, the patrol boat was assigned to Template:HMAS in Sydney for patrols along Australia's eastern coast,<ref name=Mitchell/> but was redeployed elsewhere when necessary.
In 1979, Advance was one of two Attack-class vessels used to portray the fictional HMAS Ambush; setting of the ABC television series Patrol Boat.<ref name=ANMM/><ref name=Mitchell/>
Following her replacement by a Template:Sclass in 1980, Advance was reassigned as a training ship.<ref name=ANMM/> She was assigned to the Sydney Port Division of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve in February 1982.<ref name=Mitchell/>
The patrol boat participated in the 1986 Naval Review.<ref name=Mitchell/>
Decommissioning and preservation
Advance was decommissioned on 6 February 1988, and was transferred to the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM).<ref name=ANMM/><ref name=Mitchell/><ref name=ANMM-PB>Template:Cite web</ref>
The patrol boat has been maintained in operational condition by the ANMM.<ref name=ANMM/>
In October 2013 Advance participated in the International Fleet Review 2013 in Sydney, celebrating the centenary of the Royal Australian Navy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Citations
References
Books
News articles and websites
External links
- Patrol Boat: HMAS Advance – vessel page at the Australian National Maritime Museum