On This Day
1976-1999 > Post Vietnam
On This Day - 1976-1999
- December 9, 1976
HMAS DOOMBA, (minesweeper), was scuttled off Dee Why, NSW. DOOMBA had been built in 1919, and commissioned as HMS WEXFORD, but was sold in 1921 to the Doomba Shipping Company based in Brisbane. In 1939, on 3 September she was requisitioned by the RAN, to become an auxiliary minesweeper, and commissioned as HMAS DOOMBA. She later became an anti-submarine escort, before being paid off from the RAN in February 1947, and converted into a lighter.
- December 7, 1976
HMAS ASSAIL, (patrol boat), surveyed the Alligator River, NT.
- December 5, 1976
Twelve of the RAN’s Tracker anti-submarine aircraft were destroyed in a disastrous fire at HMAS ALBATROSS, Nowra, NSW. The combined strength of Fleet Air Arm Squadrons 816 and 851 was reduced to one serviceable Tracker.
- November 23, 1976
VADM Sir Anthony Synnot is appointed Chief of Naval Staff.
- November 8, 1976
HMAS STUART, (destroyer escort), was dispatched to rescue survivors from the oil exploration barge PERENTIE. Two of the barge’s crew of five were picked up.
- September 3, 1976
HMAS HOBART, (guided missile destroyer), arrived in Sydney, after completing the first circumnavigation of the world, (since a similar voyage in 1952), by a ship of the RAN. HOBART showed the Australian flag in 19 ports and 12 countries.
- August 27, 1976
First Officer J. Baker, WRANS, became the first officer of the WRANS to be selected for the Royal Naval Staff College course at Greenwich, England.
- August 19, 1976
- HMNZS INVERELL, (ex HMAS INVERELL), and HMNZS KIAMA, (EX-HMAS KIAMA), were paid off for disposal at Auckland. The minesweepers were transferred to New Zealand in 1946.
- CDRE J. Britten, RAN, retired from the RAN after holding all ranks from ordinary Seaman 2nd Class, to Commodore.
- August 16, 1976
HMA Ships MELBOURNE, (aircraft carrier), and TORRENS, (destroyer escort), rendered aid to the disabled motor vessel MISS CHIEF, in heavy seas off Bundaberg, QLD. TORRENS took the vessel in tow until a tug arrived.
- July 27, 1976
HMAS HOBART, (guided missile destroyer), arrived at Naples. HOBART was the first RAN vessel to visit Italy in 20 years, and the first Australian warship to pass through the Suez Canal in 14 years.