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HMAS ''Gladstone'' (J324/M324), named for the city of Gladstone, Queensland, was one of 60 ''Bathurst'' class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 that were initially manned and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).〔Royal Australian Navy, ''HMAS Gladstone (I)''〕 Built by Walkers Limited, the ship was commissioned in 1943. ''Gladstone'' initially operated as a convoy escort between Queensland and New Guinea. On 18 December 1943, the ship was part of a convoy that ran aground on Bougainville Reef; the corvette was able to refloat herself and sail back to Brisbane, but remained in port for repairs until January 1944. She resumed convoy duties, first back in Queensland waters, then she was relocated to Milne Bay in April 1944. In January 1945,she was redeployed to Morotai. After World War II, ''Gladstone'' was involved in the Japanese surrender of Timor at Koepang, performed surveillance in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and transported Netherlands East Indies soldiers from Darwin to Timor, then spent the next ten years attached to Flinders Naval Depot as a training ship. The corvette was paid off in 1946, then purchased by the Port Phillip Sea Pilots Association for use as a relief and accommodation ship. She was renamed ''Akuna'' (sometimes referred to as ''Akuna II'') and registered in Melbourne. ''Akuna'' began operations in mid-1958, but was made redundant in the 1970s by the move to high-powered launches, and was sold to a private owner in 1973 or 1974. Conflicting reports mark the next few years of the ship's operation, until she was sold in 1978 to a new owner, who used her to rescue Vietnamese refugees in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand under the auspices of Food for the Hungry International. The ship was re-registered as a Panamian-flagged private yacht under the name ''Akuna II'' in 1980, around the time a former United States Air Force pilot began scamming families of personnel missing-in-action after the Vietnam War with claims that he would use the ship to rescue US prisoners-of-war that may still have been interred in Vietnam. ''Akuna II'' was not used for that purpose and actually spent the time moored in Songkhla, before she was towed to Bangkok and scrapped in 1983. ==Design and construction== (詳細はAustralian Commonwealth Naval Board (ACNB) identified the need for a general purpose 'local defence vessel' capable of both anti-submarine and mine-warfare duties, while easy to construct and operate.〔Stevens, ''The Australian Corvettes'', p. 1〕〔Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', p. 103〕 The vessel was initially envisaged as having a displacement of approximately 500 tons, a speed of at least , and a range of 〔Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', pp. 103–4〕 The opportunity to build a prototype in the place of a cancelled Bar-class boom defence vessel saw the proposed design increased to a 680-ton vessel, with a top speed, and a range of , armed with a 4-inch gun, equipped with asdic, and able to fitted with either depth charges or minesweeping equipment depending on the planned operations: although closer in size to a sloop than a local defence vessel, the resulting increased capabilities were accepted due to advantages over British-designed mine warfare and anti-submarine vessels.〔〔Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', pp. 103–5〕 Construction of the prototype did not go ahead, but the plans were retained.〔Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', p. 104〕 The need for locally built 'all-rounder' vessels at the start of World War II saw the "Australian Minesweepers" (designated as such to hide their anti-submarine capability, but popularly referred to as "corvettes") approved in September 1939, with 60 constructed during the course of the war: 36 (including ''Gladstone'') ordered by the RAN, 20 ordered by the British Admiralty but manned and commissioned as RAN vessels, and 4 for the Royal Indian Navy.〔〔Stevens, ''A Critical Vulnerability'', pp. 105, 148〕〔Donohue, ''From Empire Defence to the Long Haul'', p. 29〕〔Stevens et al., ''The Royal Australian Navy'', p. 108〕〔 As constructed, ''Gladstone'' had a displacement of 650 tons, a length of , a beam of , and a draught of .〔 Propulsion was provided by two Yarrow water-tube boilers feeding steam to two triple expansion steam engine, which provided 1,000 indicated horsepower each to the corvette's two propeller shafts.〔Carolin, ''HMAS Gladstone/Port Phillip Sea Pilots' Akuna II'', p. 208〕 The ship's maximum speed was ,〔 while its armament consisted of one 4-inch HA gun, three 20 mm Oerlikons (later supplemented by a 40 mm Bofors), machine guns, and depth charges, chutes and throwers.〔 The designated ship's company was 85 strong.〔 ''Gladstone'' was laid down by Walkers Limited at Maryborough, Queensland on 4 August 1942.〔 She was launched on 26 November 1942 by Mrs. Watson, wife of a dockyard employee, and was commissioned into the RAN on 22 March 1943.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMAS Gladstone (J324)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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