HMAS Swan (D61)
Template:Short description Template:Other ships Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox ship HMAS Swan was a Template:Sclass2 of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). One of six built for the RAN, Swan was built at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, and entered service in 1916. The early part of the ship's career was spent on blockade duty in the Far East, before she was transferred to the Mediterranean for anti-submarine duty. Apart from performing shore bombardment during the Second Battle of Durazzo, SwanTemplate:'s wartime career was uneventful.
The destroyer was placed in reserve in 1920, but was reactivated between 1925 and 1927 and assigned to Tasmania. Swan was decommissioned in 1928, stripped of parts, and sold for use as prisoner accommodation on the Hawkesbury River. After changing hands several times, the hull sank during gale conditions in 1934.
Design and construction
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Swan was one of six Template:Sclass2s built for the RAN.<ref name=Cassells117>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 117</ref> The destroyer had a displacement of 750 tons, was Template:Convert long overall and Template:Convert long between perpendiculars, had a beam of Template:Convert, and a maximum draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=Cassells117/> Propulsion machinery consisted of three Yarrow boilers feeding Parsons turbines, which supplied Template:Convert to the ship's three propeller shafts.<ref name=Cassells118>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 118</ref>
Although designed to reach Template:Convert, Swan was capable of reaching a maximum speed half a knot greater.<ref name=Cassells117/> Maximum range was Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name=Cassells118/> The ship's company consisted of 4 officers and 67 sailors.<ref name=Cassells118/>
The destroyer's main armament consisted of a BL 4-inch Mark VIII gun, supplemented by three QF 12-pounder 12 cwt guns.<ref name=Cassells117/> This was supplemented by three single 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes and three .303-inch machine guns.<ref name=Cassells117/> Later in the ship's career, two depth charge throwers and four depth charge chutes were installed.<ref name=Cassells118/>
Swan was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company at Sydney in New South Wales on 22 January 1913.<ref name=SPC>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was launched on 11 December 1915 by the wife of Sir William Rooke Creswell, the First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board.<ref name=Cassells118/>
The destroyer was commissioned into the RAN on 16 August 1916, six days before construction work concluded.<ref name=Cassells118/> Her name comes from the Swan River in Western Australia.<ref name=Cassells117/> Template:Clear left
Operational history
SwanTemplate:'s first operation was with British blockade forces in the Far East, particularly around the Philippines, Celebes, and Malaya.<ref name=Cassells118/> On 2 July 1917, the destroyer sailed for the Mediterranean, meeting all five of her sister ships en route.<ref name=Cassells118/>
The Australian destroyers were based at Brindisi as an anti-submarine force.<ref name=Cassells118/> The patrols were uneventful, and the only action Swan saw was when she was diverted to perform shore bombardments during the Second Battle of Durazzo on 2 October 1918.<ref name=Cassells118/> On 25 October, Swan and Template:HMAS sailed to Port Said to meet a troop transport convoy and their Japanese escort, and accompany them to Salonika.<ref name=Cassells118/> The ship received the battle honour "Adriatic 1917–18" for her wartime service.<ref name=newhonours>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=honourslist>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
After the end of World War I, Swan was assigned to an Allied fleet responsible for taking over Russian anti-Bolshevik naval units as Sebastapol. She then sailed in December with the French destroyer Template:Ship to report on conditions in the eastern Ukraine, although they reached their destination, an advance by Bolshevik forces caused the cancellation of the mission.<ref name=Cassells118/> Swan sailed to Gibraltar, where she, her sister ships, and the cruiser Template:HMAS departed for Australia on 3 January 1919.<ref name=Cassells118/> Swan operated in Australian waters until June 1920, when she was placed in reserve.<ref name=Cassells118/> In 1925, the destroyer was reactivated and sent to Tasmania, where she spent the next two years alternating between operational and reserve status.<ref name=Cassells118/>
Decommissioning and fate
Swan was paid off for the final time at Sydney on 15 May 1928 and sold to Cockatoo Island Dockyard for scrapping in 1930.<ref name=Cassells118/> Swan and sister ship Template:HMAS were stripped down, and their hulks were sold to New South Wales Penal Department and towed to Cowan Creek, where they were used to house prisoner labourers working on roads along the Hawkesbury River.<ref name=Cassells118/>
Public outcry opposed this use of prison labour, so the two hulks were sold in 1933 for 12 pounds each to George Rhodes of Cowan, New South Wales, who intended to use them as accommodation for fishers.<ref name=Cassells119>Cassells, The Destroyers, p. 119</ref><ref name=Dasey>Template:Cite news</ref> Rhodes' plan did not gain government approval, and the ships were sold on to a pair of fishermen, who used them to transport blue metal to Milson and Peat Islands.<ref name=Cassells119/>
On 2 February 1934, Swan and Parramatta were being towed down the Hawkesbury River for final breaking in Sydney, when gale conditions caused both hulls to break their tows.<ref name=Cassells119/> While Parramatta ran aground, Swan filled with rainwater and capsized at Tumbledown, near Croppy Point and Wobbly Beach.<ref name=Cassells119/><ref name=Dasey/>
The exact location of SwanTemplate:'s wreck was forgotten until 1994 When Greig Berry, a researcher/diver from the Central Coast claimed to have found it in 19 metres of water near Little Wobbie public wharf. He in turn was contacted by the DSTO and Berry showed them the site in 1996 and several sonar runs positively identified the remains as Swan. A RAN hydrography team came across the wreck while updating charts in 2001.<ref name=Dasey/> Diving the wreck is not advised, as while Swan sits in only Template:Convert of water, the currents in the area flow at around Template:Convert, and visibility is less than Template:Convert.<ref name=Dasey/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The wreck is located in Template:Coord.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
References
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External links
Template:Acheron class destroyer Template:Navbox shipwrecks of New South Wales Template:Coord