HMAS Torrens (DE 53)

Torrens and sister ship HMAS Swan were ordered in 1964 as replacements for HMAS Voyager, a destroyer lost following a collision with the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in 1964.[1] Although intended to be the same as the previous River class ships (themselves based on the British Type 12 frigate), the design was changed from 1965 to incorporate many of the improvements of the British Leander-class frigates.[2] Work on the two vessels started without specifications or a contract, and the evolving design meant changes were being made as the ships were being constructed, with resulting delays and cost increases attributed to a lack of planning.[3]

Torrens was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Propriety Limited at Sydney, New South Wales on 18 August 1965. She was launched on 28 September 1968 by Dame Zara Holt, and commissioned into the RAN on 18 January 1971. Torrens was the last major war vessel built in an Australian shipyard until work commenced on HMAS Melbourne in 1985.[4]

Torrens and the destroyer tender HMAS Stalwart participated in celebrations of Papua New Guinea's independence from Australia in September 1975, with Torrens arriving in Rabaul on 14 September.[5][6]

On 16 August 1976, Torrens and HMAS Melbourne were performing work-up exercises following the latter's refit when they were called to assist MV Miss Chief off the coast of Bundaberg, Queensland.[7]

During late February and early March 1972, Torrens escorted the troopship HMAS Sydney on her twenty-fourth and final troop transport voyage in support of the Vietnam War.[8] The ships arrived in Vũng Tàu on 28 February, collected 457 Australian soldiers, then departed the next day for home.[8]

A QF 4.5-inch gun turret of HMAS Torrens on display at the Princess Royal Fortress, Albany, Western Australia

HMAS Torrens paid off in 1998. On 14 June 1999, Torrens was sunk by a live Mark 48 Mod 4 torpedo fired by the Collins-class submarine HMAS Farncomb during the latter's combat system trials.[9]

Digitally edited film of the torpedo hitting Torrens was used in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor as part of a black-and-white 'newsreel' montage.[10][11] A photo of Torrens exploding was used on a Hezbollah-operated website to support a propaganda claim that an Israeli warship was sunk by a Hezbollah missile in July 2006.[12]

Her 4.5-inch Mk V/Mk 6 gun turret is preserved at Princess Royal Fortress, Albany, Western Australia.[13]

Books

• Lind, Lew (1986) [1982]. The Royal Australian Navy – Historic Naval Events Year by Year (2nd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed Books. ISBN 0-7301-0071-5. OCLC 16922225.
• Nott, Rodney; Payne, Noel (2008) [1994]. The Vung Tau Ferry: HMAS Sydney and Escort Ships (4th ed.). Dural, NSW: Rosenberg. ISBN 978-1-877058-72-1. OCLC 254773862.
• Stevens, David, ed. (2001). The Royal Australian Navy. The Australian Centenary History of Defence (vol III). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-555542-2. OCLC 50418095.
  • Jones, Peter. "Towards Self Reliance". The Royal Australian Navy.
  • Spurling, Kathryn. "The Era of Defence Reform". The Royal Australian Navy.
• Stevens, David; Reeve, John, eds. (2005). The Navy and the Nation: the influence of the Navy on modern Australia. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-74114-200-8. OCLC 67872922.
  • Jeremy, John C. "Australian shipbuilding and the impact of World War II". In Stevens, David; Reeve, John (eds.). The Navy and the Nation: the influence of the Navy on modern Australia.

News articles and websites

• Bolt, Andrew (22 August 2006). "Hezbollah sinks Australian warship". Herald Sun Columnists' Blogs. Herald Sun/News.com.au. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
• "Pearl Harbor (2001) – Trivia". imdb.com. Retrieved 1 November 2009.
• Underwood, Antony (13 December 2007). "Lots of fire, but no smoke" (PDF). Reserve News. Directorate of Defence Newspapers. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2008. Retrieved 1 November 2009.

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