| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Australia | |
| Namesake | City of Shepparton, Victoria |
| Builder | HMA Naval Dockyard at Williamstown, Victoria |
| Laid down | 14 November 1941 |
| Launched | 15 August 1942 |
| Commissioned | 1 February 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 10 May 1946 |
| Motto | "By Wisdom And Courage" |
| Honours and awards | list error: <br /> list (help) Battle honours: Pacific 1943 New Guinea 1943-44 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1958 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Bathurst class corvette |
| Displacement | 650 tons (standard), 1,025 tons (full war load) |
| Length | 186 ft (57 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft (9.4 m) |
| Draught | 8.5 ft (2.6 m) |
| Propulsion | triple expansion engine, 2 shafts, 1,800 horsepower |
| Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) at 1,750 hp |
| Complement | 81 |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) 1 x 4-inch gun 4 x 20 mm Oerlikons (1 later removed) 1 x 40 mm Bofors (installed later) Machine guns Depth charges chutes and throwers |
HMAS Shepparton (J248/M248), named for the city of Shepparton, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially manned and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).[1]
Construction
Shepparton was laid down on 14 November 1941 by HMA Naval Dockyard at Williamstown, Victoria, launched on 15 August 1942 by Lady Goudle, wife of the Victorian Commissioner of Public Works, and commissioned int the RAN on 1 February 1943.[1]
Operational history
Shepparton entered operaional service in April 1943, and was primarily employed as an armed survey ship.[1] Shepparton served in New Guinea and New Britain between April 1943 and October 1944, and in the waters of northern Australian until 1 February 1945, at which point she went to Brisbane for refitting.[1] The refit concluded on 2 April 1945, with Shepparton assigned to various areas in northern Australia and the islands of New Guinea, before returning to Brisbane on 21 October 1945.[1]
The corvette received two battle honours for her wartime service: "Pacific 1943" and "New Guinea 1943-44".[2][3]
In 1946, one author spoke of her service during the war: "A few years ago, large parts of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands were entirely unmapped. As a result of the campaigns in the South and southwest Pacific, these regions today are better mapped than the greater part of the Australian mainland, or for that matter, better than many parts of the world which were outside the operative zones of the war. Considering that much of this territory was over run by the Japanese before surveying could commence, it is a remarkable achievement that in the short time available, such excellent map and photo coverage was obtained. In hydrography, also, considerable areas were surveyed. Typical of the work of these small surveying vessels is the record of the HMAS Shepparton, which in a period of two years, steamed just over 50,000 miles, being 5,072 hours underway, and for most of this time, actively engaged in operational waters… Hence at the outbreak of the Pacific war in 1941, British and German Admiralty charts of the New Guinea and Solomon Islands region, upon which US Hydrographic Office relied on for information, were based principally on very old and sketchy surveys. In a like manner, the official sailing directions were far from meeting the exacting demands of modern warfare. Morever, no adequate atlas of the Pacific Islands had been published and cartographic knowledge relating to topographic details of many islands had remained either nonexistent or very imperfect.”[4]
Fate
Shepparton paid off to reserve on 10 May 1946.[1] She was towed to Sydney by sister ship HMAS Deloraine in early November 1947, where she remained until her sale for scrap on 20 February 1958.[1] Shepparton was sold to the Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha company, and was towed to Japan by the Shitako Maru.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "HMAS Shepparton (I)". Sea Power Centre Australia. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
- ^ "Navy Marks 109th Birthday With Historic Changes To Battle Honours". Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ^ "Royal Australian Navy Ship/Unit Battle Honours" (PDF). Royal Australian Navy. 1 March 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
- ^ Ingleton, Geoffrey C. 1946. “Charting a War.” Surveying and Mapping. Volume VI (2), April-June 1946. Pages 133-134.
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