HMAS Moresby (I)
| |
 | |
| Type | 24 Class Survey Sloop |
|---|---|
| Laid down | 27 November 1917 |
| Launched | 12 April 1918 |
| Builder | Barclay Curle and Co Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Commissioned | 20 June 1925 |
| Displacement | 1,320 tons (standard) 1,650 (full load) |
| Length | 276 feet 6 inches |
| Beam | 34 feet 10 inches |
| Draught | 16 feet 7 inches |
| Armament |
|
| Speed | 14 knots7.202 m/s 25.928 km/h 0.0072 km/s 1,417.761 ft/min 23.629 ft/s |
HMS SILVIO was one of the twenty-four ships known officially as the 24 Class and popularly as the ‘Racehorse Class, their names being those of English Derby winners. They were classified as Fleet Sweeping Vessels (Sloops). SILVIO commissioned in the Royal Navy on 25 May 1918.
On 25 July 1918 the destroyer HMS MORESBY was escorting a convoy off the Ulster coast when a U-boat was sighted and attacked, unsuccessfully, by all five vessels of the escort. One of the escorts was SILVIO, later to become HMAS MORESBY.
Between 1922 and 1925 four of the class, HM Ships IROQUOIS, MERRY HAMPTON (renamed HERALD), ORMONDE and SILVIO, were converted to survey ships. The last to be converted, in 1925, was SILVIO. In the same year SILVIO was lent to the Commonwealth Government to assist in the survey of the Cumberland Channel inside the Great Barrier Reef.
Before leaving England for Australia on 28 June 1925 she was renamed MORESBY in honour of Admiral John Moresby in 1914, the first ship to bear the name. The derivation of the name is unique in Royal Navy, since the ship was named after a living commoner. Admiral (then Captain) Moresby (1830-1922), commanding HMS BASILISK, discovered Port Moresby and Fairfax Harbour on 21 February 1873 and named them after his father, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Fairfax Moresby GCB.
The ship commissioned as HMAS MORESBY on 20 June 1925 under the command of Captain John A. Edgell OBE RN, who later became, as Vice Admiral Sir John Edgell KBE, Hydrographer to the Admiralty.
MORESBY reached Australia in September 1925 and was engaged on the Great Barrier Reef survey until she paid off at Sydney on 21 December 1929 for reasons of economy. Until 1927 she had been assisted by HMAS GERANIUM.
MORESBY recommissioned on 27 April 1933 for urgent strategic survey work in Australian northern waters. The ship paid off into Reserve at Sydney on 14 December 1934 and recommissioned on 11 April 1935. During her period in Reserve MORESBY was converted to oil burning.
MORESBY's survey work up to the outbreak of war in September 1939 was almost entirely in northern waters.
In May 1937 the eruption of volcanoes at Vulcan Island and Matupi, near Rabaul, caused the evacuation of the town's inhabitants to Kokopo as a safety precaution. MORESBY, then in the Gulf of Carpentaria, was ordered to proceed to Rabaul and render any assistance possible. As events transpired, this was confined to the supply of provisions.
For the first year of the war MORESBY served as an anti-submarine training vessel. In January 1941 she resumed her former duty as a survey vessel and until the outbreak of war with Japan in December 1941 was engaged on survey operations in Australian and New Guinea waters.
In January 1942 MORESBY was assigned to duty as an escort and anti-submarine vessel in Australian waters and until the end of 1943 she was almost constantly at sea escorting convoys on the Australian east coast. This was the period when Japanese submarines were active in Australian coastal waters and three attacks were made on ships under escort by MORESBY.
In December 1942, off Gabo Island, a submarine fired a torpedo at SS KOOYONG but it passed harmlessly under her keel. A second attack took pace in April 1943 and resulted in the sinking of the Yugoslav vessel RECINA with the loss of 32 lives. A month later off the New South Wales coast SS ORMISTON was torpedoed but made port under her own steam. In all, during the period MORESBY was serving as an escort vessel nineteen ships were sunk off the Australian coast by Japanese submarines with the loss of 568 lives.
In November 1943 MORESBY ceased operating as an escort vessel and at Sydney prepared to resume duty as a survey vessel. From December 1943 until the end of the war she was engaged on survey operations mainly in the Darwin and Bathurst Island areas.
In September and October 1945 she took part in the re-occupation of Timor and was the venue for the surrender ceremony on 11 September 1945. In November 1945 she carried out a survey Yampi Sound , Western Australia, before returning to Sydney where she arrived on 13 December 1945.
MORESBY paid off on 14 March 1946 and on 3 February 1947 she was sold for breaking up to Broken Hill Pty Co Ltd.
