HMAS Madang (P 94)
Template:Short description Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMAS Madang (P 94), named for the settlement of Madang in New Guinea, was an Template:Sclass of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Completed in 1968, the vessel was one of five assigned to the RAN's Papua New Guinea (PNG) Division. The patrol boat was transferred to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force in 1974 as HMPNGS Madang. She was decommissioned in 1989.
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, fourteen were ordered for the RAN, five of which were intended for the Papua New Guinea Division of the RAN, 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>
Madang was built by Evans Deakin at Brisbane, Queensland,<ref name=Gillett87>Gillett, Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946, p. 87</ref> launched on 10 August 1968,Template:Citation needed and commissioned on 28 November 1968.<ref name=Gillett87/>
Operational history
Madang arrived in Port Moresby in March 1969, the last of the five Attack-class boats to be delivered to the PNG Division. Her home port was the RAN base Template:HMAS at Los Negros Island, Manus Province.<ref name=Sinclair/> Primary roles of the new patrol boats were fisheries protection and sea training, but also undertook search and rescue, medical evacuation and monitoring of navigational aids roles. The ship's company was made up of both Australian and PNG servicemen.<ref name=Sinclair/> Prior to the arrival of the Attack-class patrol boats, surveillance of PNG waters was conducted by small coastal craft and occasional visits by larger RAN warships, but the PNG Division was now able to chase and apprehend vessels suspected of illegal fishing.<ref name=Sinclair/>
Madang was one of the five Attack-class patrol boats of the PNG Division transferred to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force's (PNGDF) Maritime Element (now Maritime Operations Element) on 14 November 1974 when the PNGDF took over maritime functions.<ref name=Sinclair>Template:Cite book</ref> They formed the PNGDF Patrol Boat Squadron based at Manus.<ref name=Sinclair/> Madang was decommissioned in 1989.Template:Citation needed