HMAS Ipswich (FCPB 209, named for the city of Ipswich, Queensland

Ipswich, Queensland

Ipswich is a city in South-East Queensland, Australia. Situated along the Bremer River Valley approximately 40 kilometres away from the state's capital Brisbane. The suburb by the same name forms the city's Central Business District and administrative centre...

, was a Fremantle class

Fremantle class patrol boat

The Fremantle-class patrol boats were coastal patrol vessels operated by the Royal Australian Navy from 1979 to 2007. Designed by British shipbuilder Brooke Marine and constructed in Australia by North Queensland Engineers and Agents, the Fremantle class were larger, more powerful, and more...

 patrol boat in the Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN).

Design and construction

Starting in the late 1960s, planning began for a new class of patrol boat to replace the Attack class

Attack class patrol boat

The Attack class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy and operated between 1967 and 1985...

, with designs calling for improved seakeeping

Seakeeping

Seakeeping ability is a measure of how well-suited a watercraft is to conditions when underway. A ship or boat which has good seakeeping ability is said to be very seaworthy and is able to operate effectively even in high sea states....

 capability, and updated weapons and equipment. The Fremantles had a full load displacement of 220 tonnes (216.5 LT), were 137.6 feet (41.9 m) long overall, had a beam of 24.25 feet (7.4 m), and a maximum draught of 5.75 feet (1.8 m). Main propulsion machinery consisted of two MTU series 538 diesel engines, which supplied 3200 shp to the two propeller shafts. Exhaust was not expelled through a funnel, like most ships, but through vents below the waterline. The patrol boat could reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (16.3 m/s), and had a maximum range of 5000 nautical miles (9,260 km) at 5 knots (2.7 m/s). The ship's company consisted of 22 personnel. Each patrol boat was armed with a single 40 mm Bofors gun as main armament, supplemented by two .50 cal Browning machineguns and an 81-mm mortar, although the mortar was removed from all ships sometime after 1988. The main weapon was originally to be two 30-mm guns on a twin-mount, but the reconditioned Bofors were selected to keep costs down; provision was made to install an updated weapon later in the class' service life, but this did not eventuate.

Ipswich was laid down by the North Queensland Engineers and Agents in Cairns, Queensland

Cairns, Queensland

Cairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...

 on 29 October 1980. She was commissioned into the RAN on 13 November 1982.

Operational history

During October and November 2006, Ipswich was the primary ship used for filming the 13-episode Australian television drama series Sea Patrol

Sea Patrol (TV series)

Sea Patrol is an Australian television drama, set on board HMAS Hammersley, a fictional patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy . The series focuses on the ship and the lives of its crew members....

. Ipswich was rebadged as the fictional HMAS Hammersley (pennant number 202), and spent six weeks operating off Dunk Island with both the show's cast and her normal crew aboard. Footage of Ipswich at sea was mixed with scenes shot on and around sister ship while the latter was docked in Sydney.

Fate

Ipswich was decommissioned on 11 May 2007, in a joint ceremony with . The two patrol boats were the last of the class in active service. Ipswich is to be delivered to Birdon Marine in Darwin for disposal. The patrol boat's Bofors gun was incorporated into a naval memorial cairn shaped like Ipswichs bow in Queens Park, Ipswich.