HMAS Buccaneer (P 100)
Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Buccaneer (P 100) was an Template:Sclass of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
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=Janes68>Blackman (ed.), Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69, p. 18</ref><ref name=Gillett86>Gillett, Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946, p. 86</ref> Propulsion machinery consisted of two 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines, which supplied Template:Convert to the two propellers.<ref name=Janes68/><ref name=Gillett86/> The vessels could achieve a top speed of Template:Convert, and had a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name=Janes68/><ref name=Gillett86/> 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=Janes68/><ref name=Gillett86/> 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>
Buccaneer was built by Evans Deakin and Company at Brisbane, Queensland,<ref name=Gillett87>Gillett, Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946, p. 87</ref> launched on 14 September 1968,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and commissioned on 11 November 1969.<ref name=Gillett87/>
Operational history
Fate
Buccaneer paid off on 27 July 1984,<ref name=Gillett87/> and was sunk by gunfire during target practice on 8 October 1988.Template:Citation needed