HMAS ''Samarai'' (P 85), named after the island of

Samarai Samarai is an island and former administrative capital in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. The island is historically significant as the site of a trading port and stop-over between Australia and East Asia. Samarai town was established o ...

and its former town, was an of the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the navy, naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (Australia), Chief of Navy (CN) Vice admiral (Australia), Vice Admiral Mark Hammond (admiral), Ma ...

(RAN). Completed in 1968, the vessel was one of five assigned to the RAN's Papua New Guinea (PNG) Division. The patrol boat was transferred to the

Papua New Guinea Defence Force The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into bei ...

in 1974 as HMPNGS ''Samarai''. She remained in service until 1987, when she was

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship i ...

and used as a parts hulk.

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 ship, naval vessel generally designed for Coastal defence and fortification, coastal defence, Border control, border security, or law ...

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, fourteen were ordered for the RAN, five of which were intended for the

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

Division of the RAN, 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 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, and is also ...

, 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 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 near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chambered ...

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 ''Samarai'' was built by Evans Deakin and Company at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Queensland.Gillett, ''Australian and New Zealand Ships since 1946'', p. 87 ''Samarai'' was launched on 14 July 1967, and commissioned on 1 March 1968.

Operational history

''Samarai'' arrived in

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

on 16 April 1968, before travelling with her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

''Aitape'' for her home port at the RAN base at

Los Negros Island Los Negros Island is the third largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is significant because it contains the main airport of Manus Province on its eastern coastline, at Momote. It is connected to Lorengau, the capital of the province, on Manus ...

Manus Province Manus Province is the smallest Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province in Papua New Guinea in terms of both land area and population, with a land area of , but with more than of water, and the total population is 60,485 (2011 census). The provi ...

on 3 January 1968. Primary roles of the new patrol boats were fisheries protection and sea training, but also undertook

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

medical evacuation Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to patients requiring evacuation or transport using medically equipped air ambulances, helicopters and ...

and monitoring of

navigational aid A navigational aid (NAVAID), also known as aid to navigation (ATON), is any sort of signal, markers or guidance equipment which aids the traveler in navigation, usually nautical or aviation travel. Common types of such aids include lighthouses, ...

s roles. The ship's company was made up of both Australian and PNG servicemen. Prior to the arrival of the ''Attack''-class patrol boats, surveillance of PNG waters was conducted by small coastal craft and occasional visits by larger RAN warships, but the PNG Division was now able to chase and apprehend vessels suspected of illegal fishing. ''Samarai'' was one of the five ''Attack''-class patrol boats of the RAN PNG Division transferred to the

's (PNGDF) Maritime Element (now Maritime Operations Element) on 14 November 1974 when the PNGDF took over maritime functions from the RAN. They formed the PNGDF Patrol Boat Squadron based at Manus. ''Samarai'' was paid off in 1987, and was used as a parts hulk.

Citations

References

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