From the early days of Federation, building warships in Australia was first an aspiration and then a reality. Since those years there have been many successes, travails, twists and turns. One of the leading authorities on the history of this national endeavour was John Jeremy. His regular contributions to the Journal of the Australian Naval Institute on the subject were part of an effort on his part to provide a broader perspective to contemporary naval officers, Defence civilians and policy makers. In the Winter 2003 edition appeared a fascinating article on the RAN’s first welded warship.
A little over fifty years ago, on 1 March 1952, the first all-welded warship to be built in Australia was named Voyager and launched at Cockatoo Island in Sydney. The first of an intended class of four Daring class destroyers, Voyager introduced cafeteria messing, air conditioning and alternating current to the fleet.
Design Origins
The Daring class destroyer design evolved from a Royal Navy staff requirement of 19 June 1943 for a fleet destroyer. Initial sketch designs forecast a ship with a standard displacement of 3,500 tons, a deep displacement of 4,500 tons and a waterline length of 420 feet (127.27m). By the time the design was approved on 9 February 1945, the standard displacement had been reduced to 2,630 tons, and was further reduced to 2,610 tons by the decision to adopt all welded construction, aluminium alloy for minor bulkheads and braided instead of lead covered cables.
The new destroyers were to be armed with six 4.5 inch guns in twin Mk.6 RP 41 mountings, six 40mm Bofors guns in two STAAG and one Mk.V mounting, two sets Pentad torpedo tubes with ten torpedoes, and depth charge throwers and rails for seventy depth charges. The depth charges were later replaced by one Squid Mk4 ahead-throwing mortar.
A new design of propulsion machinery was approved to improve efficiency over the Battle class destroyers’ plant and to provide a speed of 32knots with an endurance of 4400nm at 20 knots.
Sixteen RN ships were planned, and orders were placed on 29 March 1945. Eight ships were subsequently cancelled. J Samuel White & Company were given the task of preparing the working drawings for the class, which were to be built from about 100 prefabricated units although the builders of four ships were allowed to employ composite construction.
Construction of the Daring class was delayed by the priority given in the early postwar years to merchant ships and it was not until I948 that approval was given to proceed with the construction of all eight ships.
The RN ships were completed between 1952 and 1954. and all exceeded their designed displacement by some 220 tons, mainly due to increases in the weight of machinery.’
The Australian During Class Destroyers
In April 1946 the Australian Government gave approval to the RAN for the construction of four destroyers of the Daring class, in addition to the two Battle class destroyers (Anzac and Tobruk) then under construction. The destroyers were to be built by Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Co in Sydney and HMA Naval Dockyard, Williamstown. Victoria. Modernisation of the facilities in the two dockyards to enable them to build fully welded ships was also approved.
Preliminary drawings for the new ships were provided to the shipbuilders in the following month and formal orders were placed in December 1946.
The Cockatoo Dockyard order was placed under the conditions of the Wartime Agreement between the company and the Commonwealth, which provided that the shipbuilder be paid the actual cost of construction. Under the terms of this agreement (terms that continued with only slight modification until 1972). the company received a management fee based on turnover as reward (or profit). The contract conditions were largely the same as those for the construction of the Tribal class destroyers during World War II, and it was a condition of the order that the second destroyer not be laid down until the first was launched.
The shipbuilders were also advised of the conditions that applied to the building of these ships, as specified by the Department of Treasury:
The approval in principle given by Cabinet to the building of four additional destroyers of an advanced ttype may be regarded as authority to proceed with the placement of orders to ensure the maintenance of shipbuilding capacity in Australia.
The main consideration involved in the maintenance of this shipbuilding capacity is its relation to the ultimate strength and composition of the post-war Australian forces, and the balanced allocation between the Service and Supply Departments.
Until a decision is reached on these matters orders to be placed under the Cabinet approval should not exceed the essential minimum necessary to maintain production capacity from time to time. The necessity to continue the work of constructing the destroyers should also he reviewed at regular intervals.
These conditions were to have a significant impact on the pace of the project in coming years.
In addition to the order to build Daring class destroyers No’s 1 and 2, Cockatoo Dockyard also manufactured the boilers and turbines and many other parts from kit lockers to watertight doors for all four ships. Working drawings were supplied by Samuel White for the RAN ships, with Australian modifications incorporated by the shipbuilders.
Much of the armament and equipment for the ships was also to be made in Australia and the guns and torpedo tubes were manufactured by the Department of Defence Production in Bendigo.
Progress on Construction
In December 1946, it was intended that the first ship would be laid down at Cockatoo Island in July 1947 for completion in December 1949. Construction of the second would follow between July 1948 and July 1950. This programme was soon changed with the first ship to be laid down in March 1948, launched in March 1949 and completed in June 1950. Even this revised programme proved to be wildly optimistic, and progress was slow.
Work began in the mould loft at Cockatoo on 1 April 1947. By January 1948 there were delays due to the lead time required for the supply of turbine forgings, and although cutting of steel for the first ship began on 1 June 1948, by then the programme had already been extended for several reasons. These included the failure to obtain increased manpower in the numbers anticipated; the strike of Cockatoo Dockyard employees in February-March 1948 which involved all adult employees in a stoppage of one month and caused two months disruption: protracted deliveries of structural materials; delay in receiving working drawings from Britain, and extended deliveries of important forgings and castings for machinery.
By March 1950, further serious delays in the receipt of drawings, materials and equipment, together with more industrial disputes and manpower shortages in both shipyards extended the programme by a further year. Delays to the drawings were so bad that it was suggested at one time that the drawings being prepared by White’s should be taken over and completed in Australia.
By January 1951 it was apparent that the delays would be felt for some time. Manpower was still a problem, and only one satisfactory steel casting, that for the HP turbine casing, had been received. At Cockatoo priority for labour was given to the reconversion of Kanimbla for commercial service, the modernisation of the Tribal class destroyer Aruntaand the conversion of the destroyers Queenborough and Quiberon to Type 15 antisubmarine frigates.
By 1953 the financial limitations imposed by the Treasury were having a major influence on the speed of construction and the availability of funds was largely determining the rate of progress. It was not until the following year that recurrent shortages of labour were eased by the transfer of Quiberon to Garden Island for completion. The dates forecast then were close to those finally achieved, although there were still doubts that the armament being built at Bendigo would be ready to suit the outfit programme for the first ship.
Construction of the First Ship
Following the construction plans for the all-welded RN ships, the Australian Darings were constructed from three-dimensional prefabricated units. Lower hull units were constructed upside down, commencing with the forebody. After fabrication the units were separated and turned right side up for erection on the slipway. More extensive use was made of panels for the upper shell and decks.
Extensive use of aluminium was made for minor bulkheads and for some external bulkheads in the superstructure. This aluminium was riveted. The rivets work-hardened and tended to be brittle, with broadsides producing many flying rivet heads in later years. Whilst faying surfaces between the aluminium and the steel curtain and coaming plates were insulated with barium chromate tape. corrosion between the dissimilar metals was also to become a major problem.
Daring class destroyer No 1 was laid down on the No 1 slipway at Cockatoo Island on 10 October 1949. She was named Voyager and launched by Mrs RG Menzies, wife of the Prime Minister, on 1 March 1952. With the delays to the manufacture of equipment for the ships,Voyager was largely a shell, with a launch weight of 910 tons. Fitting out proceeded at a leisurely pace, with the ship finally completing contractor’s sea trials in September 1956. She was handed over to the RAN on 11 February 1957 and HMAS Voyager was commissioned the following day.
On trials Voyager achieved 56,364shp at 307.8rpm for a maximum speed of 33.34 knots, an above average performance when compared to the RN ships. Fuel consumption at full power was 0.725 Ibs/shp hour, 18.05 tons per hour or 1.842nm per ton. She was built without the benefits of the accuracy of the computer driven plate cutting machinery available to shipbuilders today. Plates were cut from full size templates with the aid of a Travograph burning machine, and knowledge of welding contraction was less extensive than today. As built she was 3¾ inches (95mm) short on length between perpendiculars, and ¾ inch (19mm) narrow in beam, which is not a bad achievement for a first welded ship.
Voyager was the first RAN ship with air-conditioned accommodation and the first with cafeteria messing (in the build), a considerable advance by the standards of the day. The second two ships in the class were further modified and improved, notably by the deletion of the two 40mm STAAG mountings. The STAAG (Stabilised Tachymetric Anti-Aircraft Gun) mounting was a remarkable weapon. The mounting was fully self-contained with its own radar and fire control. It weighed 17 tons, was a maintenance nightmare and was somewhat unreliable. Vampire (completed in June 1959) and Vendetta (completed in November 1958) mounted six 40mm guns in two MkV twin mountings and two Mk.lX single mountings. The fourth ship, Waterhen, was cancelled in March 1953.
The three destroyers completed were expensive ships by the standards of the day. When the original sketch design was approved in 1945, the cost per ship was estimated to be £950,000. The RN ships actually cost about £2,282,000. Voyager cost £A2,949,092 (excluding government furnished equipment). The cost of preparatory work at Cockatoo for all ships (mainly working and as fitted drawings, lofting etc) was £A439,085. Vampire cost £A3,309,856 (excluding GFE). The boilers and turbines (four ships) cost £A1,946,715. The high cost is not surprising in view of the construction history.
Service Life
Voyager served with the Far East Strategic Reserve on six occasions and frequently escorted the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, a role often undertaken by the RAN Daring class destroyers. She was sunk in collision with Melbourne off Jervis Bay on the night of Monday 10 February 1964 with the loss of 82 lives. Her sister ships had much longer and happier lives, and today Vampire remains a popular exhibit at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, a fine example of the last British destroyer design of World War II.
Reprinted with permission from The Australian Naval Architect, Volume 6 Number 4.
About the Author
John Jeremy, spent his working life at Cockatoo Island, beginning in 1960 as an apprentice ship draughtsman and then qualifying as a naval architect at the University of New South Wales. He held a number of positions in the planning and technical area before being appointed Technical Director of the company in 1976. In 1978 he took responsibility for all production activities and was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cockatoo Dockyard from 1981 until it closed in 1991.
John Jeremy made an enormous contribution to many organisations including the Naval Historical Society of Australia, Institute of Naval Architects, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Navy League of Australia, Australia Day Regatta Committee, Sydney Amateur Sailing Club and the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition. He passed away on 18 April 2025.
