Wyatt Earp (ship)
Sailing for Antarctica from Williamstown, Victoria, 19 December 1947.
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| History | |
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 Australia
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| Name: | Wyatt Earp |
| Namesake: | Wyatt Earp |
| Builder: | Bolsønes Shipyard, Molde, Norway |
| Laid down: | 1918 |
| Launched: | 1919 |
| Acquired: | February 1939 |
| Commissioned: | 25 October 1939 |
| Decommissioned: | 19 July 1944 |
| Renamed: | FV Fanefjord, MV Wyatt Earp, HMAS Wongala, HMAS Wyatt Earp, MV Wongala, MV Natone |
| Reclassified: | Antarctic supply ship |
| Struck: | 30 June 1948 |
| Reinstated: | 17 November 1947 |
| Homeport: | Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne |
| Fate: | Aground, 23–24 January 1959 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 408 tonnes (402 tons) |
| Length: | 41.3 m (135 ft) |
| Beam: | 8.9 m (29 ft) |
| Draught: | 4.4 m (14 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × diesels driving single screw |
| Speed: | 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph) |
| Range: | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) |
| Endurance: | 63 days at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Armament: | 1 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, Machine guns |
| Aircraft carried: | 1–2 OS2U Kingfisher amphibian, carried as deck cargo |
HMAS Wyatt Earp (formerly known as FV Fanefjord, MV Wyatt Earp, and HMAS Wongala) was a motor vessel commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1939 to 1945 and again from 1947 to 1948.
The ship was constructed as a single-deck motor vessel named FV Fanejord, built from pine and oak for the Norwegian herring fishing trade. While being a motorised vessel, her masts and booms normally used for cargo handling were capable of being rigged for sailing in an emergency. She was purchased by the American explorer and aviator, Lincoln Ellsworth, for his 1933 Antarctic expedition, refitted and sheathed with oak and armour plate, and renamed Wyatt Earp after the marshal of Dodge City and Tombstone, Arizona. Wyatt Earp was used on four of Ellsworth's Antarctic expeditions between 1933 and 1939, primarily as a base ship for his aircraft.
In February 1939, Wyatt Earp she was purchased from Ellsworth by the Government of Australia and handed over to the RAN, which intended to use the ship as a Fleet Auxiliary (Ammunition and Store Carrier). In September 1939, it was decided to rename her Boomerang, but the name was already in use by another Australian vessel. Instead, the ship was commissioned on 25 October 1939 as Wongala, an Australian Aborigine word meaning boomerang.
Wongala made one trip as a Royal Australian Fleet Auxiliary, leaving Sydney on 14 November 1939 bound for Darwin with a cargo of stores. On return to Sydney in January 1940, she was laid up pending future employment, but was reactivated and moved to Port Adelaide in South Australia, where she served with the Examination Service until late 1943. From November 1943 to March 1944, Wongala served as Guard Ship at Whyalla, South Australia, whilst also patrolling off Port Pirie and Wallaroo. In late March 1944, Wongala arrived at Port Adelaide to await disposal, and was paid off on 19 July 1944.
Before her disposal, the Minister for the Navy received a request in March 1945 from the South Australian Branch of the Boy Scouts Association, that the ship be made available for Sea Cadet training.
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