HMAS Advance (P 83)

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HMAS Advance at the Australian National Maritime Museum
Career (Australia (RAN)) RAN ensign
Builder: Walkers Limited, Queensland
Laid down: March 1967
Launched: 16 August 1967
Commissioned: 24 January 1968
Decommissioned: 6 February 1988
Motto: "Never Look Back"
Status: Museum ship at the Australian National Maritime Museum
Badge: HMAS Advance crest.png
General characteristics
Class and type: Attack class patrol boat
Displacement: 100 tons standard
146 tons full load
Length: 107.5 feet (32.8 m)
Beam: 20 feet (6.1 m)
Draught: 7.3 feet (2.2 m) at full load
Propulsion: 2x 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines
2 shafts
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h)
Complement: 3 officers, 16 sailors
Armament: 1 x 40 mm Bofors gun
2 x .50 calibre machine guns
Notes: Taken from:[1]

HMAS Advance (P 83) was an Attack class patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Constructed during 1967 and commissioned into the RAN in 1968, Advance operated from Darwin and patrolled northern Australian waters.

During her career, the patrol boat shadowed a Soviet trawler, survived Cyclone Tracy, was used for filming of the television series Patrol Boat, and participated in the RAN's first anti-terrorism patrol of the North West Shelf. Advance was replaced in 1980, but continued to operate as a training ship until she was decommissioned in 1988.

Advance was donated to the Australian National Maritime Museum, which have maintained her in an operational condition. The vessel remains part of the museum's collection as of 2010.

Construction

Advance was the third of 20 Attack class vessels built for the RAN during the late 1960s.[2] These ships were designed to patrol the Australian coast, particularly northern waters, and prevent illegal fishing, immigration, or smuggling.[2] Advance and her sister ships were constucted with a steel hull and aluminium superstructure.[2] Her amament consisted of a single 40-millimetre (1.6 in) Bofors and two 0.5-inch (13 mm) Browning machine guns.[2] To facilitate operations in remote areas, commercially available components were used where possible in the vessel's construction.[2]

She was laid down by Walkers Limited at Maryborough, Queensland in March 1967,[citation needed] launched on 16 August 1967, and commissioned on 24 January 1968.[3]

Operational history

Advance operated out of HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin, Northern Territory between 1968 and 1980.[2] As well as the standard duties for her class, Advance was also used for surveillance, search-and-rescue, and hydrographic survey (in company with the survey ship HMAS Moresby).[2][3]

During 1968, Advance and sister ship Attack shadowed the Soviet trawler Van Gogh, which operated in the Gulf of Carpenteria for two months.[3][4]

Advance and three other patrol boats were in Darwin Harbour on 25 December 1974, when Cyclone Tracy hit.[5] Advance and Assail managed to escape serious damage, but Attack was forced aground and suffered hull damage, and Arrow collided with Stoke's Hill Wharf and sank.[5]

During 1975 and 1976, Advance regularly operated as part of Operation Trochus: a concentrated effort to respond to illegal fishing vessels in northern Australian waters.[3]

From late 1977, the patrol boat was assigned to HMAS Waterhen in Sydney for patrols along Australia's eastern coast,[3] but was redeployed elsewhere when necessary.

In 1979, Advance was one of two Attack class vessels used to portray the fictional HMAS Ambush; setting of the ABC television series Patrol Boat.[2][3]

On 30 May 1980, Advance, along with sister ships Attack and Buccaneer, commenced the RAN's first anti-terrorism patrols of the oil rigs in the North West Shelf area.[6]

Following her replacement by a Fremantle class patrol boat in 1980, Advance was reassigned as a training ship.[2] She was assigned to the Sydney Port Division of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve in February 1982.[3]

The patrol boat participated in the 1986 Naval Review.[3]

Decommissioning and preservation

Advance was decommissioned on 6 February 1988, and was transferred to the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM), where she remains as of 2010.[2][3] The patrol boat has been maintained in operational condition by the ANMM; consequently, she is not open for public inspection.[2]

Citations

  1. ↑ Blackman, Raymond (ed.) (1968). Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968-69 (71st ed.). London: Jane's Publishing Company. p. 18. OCLC 123786869. 
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 The patrol boat, Australian National Maritime Museum
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Mitchell, Past meets future
  4. ↑ Frame, No Pleasure Cruise, p. 256
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Jones, in Stevens, The Royal Australian Navy, p. 234
  6. ↑ Lind, The Royal Australian Navy, p. 296

References

Books

  • Frame, Tom (2004). No Pleasure Cruise: the story of the Royal Australian Navy. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1741142334. OCLC 55980812. 
  • Jones, Peter (2001). "Towards Self Reliance". in Stevens, David. The Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Centenary History of Defence (vol III). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195555422. OCLC 50418095. 
  • Lind, Lew (1986) [1982]. The Royal Australian Navy: Historic Naval Events Year by Year (2nd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed Books. ISBN 0730100715. OCLC 16922225. 

News articles and websites

External links

  • The patrol boat, the Australian National Maritime Museum webpage for HMAS Advance
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Attack-class patrol boat
List of ships of the Royal Australian Navy

Coordinates: 33°52.15′S 151°11.995′E / 33.86917°S 151.199917°E / -33.86917; 151.199917 (HMAS Advance)

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