HMAS Swan (U74/F74/A427), named for the Swan River

Swan River (Western Australia)

The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....

, was a Grimsby class

Grimsby class sloop

With the realisation that war was approaching, 13 Grimsby class sloops were laid down in the mid to late 1930s. Of these eight were built in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy, four in Australia for the Royal Australian Navy and one for India...

 sloop of the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN) that served during World War II.

Design and construction

The Grimsby class consisted of thirteen sloops

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

, four of which were built in Australia for the RAN. Swan, one of the first pair, had a displacement of 1,060 tons at standard load and 1,500 tons at full load, was 266 in 3 in (81.15 m) long, had a beam of 36 feet (11 m), and a draught of between 7.5 and 10 ft (2.3 and 3 ) depending on load. Propulsion machinery consisted of two Admiralty 3-drum boilers connected to Parsons geared turbines, which delivered 2000 shp to the sloop's two propeller shafts. Maximum speed was 16.5 knots (9 m/s). The ship's company in peacetime consisted of 135 officers and sailors; this increased to 160 during the war.

Swans initial armament consisted of three QF 4 inches (101.6 mm) Mk V anti-aircraft guns

QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun

The QF 4 inch Mk V gun was a Royal Navy gun of World War I which was adapted on HA mountings to the heavy anti-aircraft role both at sea and on land, and was also used as a coast defence gun.-Naval service:...

. From 1944, this was increased to four QF 4 inch Mk XVI guns

QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun

The QF 4 inch Mk XVI gun was the standard British Commonwealth naval anti-aircraft and dual-purpose gun of World War II.-Service:The Mk XVI superseded the earlier QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun on many Royal Naval ships during the late 1930s and early 1940s...

 in 2 twin mounts, four[ [Ordnance QF 3 pounder Vickers|QF 3 pounder guns]], a machine gun, two depth charge throwers, and two twin 21-inch torpedo tube sets.

Swan was laid down by the Cockatoo Island Dockyard at Sydney, New South Wales on 1 May 1935. She was launched on 28 March 1936, and commissioned into the RAN on 21 January 1937.

World War II

Swan served as an escort and patrol vessel during World War II and escorted many convoys in Australian waters and the South-West Pacific. Swan was damaged during the first air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942.

General Eather, GOC Australian 11th Division, accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in New Ireland

New Ireland (island)

New Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by...

 from General Ito on board Swan on 18 September 1945. From late 1945 to August 1948 she was used to command the RAN's minesweeping operation

Royal Australian Navy minesweeping after World War II

Following World War II the Royal Australian Navy was required to clear naval mines from the waters around Australia and New Guinea. Minesweeping in these areas began in December 1945 and was completed in August 1948...

 in Australian and New Guinean waters.

The ship received three battle honour

Battle honour

A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or operation on its flags , uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible....

s for her wartime service: "Darwin 1942", "Pacific 1941-45", and "New Guinea 1943-44".

Post-war

Swan paid off to reserve on 18 August 1950, was converted to a training ship between October 1954 and February 1956 and recommissioned on 10 February 1956.

Decommissioning and fate

Swan paid off for disposal on 20 September 1962 and was sold for scrap to Hurley and Dewhurst of Sydney on 5 June 1964.

Further reading

• Warships of Australia, Ross Gillett, Illustrations Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0472-7