HMAS Vampire II - Royal Australian Navy Daring
Class Destroyer
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 "Lord
above send down a dove
To look after Daring sailor
For as we pay off the ship we love
We hope she won't be razors
We salute the fleet that is left this week
 Mourning
the good ships passing
For this has been the last of the Destroyers Sleek
That has served at sea so lasting
This day at Ten an era will end
 Of
ships and men both rugged
But the Fleet will shine and continue to fend
Though today the Bat is buggered
Farewell and Audamis"
  With
this signal sent from the Daring Class Destroyer HMAS Vampire shortly
before she decomissioned: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) no longer had
any all-gun destroyers - an era was definitely at an end.
HMAS Vampire, launched at Cockatoo Dockyard in 1956 and commissioned
in 1959, continued the name made famous by the V and W Class destroyer
HMAS Vampire. The first Vampire, along her sister ships, formed the famous
"Scrap Iron Flotilla" (so named by the Germans in regard to
their age and condition) and saw service in WW2 in the Mediteranean before
being sunk in company with HMS Hermes off the coast of Colombo by Japanese
aircraft.
  The
second HMAS Vampire was a Daring Class Destroyer, the last and largest
conventional British Fleet Destroyers. The design evolved during 1943-44
and is typical of wartime requirements: - the large size of the class
is due to the need to fit the most up-to-date radar, communications and
weapons suites. There were 16 Darings ordered for the Royal Navy, but
this was cut down to 8 after the war, with 5 being laid down in 1945-46
and 3 in 1948-49 with the first ship entering RN service in 1952 and the
last in 1954.
 The
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ordered 4 modified Darings in 1946 with one
being subsequently cancelled. They formed the 10th Destroyer Squadron
and were as follows:
HMAS Voyager - commissioned in 1957
HMAS Vendetta - commissioned in 1958
HMAS Vampire commissioned in 1959.
The RAN also acquired HMAS Duchess as a replacement for HMAS Voyager which
was sunk in a collision with HMAS Melbourne.
 The
choice to go with the Darings was an easy one for the RAN. We already
had two of their predecessors in the Battle Class Destroyers, HMAS Anzac
and Tobruk. The Darings were the main destroyer strength of the RAN until
the mid to late 1960s when the RAN purchased three new Charles F. Adams
Class Guided Missile Destroyers (DDGs) from the US.
HMAS Vampire when commissioned had the following details:
Length: 118.65m
Beam: 13.11m
 Draught:
13.11m
Displacement: 3560 ton (full load), 2800 (standard)
Speed: 29 knots
Armament:
6 x 4.5 inch Mk.V guns in twin Mk VI RP41 mountings (two forward, one
aft)
6 x 40mm Bofors AA guns (2 twin & two single mountings)
5 21 inch torpedoes tubes in a Mk.IV Pentard mounting
4 Browning 0.5 Mgs
1 triple barrel Limbo Anti-Submarine Mortar
 The
Bat (as Vampire was known to her crew) undertook several tours of duty
with the Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR). This unit was based out of
Singapore and conducted routine exercises in Australian and New Guinean
waters up to mid 1970. At this point she had steamed 430,000 miles and
had seven Captains since commissioning.
 However
in June 1970, she sailed in Williamstown Dockyard in Victoria flying a
400 ft "Paying Off" pennant. She was being paid off for her Half Life
Modernisation which was a major undertaking. The changes included the
following: replacement guns, replacing virtually all the original superstructure
from the weather deck up - including a closed bridge and replacing the
old funnels with new ones, removal of the Pentard Torpedo mount which
had outlived its usefulness and a new radar suite. All of which produced
a better looking ship in my opinion.
HMAS Vampire Re-Commissioned in Nov. 1971 and rejoined the fleet again
serving with FESR for the next nine years. In 1975, Vampire was dispatched
to the Timor Sea to "stand by" at the beginnings of the Timor Crisis,
while in 1976 she formed part of the RAN contribution to the US Bicentennial
celebrations. She continued this "ambassadorial" role in 1977 when she
had the honour of serving as Royal Squadron Escort for HMY Britannia when
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip visited Australia on
the Silver Jubilee Tour.
 In
1980, the decision was made to convert Vampire to a training ship to assist
HMAS Jervis Bay as part of the Training Squadron. This conversion consisted
of removing the Limbo mortar and "filling in the gap left" to provide
a classroom facility. This was the major external change done, along with
the removal of the aft 40mm Bofors from their mountings. She served on
in the training ship role until August 1986 when she was Decommissioned
for the final time and put into reserve. She had served in the RAN for
27 years and was the last of the all gun destroyers to serve in the RAN.
 However
her story does not end there as she was loaned to the Australian Maritime
Museum at Darling Harbour, Sydney in 1990 and then gifted to the Museum
in 1997. The Australian Government has given Vampire the right to fly
the RAN White Ensign as long as she remains in museum hands. Oddly enough
this lends a look of life to her, even though she is a decommissioned
ship. The accompanying photos show HMAS Vampire at Darling Harbour during
2001 and will aid in modelling the "Bat" in her training ship guise.
Kits
There are currently two kits out of HMAS Vampire. They are both produced
by OzMods and feature her as she is today in her Training Ship guise in
1/700 and 1/350 scale. You could also convert the various other Darings
released by both Airfix and OzMods in various scales to Vampire in her
various stages of life.
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