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HMAS Melbourne (R21)

Side view of an aircraft carrier in motion. A helicopter sits on the carrier's deck, and several dark-uniformed people can also be seen.
HMAS Melbourne in 1967
History
Australia
Namesake: City of Melbourne
Ordered: 1943
Builder: Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down: 15 April 1943
Launched: 28 February 1945 as HMS Majestic
Christened: 26 October 1955 as HMAS Majestic
Commissioned: 28 October 1955 as HMAS Melbourne
Decommissioned: 30 May 1982
Motto:
  • Vires Acquirit Eundo
  • Latin: "She Gathers Strength As She Goes"
Honours and
awards:
Fate: Sold for scrap
Badge:
A ship's badge. A naval crown sits on top of a black scroll with "MELBOURNE" written in gold. This is atop a yellow, rope-patterned ring, in which the head and torso of a kangaroo, holding a crown, is depicted. Below the ring are a stone axe and a nulla nulla sitting on top of a boomerang. At the bottom of the badge is a black scroll with "VIRES ACQUIRIT EUNDO" written.
General characteristics
Class and type: Modified Majestic-class light aircraft carrier
Displacement:
  • Standard: 15,740 long tons (17,630 short tons)
  • Full load: 20,000 long tons (22,000 short tons)
Length:
  • 213.97 m (702 ft) overall
  • Increased by 2.43 m (8 ft) in 1969
Beam: 24.38 m (80 ft)
Draught: 7.62 m (25 ft)
Propulsion: Two Parsons single-reduction geared turbine sets; four Admiralty 3-drum boilers; two screws (port: 3 blade, starboard: 4 blade); 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range:
  • 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
  • 6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement: 1,350, including 350 Air Group personnel
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • Radar:
  • 1955–1968:
  • 3 × Type 277Q height-finding set
  • 1 × Type 293Q surface search set
  • 1 × Type 978 navigational set
  • 1969–1982:
  • 1 × Type 293Q surface search set
  • 1 × Type 978 navigational set
  • 1 × LW-02 air search set
  • 1 × SPN-35 landing aid radar
Armament:
  • 1955–1959:
  • 25 × 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (6 twin mountings, 13 single mountings)
  • 1959–1968:
  • 21 × Bofors (6 twin, 9 single)
  • 1969–1980:
  • 12 × Bofors (4 twin, 4 single)
  • 1980–1982:
  • 4 × Bofors (4 single)
Aircraft carried: Up to 27 aircraft, including helicopters

HMAS Melbourne (R21) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Operating from 1955 until 1982, she was the third and final conventional aircraft carrier to serve in the RAN. Melbourne was the only British Commonwealth naval vessel to sink two friendly warships in peacetime collisions.

The ship was laid down for the Royal Navy as the lead ship of the Majestic class in April 1943, and was launched as HMS Majestic (R77) in February 1945. At the end of World War II, work on the ship was suspended until she was purchased by the RAN in 1947. At the time of purchase, it was decided to incorporate new aircraft carrier technologies into the design, making Melbourne the third ship to be constructed with an angled flight deck. Delays in construction and integrating the enhancements meant that the carrier was not commissioned until 1955.

Melbourne never during her career, having only peripheral, non-combat roles in relation to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War. She was, however, involved in two major collisions with allied vessels. The first occurred on the evening of 10 February 1964, in which Melbourne rammed and sank the RAN destroyer HMAS Voyager when the latter altered course across her bow. Eighty-two of Voyager's personnel were killed, and two Royal Commissions were held to investigate the incident. The second collision occurred in the early morning of 3 June 1969, when Melbourne also rammed and sank the United States Navy (USN) destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in similar circumstances. Seventy-four American personnel died, and a joint USN–RAN Board of Inquiry was held. These incidents, along with several minor collisions, shipboard accidents, and aircraft losses, led to the reputation that Melbourne was jinxed.


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