HMAS Albatross (I)
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| Type | Seaplane Carrier |
|---|---|
| Laid down | April 1926 |
| Launched | 23 February 1928 by Lady Stonehaven, wife of the Governor-General |
| Completed | 21 December 1928 |
| Builder | Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company Pty Ltd, Sydney |
| Commissioned | 23 January 1929 |
| Displacement | 4,800 tons (standard) |
| Length | 443 feet 7 inches (overall) |
| Beam | 60 feet18.288 m 1,828.8 cm 0.0183 km 0.0114 mi 720 in |
| Draught | 16 feet 3 inches (mean) |
| Armament |
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| Horsepower | 12,000 |
| Speed | 20 knots10.289 m/s 37.04 km/h 0.0103 km/s 2,025.372 ft/min 33.756 ft/s |
| Complement | 450 (including six officers and 24 airman from RAAF) |
HMAS Albatross (I) commissioned at Sydney on 23 January 1929 under the command of CAPT Denham M.T. Bedford RN, and began her seagoing career a week later, cruising south to Tasmania and Victoria as a unit of the RAN Squadron. The next four years followed the normal uneventful pattern of the peacetime naval vessel of the thirties on the Australia Station - winter cruises to New Guinea and New Britain and surrounding islands, spring cruises to the southern states, exercises, training and long periods in Sydney Harbour.
In August 1930 CAPT H.J. Feakes RAN assumed command from CAPT Bedford and was in turn relieved in August 1931 by CAPT C.J. Pope RAN. In March 1933 CAPT H.L. Howden RAN assumed temporary command from CAPT Pope, but he remained in command until the ship paid off.
On 26 April 1933 Albatross (I) paid off into Reserve and for the next five years remained at anchor in Sydney Harbour. In 1938 she was accepted by the Admiralty in part payment for the RAN's new cruiser Hobart (I). On 11 July 1938 she sailed for England, her role as an RAN warship at an end.
Shortly before World War II began Albatross (I) recommissioned from reserve and embarked six Walrus I amphibians. As a carrier she served in the South Atlantic, West Africa and Madagascar areas. She paid off in 1943, but the following year recommissioned as a repair ship.
In 1944, operating as a Fleet Repair Ship, she took part in the Allied invasion of Normandy, restoring 132 vessels to fighting service in the assault area. On 11 August she suffered considerable damage when struck forward by a torpedo off Courseulles. Casualties exceeded 100, including 50 killed.
In 1946 the Admiralty sold Albatross (I) to a British company which planned to convert her into a passenger luxury cruiser. High conversion costs caused abandonment of the scheme and it was decided to use the ship as an off shore floating cabaret at Torquay on the Devonshire coast. However, she was saved from this fate when the Greek - British Yannoulatos Group of shipowners offered to buy her for the sum of £185,000. The deal was completed on the day Prince Charles was born (14 November 1948) and in his honour her new owners renamed the ship HELLENIC PRINCE.
The Yannoulatos Group sent her to Barry in Wales, where she was converted to a modern passenger vessel at a cost of £200,000. In late 1949 she was chartered by the international Refugee Organisation as a refugee transport. On 5 December 1949 she reached Sydney carrying 1,000 displaced persons thus returning to her birthplace after an absence of more than eleven years.
The ship's career finally ended when she was scrapped at Hong Kong on 12 August 1954.
