HMAS Melbourne (R21) [Pre Modernisation]

HMAS Melbourne (R21) was the lead ship of the Majestic class aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong Limited at Barrow-in-Furness in England on 15 April 1943 as HMS Majestic and launched on 28 February 1945. Construction was suspended in May 1946, but when it was decided to acquire two aircraft carriers for the Royal Australian Navy in 1947, work was resumed in 1949.

However, it took another six years of work before she was ready to enter service, due to the decision to modify the ship to contain the latest developments in aircraft carrier technology; angled flight deck, steam catapult and mirror landing sight. On 28 October 1955 she was renamed HMAS Melbourne in a ceremony performed by Lady White, wife of the then Australian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Sir Thomas White and commissioned as the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy.

During her extensive service she was involved in two major collisions: one with the Daring class destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales which sank with the loss of 82 lives on 10 February 1964, and later with the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans which sank in the South China Sea with the loss of 74 of her crew on 3 June 1969. In both cases the destroyers crossed in front of Melbourne's bows while she was at flying stations at night. The ultimate cause of both accidents appears to have been errors on the bridges of the destroyers.

Melbourne was due for a refit during the early 1980s. However, the Australian government decided to purchase a new aircraft carrier from the Royal Navy (intended to be HMS Invincible). Melbourne was paid off on 30 June 1982 and laid up at Sydney, was sold to China United Shipbuilding Company Limited in February 1985 and broken up in the port of Dalian in China, where it is suspected she had been studied to help design a Chinese aircraft carrier.

Several events, including the Falklands War and the 1983 Australian election led to no replacement being purchased.

Launched: 28 February 1945
Commissioned: 28 October 1955
Decommissioned: 30 June 1982
Displacement: 20,000 tons full load
Length: 214 metres
Beam: 24 metres
Armament: 25 x 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns
Main Machinery: 4 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, two-shaft Parson's geared steam turbines providing 40,000 shp, driving 1 x three blade screw and 1 x four blade screw
Speed: 24 knots
Ship's Company: 1,355 (includes 347 Carrier Air Group personnel), 1,070 (75 officers and 995 sailors) as Flagship
Aircraft (Original): 8 x de Havilland Sea Venom fighters, 16 Gannet anti-submarine aircraft, 2 x Sycamore helicopters
Aircraft (Late): 8 x A-4 Skyhawk fighter bombers, 6 x S-2 Tracker anti-submarine aircraft, 6 x Sea King Mk.50 anti-submarine helicopters, 2 x Wessex HAS.31 utility helicopters

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