THE NAVY SlfiO - Navy League of Australia

NAVALNEWS
T
Two Thai
Warships
wo Thai Navy training ships, the
guided-missile frigates HMTS CHAO
PHRAYA (hull no 455) and HMTS
KRABURI (457) arrived at Fremantle on
Monday, August 7 for a four day visit
HMTS KRABURI (commanded by
Captain leeraput Panskun, RTN) had Rear
Admiral Sumpao Polathorn, Deputy
Commandant Royal Thai Naval Academy
embarked. The ship carried a
complement of 36 officers, I 39 enlisted
men, 61 cadets and nine civilians.
HMTS CHAO PHRAYA (Commander
Rungsrit Sattayanukul. RTN) carried a
complement of 28 officers, 119 sailors, 60
cadets and nine civilians.
The Chinese-built ships, constructed at
the Hudong Shipyard. Shanghai were
commissioned in 1991 (CHAO PHRAYA)
and 1992 (KRABURI)
HMTS KRABURI is armed with a eight
Ying |i (Eagle Strike) missile launchers,
two 100mm guns in a twin turret, four
twin 37mm guns and anti-submarine
weapons and a helicopter.
HMTS CHAO PHRAYA carries an
additional 100mm twin turret and no
helicopter and flight deck.
The 2000 tonne ships have a length of
103 metres and a beam of 11.3 metres.
The last naval Thai training squadron
to visit Western Australia were the former
US Navy World War Two frigates HMTS
MAEKLONG and HMTS PRASAE which
made a five day visit to Fremantle
between March 7-12, 1982.
HMAS
WESTRALIA
Sails with
70,000
W
hen HMAS WESTRALIA, the
Royal Australian Navy's largest
vessel, the 40,870 tonne (full
load) underway replenishment ship sailed
from HMAS STIRLING on Monday, July
24, she boasted an additional 70,000
"crew" members.
Berthed on the ship's quarterdeck were
70,000 worms living in a 1.3 metre
square aluminium container.
Officer-in-charge of the 70,000 worms
was Lieutenant John Polglaze (32) who is
studying the food waste management of
ships at sea as a project towards his
degree at Murdoch University.
23 The- Navy, October-December 1995
Thr first ttoyjt Nivv Tvpr 23 to visit Austral*. HMS MONMOUTH in Inly IMS. I Photo NPU)
The concept of the studies is to reduce
garbage and its disposal at sea.
Lieutenant Polglaze obtained
permission to take his "team" onboard
from HMAS WESTRALIA's captain.
Commander Steve Hooke before the ship
sailed for Exercise Kangaroo '95.
T
Royal Navy
Returns
he British Duke class (Type 23) frigate,
HMS MONMOUTH arrived in
Sydney on 26 July at the start of her
first visit to Australia. Lasting 14 days, the
visit was the first by a Royal Navy warship
to Sydney since 1988.
The deployment of MONMOUTH to
east Australia ports remembers the ships of
the British Pacific Fleet (including several
RAN) which featured prominently in the
latter stages of the Pacific War.
After Sydney, the vessel called at
Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns before
returning to the UK. She was in Brisbane on
VP Day (15 August). Two other ships in her
Task Group, the destroyer HMS SHEFFIELD
and the oiler RFA BRAMBLELEAF visited
Darwin.
Displacing 4000 tonnes, the 133 metre
frigate was commissioned in September
1993, the sixth ship of a class of thirteen
ordered to date. She is armed with one 4.5
inch gun and two 30mm Oerlikon guns able
to fire in both anti-surface and anti-aircraft
roles, as well as Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Sea Wolf missiles are carried for anti-aircraft
defence and Stingray torpedoes for close-in
anti-submarine protection. MONMOUTH's
weapon systems are complimented by her
embarked Westland Lynx helicopter.
Smoke does
not always get
in your eyes...
T
uesday, luly 11, witnessed a new era
for the Royal Australian Navy when
its new gas-fired firefighting unit was
officially opened by the Navy's Maritime
Commander, Rear Admiral Chris Oxenbould.
The ceremony was concluded with the
Admiral pressing the ignition button for a
spectacular display with flames igniting
from the ground and first floor decks of
the fire training modules.
The new "environmentally friendly"
smoke will allow people to work in these
compartments for long periods. It is nontoxic,
non-chemical and non-carcinogenic
and allows personnel to walk through
thick smoke without eye and respiratory
discomfort.
Acutely aware of its environmental
responsibilities, the Navy took initiatives
to convert its existing fire-fighting facilities
to propane gas.
Traditionally, the Navy has used solid
fuel and diesel oil to create training fires
but these generated considerable smoke
and noxious gases.
The gas conversion project consisted
of the manufacture and installation of
equipment designed to simulate various
fire scenarios that may be encountered in
the normal daily routine of a ship at sea
or in harbour.
HMAS STIRLING and HMAS CRESWELL
at Jervis Bay, NSW also have simulated
helicopter gas-fired training facilities. A
third firefighting facility is located at
HMAS CERBERUS in Victoria.
Classic Aircraft
Carrier
O
ne of the oldest and most honoured
U.S. Navy aircraft carriers has got a
five-month reprieve from the scrap
heap and went on a sentimental voyage
across San Francisco Bay.
The ship is the Hornet, a 51-year-old
veteran of three wars and three space
missions. Carrying a cargo of Navy
veterans, the ship made the trip from
Hunters Point in San Francisco to Alameda
Naval Air Station, where it will be on
display through at least October.
The Hornet looked like a huge gray
ghost as four tugs slowly pushed and
pulled it across the bay. The ship has no
power of its own and the four-mile
voyage took three hours.
The Hornet has been laid up at
Bremerton, Wash., for 25 years and shows
it. The paint is peeling, and weeds are
growing out of the flight deck.
Inside, the Hornet has the feel of a
floating haunted house. The navigating
bridge is silent, and the deck is littered
with pieces of equipment. The hangar
deck, which resembles a huge garage for
planes, is empty and echoes to the sound
of footsteps. The ship's ladders go down
and down into hundreds of compartments
far below.
Yet the dead and empty ship is full of
memories. It was launched in 1943 to
replace an earlier Hornet, a famous ship
that carried 16 B-25 bombers that made
the famous first air raid on Tokyo. The
previous Hornet was sunk in 1943, but
this one was lucky - and deadly.
Pilots from the Hornet sank 1.2 million
tons of Japanese ships, including a cruiser
and a carrier, shot down 1,200 planes and
earned 11 battle stars. The vessel also saw
service in the Korean war and made three
voyages to the waters off Vietnam.
"A piece of history," Captain James
Dodge, commanding officer of Alameda
Naval Air Station, calls it.
"This ship also picked up three of the
Apollo space missions and President
Richard Nixon stood on this deck in 1969
to welcome the first men back from the
moon," Dodge said in a lecture on the
ship's past he delivered on a bull-horn.
In two years, the Alameda base itself
will be history. It is being closed.
Dodge wants to show the public the
The Navy, October-December 1995 15