HMAS Parramatta (D55)

Parramatta in 1918
History
Australia
NameParramatta
NamesakeParramatta River
Ordered13 March 1909
BuilderFairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan
Laid down17 March 1909
Launched9 February 1910
Commissioned10 September 1910
Decommissioned20 April 1928
Honours and
awards
  • Battle honours:
  • Rabaul 1914
  • Adriatic 1917–18
FateSold for scrap, some components later converted into memorials
General characteristics
Class and typeRiver-class torpedo-boat destroyer
Displacement750 long tons (760 t)
Length245 ft (74.7 m) (o/a)
Beam24 ft 3 in (7.4 m)
Draught8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Installed power
Propulsion3 shafts; Parsons steam turbine set
Speed26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph)
Range2,690 nmi (4,980 km; 3,100 mi) at 11.5 knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph)
Complement66–73
Armament

HMAS Parramatta, named after the Parramatta River, was a River-class torpedo-boat destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Ordered in 1909 for the Commonwealth Naval Forces (the predecessor of the RAN), Parramatta was the first ship launched for the RAN. Temporarily commissioned into the Royal Navy for the delivery voyage to Australia, the destroyer came under Australian naval control in 1910, and was recommissioned into the RAN on 1 March 1911, shortly before the latter's formal creation.

After the beginning of the First World War in 1914 until 1917, Parramatta conducted patrols in the Pacific and South-East Asia, before she and her sister ships were transferred to the Mediterranean for anti-submarine operations. She returned to Australia in 1919 and was placed in reserve. Apart from a brief period of full commission during the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1920, Parramatta remained in reserve until 1928. She was fully decommissioned in 1928, stripped of parts, and sold for use as prisoner accommodation on the Hawkesbury River. After changing hands several times, the hull ran aground during a gale in 1933, and was left to rust. In 1973, the bow and stern sections were salvaged, and converted into memorials.