Ship Badges – Royal Australian Navy

HMAS Penguin, the Navy’s depot at Balmoral on Sydney Harbour, celebrated its 30th Anniversary in July 1972. The name Penguin goes back to 1831 and has been handed down through a series of Royal Navy ships. In 1909, a survey ship of that name – a sloop of 1,130 tons – was converted into a depot ship at Garden Island.

The depot ship Penguin, along with others, provided shore barracks in the Sydney area until 1938 when the threat of World War Two was apparent and a decision was made to build permanent barracks and a hospital ashore.

HMAS Torrens was launched on 28 September 1968 by Dame Zara Holt, DBE, and commissioned on 19 January 1971. She is the latest River Class destroyer escort and, with HMAS Swan, incorporates many improvements on her four other sister ships, HMA Ships Derwent, Parramatta, Stuart and Yarra. These six ships together form the Third Australian Destroyer Squadron, of which HMAS Torrens became Squadron Leader in December 1973.

Designed to RAN specifications and built by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co. Pty Ltd, Sydney, Torrens has the latest available equipment.

HMAS Yarra is an anti-submarine destroyer escort of the Royal Navy Type 12 design, adapted for Australian service. She was built at Williamstown Naval Dockyard and was commissioned on 27 July 1961.She is capable of more than 30 knots.

This ship is the third to carry the name of Yarra. The first Yarra was a torpedo boat destroyer displacing only 700 tons. The second Yarra was a sloop of 1,080 tons built at Cockatoo Island and commissioned in January, 1936.

The RAN Air Station, HMAS Albatross, at Nowra, is the shore support facility for the Fleet Air Arm.

The airfield at Nowra and its satellite strip at Jervis Bay were constructed during World War II for the RAAF. In 1944 Nowra was transferred to the Royal Navy for Fleet Air Arm training and as a shore base for the carrier aircraft of the British Pacific Fleet. At the end of the War the airfield was left under “care and maintenance“.

The base was commissioned as HMAS Albatross on 31 August 1948.

HMAS Swan is similar to the RAN’s latest destroyer escort HMAS Torrens. It was launched on 16 December 1967 and commissioned on 20 January 1970.

Swan is a versatile ship, capable of responding rapidly to operation requirements. Its turret of two 4.5 inch guns, controlled by a digital fire control radar and computer, provides fire power against air and surface targets, and can be used equally as well in shore bombardment.

Designed to RAN specifications and built at Williamstown Naval Dockyard, Victoria, Swan has the latest available equipment.

HMAS Kimbla was built as a boom defence vessel by Walkers Ltd of Maryborough, Queensland. She was laid down on 4 November 1953 and commissioned into the RAN on 27 March 56.

During the summer of 1959, she was converted to a trials and oceanographic research ship.

Kimbla is the only RAN ship capable of steaming continuously without damage to engines at just three knots.

HMAS Parramatta is an Australian built River Class destroyer escort.

She is 370 feet long with a beam of 41 feet, has a displacement of 2,500 tons, and is capable of operating at high speeds. The ship’s company of 253 comprises 17 officers, 21 chief petty officers, 32 petty officers and 183 sailors.

The third ship of the name, she was built by Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co. and launched by Lady Dowling on 31 January 1959 and commissioned on 4 July 1961, the jubilee year of the RAN.