HMAS ''Aware'' (P 91) was an of the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN).

Design and construction

The ''Attack'' class was ordered in 1964 to operate in Australian waters as

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...

s (based on lessons learned through using the s on patrols of Borneo during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation, and to replace a variety of old patrol, search-and-rescue, and general-purpose craft. Initially, nine were ordered for the RAN, with another five for

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

's Australian-run coastal security force, although another six ships were ordered to bring the class to twenty vessels. The patrol boats had a displacement of 100 tons at standard load and 146 tons at full load, were in

length overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, had a beam of , and draughts of at standard load, and at full load.Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946'', p. 86Blackman (ed.), ''Jane's Fighting Ships, 1968–69'', p. 18 Propulsion machinery consisted of two 16-cylinder Paxman YJCM diesel engines, which supplied to the two propellers. The vessels could achieve a top speed of , and had a range of at . The ship's company consisted of three officers and sixteen sailors. Main armament was a bow-mounted

Bofors 40 mm Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

gun, supplemented by two .50-calibre

M2 Browning The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, w ...

machine guns and various small arms. The ships were designed with as many commercial components as possible: the ''Attack''s were to operate in remote regions of Australia and New Guinea, and a town's hardware store would be more accessible than home base in a mechanical emergency.''The patrol boat'', Australian National Maritime Museum ''Aware'' was laid down by

Evans Deakin and Company Evans Deakin & Company was an Australian engineering company and shipbuilder. In 2019, the company was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in recognition of its major contributions to the Queensland economy for nearly a ce ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946'', p. 87 in July 1967, launched on 7 October 1967 and commissioned on 21 June 1968.

Operational history

''Aware'' was transferred to the Adelaide Port Division of the

Royal Australian Navy Reserve The Royal Australian Naval Reserve (RANR) is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Australian Navy in Australia. The current Royal Australian Naval Reserve was formed in June 1973 by merging the former RANR (Seagoing) and the Royal Australian ...

in November 1982. On November the 24th 1970 while with HMAS Adroit on SAR duties HMAS Aware assisted in an attempt to salvage a ditched helicopter from

HMAS Albatross One ship and one shore base of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) have borne the name HMAS ''Albatross'', for the albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and d ...

after a

Westland Wessex The Westland Wessex is a British-built turbine-powered development of the Sikorsky H-34 (in US service known as Choctaw). It was developed and produced under licence by Westland Aircraft (later Westland Helicopters). One of the main changes ...

crashed.

Decommissioning and civilian service

HMAS ''Aware'' was the last of her class to be withdrawn from service, decommissioned on 17 July 1993. She was sold to a private owner sometime before 1998, and after modification in Melbourne (including an extension of the superstructure to cover the quarterdeck), was used as a diving and salvage ship. In 2006, ''Aware'' was acquired by a group of investors, and sailed to

Bundaberg, Queensland Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the List of places in Queensland by population, tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's Bundaberg Regional Council, regional area has a population of 70,921, and is ...

by a former crewmember. The investors withdrew support shortly after, and the former crew member took over ownership of the vessel. ''Aware'' fell into disrepair, and in 2010, the Bundaberg Magistrates Court fined the owner for failing to have the ship insured. According to the owner, the lack of facilities capable of handling the former patrol boat has made insurance inspections almost impossible. A buyer for the vessel could not be found and in December 2011 the vessel was scrapped.

Citations

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aware Attack-class patrol boats Ships built in Queensland 1967 ships