HMAS Torrens (DE 53)

HMA Ships Torrens and Yarra (background) underway
History
Australia
Namesake:	The River Torrens
Builder:	Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited
Laid down:	18 August 1965
Launched:	28 September 1968
Commissioned:	19 January 1971
Decommissioned:	1998
Motto:	"Faith and Fortitude"
Honours and awards:	One inherited battle honour
Fate:	Sunk as target, 14 June 1999
General characteristics
Class and type:	River class destroyer escort
Displacement:	2,700 long tons (2,700 t)
Length:	107 m (351 ft)
Beam:	12.49 m (41.0 ft)
Draught:	4.57 m (15.0 ft)
Propulsion:	2 × English Electric steam turbines 2 shaft; 30,000 shp (22,400 kW); 2 × JTA 500 kW generators from the steam turbines; 2 × KTA 500 kW generators powered from diesels.
Speed:	30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Range:	4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	250
Sensors and processing systems:	1991 Mulloka sonar system Radar, 8GR-301 surface-search/navigation radar – 1991 Refitted with Krupp Atlas ARPA 8600, LW-02 Long Range Air Search Radar, M22 Gun Fire Control System, M44, ELT-901 EW System
Armament:	2 × 4.5-inch (110 mm) Mark 6 guns 1 × Limbo anti-submarine mortar 1 × quad Seacat SAM launcher 1 × Ikara ASW system 2 × Mark 32 torpedo tubes – 1979

HMAS Torrens (DE 53) was a River class destroyer escort of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Torrens entered service in 1971, and was active until her decommissioning in 1998.

The ship was sunk as a target by HMAS Farncomb in June 1999. Images and footage of the ship sinking have been used and adapted for various purposes, including in movies and as propaganda.

Torrens and sister ship HMAS Swan were ordered in 1964 as replacements for HMAS Voyager, a destroyer lost following a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in 1964. Although intended to be the same as the previous River class ships (themselves based on the British Type 12 frigate), the design was changed from 1965 to incorporate many of the improvements of the British Leander class frigates. Work on the two vessels started without specifications or a contract, and the evolving design meant changes were being made as the ships were being constructed, with resulting delays and cost increases attributed to a lack of planning.

Torrens was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited at Sydney, New South Wales on 18 August 1965. She was launched on 28 September 1968 by Dame Zara Holt, and commissioned into the RAN on 19 January 1971.Torrens was the last major war vessel built in an Australian shipyard until work commenced on HMAS Melbourne in 1985.

Torrens and the destroyer tender HMAS Stalwart participated in celebrations of Papua New Guinea's independence from Australia in September 1975, with Torrens arriving in Rabaul on 14 September.