HMAS Townsville (FCPB 205), named for the city of Townsville, Queensland, was a Fremantle class patrol boat

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...

 of 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.

Townsville was laid down by North Queensland Engineers and Agents at Cairns, Queensland on 5 March 1979. She was launched on 16 May 1981, and commissioned into the RAN on 18 July 1981.

Operational history

Townsville was used to depict the fictional HMAS Defiance in the second season of the ABC

ABC Television

ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....

 television series Patrol Boat

Patrol Boat (TV series)

Patrol Boat is an Australian television drama series that screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Patrol Boat was created by James Davern and two series were produced, in 1979 and 1983, with a total of 26 episodes....

.

Decommissioning and fate

In 2007, Townsville was marked for disposal. On 23 April, the Australian Government announced Townsville had been given to the Townsville Maritime Museum as a museum ship

Museum ship

A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...

, along with funding to build a dry dock for display. The patrol boat was decommissioned at Cairns, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 on 11 May 2007, in a joint ceremony with . The two patrol boats were the last of the class in active service. As of March 2011, Townsville is berthed at Ross Creek

Ross Creek

Ross Creek is an estuary inlet within the city of Townsville, Queensland. It separates the Townsville CBD from Ross Island. The only passage across Ross Creek was by ferry until Victoria Bridge was completed in 1889.-History:...

and is being maintained by volunteers while waiting for completion of the museum dry dock.