HMAS Queenborough (G70)

HMAS Queenborough in 1954, after conversion to an anti-submarine frigate
History
United Kingdom
Name:	Queenborough
Namesake:	Town of Queenborough
Builder:	Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson at Wallsend-on-Tyne
Cost:	£725,000
Laid down:	6 November 1940
Launched:	16 January 1942
Commissioned:	15 September 1942
Completed:	10 December 1942
Decommissioned:	September 1945
Honours and awards:	Battle honours: Arctic 1942–43 Sicily 1943 Salerno 1943 Mediterranean 1943 Okinawa 1945
Fate:	Transferred to Royal Australian Navy
History
Australia
Commissioned:	September 1945
Recommissioned:	7 December 1954
Decommissioned:	10 July 1963
Recommissioned:	28 July 1966
Decommissioned:	7 April 1972
Reclassified:	Anti-submarine frigate (1954) Training ship (1966)
Motto:	"Seek And Slay"
Nickname(s):	Queenbee Fighting 57
Honours and awards:	Battle honours: Malaya 1957
Fate:	Sold for scrap
General characteristics (as launched)
Class and type:	Q-class destroyer
Draught:	9.5 ft (2.9 m)
Range:	4,680 nautical miles (8,670 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Armament:	4 × single 4.7 inch QF guns 1 × quadruple QF 2-pounder pom-pom 6 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons 2 × 4 torpedo tubes firing 21 inch torpedoes 4 × depth-charge throwers
General characteristics (post conversion)
Type:	Modified Type 15 frigate
Draught:	15.5 ft (4.7 m)
Range:	4,040 nautical miles (7,480 km) at 16 knots (30 km/h)
Armament:	1 × twin 4 inch HA/LA gun 1 × twin Bofors 40 mm gun 1 × Limbo anti-submarine mortar
Notes:	Other characteristics as above

HMAS Queenborough (G70/D270/F02/57) (originally HMS Queenborough (G70/D19)) was a Q-class destroyer that served in the Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Constructed during World War II as part of the War Emergency Programme, Queenborough was laid down in 1940 and launched in 1942, serving in the Arctic, Mediterranean, and Pacific theatres. After the war ended, the ship was transferred on loan to the RAN in exchange for an N class destroyer, then given to Australia as a gift in 1950.

Queenborough was converted to an anti-submarine frigate, and served with the RAN until 1966. During this time, she was deployed to the Far East Strategic Reserve on multiple occasions, participated in numerous fleet exercises, and took on a partial training role. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve, but reactivated in 1969 as a training ship. Queenborough remained in service for another three years, until a series of mechanical and structural faults required that she be retired, decommissioning in 1972 and being scrapped in Hong Kong in 1975.

The sixth RN ship to be named after the town of Queenborough in Kent, England, Queenborough was laid down by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson at Wallsend-on-Tyne on 6 November 1940. She was launched on 16 January 1942, commissioned into the RN on 15 September, and completed on 10 December. She cost £725,000 to complete.

The main armament for Queenborough consisted of four single 4.7 inch QF Mark IX guns, two before and two aft of the main superstructure. Secondary weapons included a quadruple-mounting QF 2-pounder Mark VIII pom-pom located just aft of the funnel, and six single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons provided anti-air capability, while eight Mark VIII torpedo tubes (4 forward, 4 aft) firing 21 inch Mark IX torpedoes for anti-ship engagements.