HMAS Vampire II

HMAS Vampire, Australia's largest museum vessel, is the last of the country's big gun ships.

After this, Australia's fighting ships were equipped with missile weaponry. The Daring class were the largest destroyers built in Australia. Their strong, light construction combined high speed with maximum armament.

Vampire served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1959 to 1986. Its arsenal included:

• 3 twin turrets housing 6 x 4.5-inch guns (still in place)
• 2 single-gun and 2 twin-gun Bofors anti-aircraft guns (still in place)
• 5 anti-ship torpedo launchers (removed in 1970)
• surface to subsurface anti-submarine mortar (removed in 1980)

Despite its firepower,Vampire had a peaceful career, even while escorting troops to Vietnam in the 1960s. In 1977, Vampire had a brush with royalty as the RAN escort for HMY Britannia during the Queen's Silver Jubilee tour of Australia. In 1980, it was refitted as a RAN training ship.

Vampire is a Daring Class Destroyer

Keel laid	1952
Launched	1956
Commissioned	1959
Decommissioned	1986
Lent by the Department of Defence	1990
Transferred to the National Maritime Museum	1997

 

Length	118.65 (389 ft)
Displacement	3,888 tonnes (full load)
Breadth	13.11 m (43 ft)
Draught	5.49 m (18 ft)
Range	5,612 km (3,030 nautical miles) at 20 knots
Original complement	245 sailors, 29 officers
Original armament	Three twin 4.5 inch Mark 6 gun mountings; two single 40/60mm Bofors Mark 9 AA guns; two twin 40/60mm Bofors Mark 5 AA guns (removed 1980, reinstalled 1994); one triple-barrelled Mark 10 anti-submarine mortar (removed 1980); one quintuple 21-inch Mark 4 torpedo tube mounting (removed 1970)
Call sign	Originally VJZC; VKMC from 1980s
Pendant	D11; reduced to 11 in 1969
Built	Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney, NSW
Machinery	Two Foster Wheeler three drum super-heated boilers; two English Electric Company geared steam turbines, generating 40,284 kW (54,000 hp); twin screws and rudders
Speed	30.5 knots maximum (56.5 km/h)